Vitesse Boasts Breakthrough

Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. (Nasdaq: VTSS) claims its latest chipset for storage OEMs offers a faster, smarter way to keep 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel storage devices up and running (see Vitesse Rolls Out FC Controller ).

"We have twenty customers waiting for this product," says Tom Brokaw, senior product manager at Vitesse (and no direct relation to the anchorman). "They want serious diagnostics for their storage devices, and performance is an issue."

Vitesse says the new chipset, dubbed the VSC120, lets storage equipment manufacturers build higher reliability into their high-end Fibre Channel disk arrays, JBOD systems, RAID gear, and switches.

The VSC120 is what is known as an enclosure management controller. This kind of component fits inside the metal and plastic coverings that house storage gear from the likes of Compaq Computer Corp. (NYSE: CPQ), Dell Computer Corp. (Nasdaq: DELL), Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), and IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM).

The chips are specially programmed to "check on" the storage boxes to which they are attached, exchanging low-level signals with the devices in order to retrieve data about their power, fans, security, and temperature.According to Vitesse, the big deal about the VSC120 is that it links directly to the Fibre Channel loop. It does not require a disk drive to act as go-between.

Here's the scoop: Up until now, controller chips used for monitoring have relied on an industry-standard Enclosure Services Interface (ESI) that links an enclosure controller to a specially designated disk drive inside a storage array.

On a prompt from the host computer attached to the array, the designated drive retrieves environmental status info on the overall array and shunts that over the ESI back to the host.

Vitesse says the VSC120 eliminates the need for ESI, instead using the Fibre Channel loop itself as the means of exchanging monitoring information between the storage device and its host server.

The chief benefit of direct attachment, Vitesse says, is that it substantially improves the speed and efficiency of storage monitoring, because it doesn't require any disk drives inside an array to halt their normal activities in order to check status."Our customers tell us that ESI was a fine stopgap measure, but they wanted something faster and more efficient," Brokaw says.

Because the VSC120 doesn't consume extra drive time in order to achieve monitoring functions, Vitesse says it has been able to pack special functions into the chip. These include the ability to initiate status checks on its own, without having to be prompted by a host computer.

"The chip can act as an initiator," says Brokaw. It can be programmed to sense a problem and then to take action to signal, or "interrogate" a bad drive, then send an alarm to the host computer.

Vitesse's claim to be first to market with a direct-attached enclosure controller appears to hold water so far. Its chief rival in this particular market, QLogic Corp. (Nasdaq: QLGC), says its 2-Gbit/s Fibre Channel enclosure controllers rely on ESI.

Qlogic says that, so far, this hasn't been a problem for any of its customers, which include the likes of Compaq, Dell, IBM, and Fujitsu Ltd.