[geeks] FC-AL vs. SCSI

[Sridhar Ayengar]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
> I'm planning to put together a "large" storage array for my SPARC systems, like 500 Meg or greater, and I see two basic choices:
> 
> 1) Take a couple Sun multipacks (which I have three of) and stuff them full of larger SCSI drives (like 50 Gig IBM drives for about $15/each)
> 
> 2) Get a drive shelf like an  AS5200 (I can get  11x 18 Gig HDs in a 22 bay storage array for about $150 - I have an SBUS controller and would need to also get the proper optical cable)...
> 
> Is there an inherent speed advantage to FC-AL? I'm tempted to get the FC-AL shelf just because I want to play with it, but higher-density FC-AL drives are very pricey...
> 
> Any insight appreciated...

AFAIC, the primary advantage of FC-AL is the ability of connecting 
*many* drives to a single bus and making truly gigantic RAIDs.  There 
isn't much of a performance difference from high-end SCSI.  (Except 
maybe on Sbus where I don't think you can get an Ultra320 card.)

Peace...  Sridhar