The advantages of this approach are obvious. Berry points out that building a 64-port SAN using typical 16-port FC switches, you would need a total of six switches -- with 32 ports wasted for ISLs. "At $1,000 per port, that's $32,000 burned up," he says.
Moreover, QLogic says the 5200 is going to be priced at around half what Fibre Channel switches from Brocade Communications Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: BRCD) and McData Corp. (Nasdaq: MCDTA), even in the lower-end space, usually cost. Berry says he expects the street price of the 5200 to be less than $500 per port. "It will be a price leader," he promises.
QLogic is making the switch available to its OEM partners now, with commercial distribution expected to begin in January 2004.
The 5200 switch is based on a new switch ASIC developed by QLogic, code-named Agate. Each Agate chip provides four 10-Gig ports and 16 2-Gig ports. The 10-Gbit/s FC ports on the switch use Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq: INTC) XPAK technology, and QLogic has implemented copper interfaces (rather than optical) to keep the cost down. "With the short interconnections in the stack, you don't need the optical interfaces," Berry notes.
Another piece of QLogic's new affordable SAN push is an upgrade to its management software. SANsurfer Management Suite 3.0, provided free with each QLogic switch or host bus adapter (HBA), provides wizard-based configuration and device management.
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