IBM eServer zSeries 900 Technical Guide

Chapter 3. Connectivity 105

Once the ISLs are operational, any changes to the ISL connections will be checked by

switches within the fabric before they can be used (the connected switches must be in the

switch fabric list). With this checking, if an ISL is incorrectly installed, the fabric is designed to

stop using the links for customer data streams, thereby preventing frames from being

delivered to the wrong end points.

Enhanced Multiple Image Facility

The Enhanced Multiple Image Facility (EMIF) enables FICON channel sharing among PR/SM

logical partitions running on the z900 server. This is discussed in “Enhanced Multiple Image

Facility” on page 80.

3.4.2 Connectivity

Following are connectivity options and distance solutions in the FICON I/O interface

environment.

z900 FICON features

There are two types of FICON channel transceivers supported on the z900: a long

wavelength (LX) laser version and a short wavelength (SX) laser version. This provides for

four FICON channel features supported on the z900 server:

򐂰 z900 FICON Express LX feature (feature code 2319) with two ports per feature,

supporting LC Duplex connectors

򐂰 z900 FICON Express SX feature (feature code 2320) with two ports per feature,

supporting LC Duplex connectors

򐂰 z900 FICON LX feature (feature code 2315) with two ports per feature, supporting SC

Duplex connectors

򐂰 z900 FICON SX feature (feature code 2318) with two ports per feature, supporting LC

Duplex connectors

FICON channel features can be installed in the z900 server. The features can be connected

to a FICON-capable control unit, either point-to-point or switched point-to-point, through a

Fibre Channel switch. FICON Express LX (at 1Gbps) and FICON LX features can also be

connected to the FICON LX Bridge port feature of an IBM 9032 ESCON Director. Up to 96

FICON channels (48 features) can be installed in the z900.

FICON Express LX feature

The z900 FICON Express LX feature (feature code 2319) occupies one I/O slot in the z900

zSeries I/O cage. The feature has two Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) cards. The

PCI cards have a higher performing infrastructure, which can improve performance compared

to the FICON LX feature. Each PCI card has a single port supporting an LC duplex connector,

with one CHPID associated with each port, and supports link speeds of 1 Gbps or 2 Gbps.

Each port supports attachment to the following:

򐂰 FICON LX Bridge one port feature of an IBM 9032 ESCON Director at 1Gbps only

򐂰 Fibre Channel Switch that supports 1Gbps/2Gbps Fibre Channel/FICON LX

Note: Effective October 2001:

򐂰 FICON LX feature (feature code 2315) is superseded by the FICON Express LX feature

(feature code 2319).

򐂰 FICON SX feature (feature code 2318) is superseded by the FICON Express SX

feature (feature code 2320).