[rescue] Insane drives

[Björn Ramqvist]

Brian Hechinger wrote:
> 
> > Nah, it's just a passive backplane usually.  Why switch to drives?  It
> > makes no sense...  It would be like haveing a set of clients and a server
> > on a switch if the clients never talked to each other.
> 
> actually, it makes sense to do that.  even if the clients never talk to each
> other.  what would you suggest? a hub? doesn't matter who you talk to, as long
> as it's on the same segment.
> 
> there is never a good enough reason to _not_ switch something.

Price? I don't see the need for switched arbitrated loop inside a
desktop workstation like the Blade 1000, especially since it's only hold
max 2 drives internally. Going external and hook several machines and
arrays where performance on a single channel can be a bottleneck, I
understand completely. 1-2 machines and 1-2 arrays with small- to
mid-sized needs, a simple lowcost FC loop should be enough.
Again, price is at stake at any time, and from what I know Gadzoox and
Brocade dominates this market segment, atleast for the time beeing.
(Things are about to change from what I've heard though)

/Bjorn