QLogic Unveils 10GbE iSCSI-to-8Gb FC Storage Router

QLogic Corp. introduced the QLogic 6200 Series of intelligent storage routers, the industry’s first 10GbE iSCSI-to-8Gb Fibre Channel routers.

Supporting new high bandwidth 10Gb Ethernet and 8Gb Fibre Channel, the enterprise-class QLogic 6200 intelligent Storage Router offers data center managers 10 times more capacity than the previous generation of 1Gb iSCSI routers for connecting low-cost servers to Fibre Channel storage and replicating data over a wide area network (WAN). The innovative design of the QLogic 6200 features a PCI-Express expansion bus on each router blade to uniquely leverage PCI-E adapters from QLogic and others to support emerging protocols including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Quad Data Rate (QDR) InfiniBand, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and 16Gb Fibre Channel. A QLogic 6200 intelligent Storage Router purchased today can in the near future connect to FCoE networks by simply replacing a router blade with an on-board converged network adapter from QLogic.

"Because proprietary router designs are expensive and multiple storage protocol deployments in the data center are on the horizon, customers have asked us to help protect their investments and reduce costs," said Shishir Shah, vice president and general manager of QLogic Storage Solutions Group. "The standard PCI-E expansion bus in the 6200, along with dual, hot-swap power supplies and router blades, not only allows QLogic to lower the cost of intelligent storage routing, but it opens the door for an almost unlimited number of protocol options."

QLogic 6200 intelligent Storage Routers – PCI-E Expansion for High Performance at Low Cost
The QLogic 6200 sets a new design and flexibility benchmark for routing devices. The revolutionary architecture incorporates two PCI-Express slots to support emerging protocols, such as FCoE and 10GbE iSCSI, plus future protocols such as QDR InfiniBand, SAS and 16Gb Fibre Channel. Additionally, the QLogic 6200 provides the flexibility for expanding additional ports for current protocols. The QLogic 6200 is the only product that seamlessly integrates with any vendor fabric using N_port technology.

The QLogic 6200 in a 1U form factor can be configured with dual, hot-swap router blades and power supplies. Each blade or power supply can be replaced without going offline. The unique capability of the QLogic 6200 requires no changes in Fibre Channel fabric while upgrading from 1GbE iSCSI to 10GbE iSCSI or when replacing a failed unit. All of these features are contained in an environmentally friendly 1U chassis that uses only 250 watts in a fully-configured system.

IT managers can now avoid the pain and risk of forklift upgrades to new protocols. The QLogic 6200 router allows a rational deployment plan to FCoE. The existing storage infrastructure can be easily bridged to hosts or subnets configured with the new interfaces. The QLogic 6200 can support up to 2,048 iSCSI initiators while appearing as only four Fibre Channel hosts to an array, allowing storage consolidation for many virtual machines. The router allows flexibility and adaptation as needs change. Furthermore, a single platform can simultaneously provide 1GbE/10GbE iSCSI-Fibre Channel bridging and SAN-over-WAN connectivity with FCIP or SmartWrite II, the QLogic patent-pending WAN acceleration technology. SmartWrite allows cross-fabric connections without merging the SANs.