Faster Data Access With IBM Ficon Express8

With introduction of new features for the storage area network (SAN), IBM Corp. is delivering faster access to data with significantly increased performance and a link data rate of 8 gigabits per second (Gbps) for the System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) and System z10 Business Class (z10 BC) servers. With Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 5 (EAL5) certification for the z10 BC servers received May 4, 2009, IBM is continuing to deliver security for operating systems and applications in logical partitions. The z10 EC servers received EAL5 certification October 29, 2008.

The newest generation of FICON features for the z10 EC and z10 BC servers, FICON Express8 10KM LX and FICON Express8 SX, are designed to support a link rate of 8 Gbps with autonegotiation to 2 or 4 Gbps to support existing devices for added investment protection.

FICON Express8 may also allow for the consolidation of existing FICON Express, FICON Express2, and FICON Express4 channels onto fewer FICON Express8 channels while maintaining and enhancing performance.

High Performance FICON for System z now supports multitrack operations along with the IBM System Storage DS8000 series. Support of multitrack operations can help increase system performance and improve FICON channel efficiency.

FICON Express8 performance improvements for native FICON, High Performance FICON for System z (zHPF), and Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP) ensure the System z10 servers continue to allow your systems to grow as your business grows.

With FICON Express8 operating at 8 Gbps, performance improvements for small data transfer I/O operations can help provide optimizations for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads – diverse business functions including order entry, inventory tracking, hotel reservations; applications such as DB2, VSAM, PDSE, and zFS which transfer small blocks of fixed size data (4K blocks).

For small data transfer I/O operations that can exploit the zHPF protocol, laboratory measurements reflected a 70% increase in maximum I/Os per second compared to a FICON Express4 channel operating at 4 Gbps.
For small data transfer I/O operations using native FICON or FCP, laboratory measurements reflected a 40% increase in maximum I/Os per second compared to a FICON Express4 channel operating at 4 Gbps.

With FICON Express8 operating at 8 Gbps, performance improvements for large sequential I/O operations can help reduce the duration of your backup/copy operations.

Using the zHPF protocol or FCP, laboratory measurements reflected an 80 to 100% increase in maximum MB/sec when processing large sequential read or write I/O operations compared to a FICON Express4 channel operating at 4 Gbps.
Using the native FICON protocol, laboratory measurements reflected a 45 to 55% increase in maximum MB/sec when processing large sequential read or write I/O operations compared to a FICON Express4 channel operating at 4 Gbps.

Resource Measurement Facility (RMF) has been enhanced to support FICON Express8. RMF is an IBM product designed to simplify management of single and multiple system workloads. RMF gathers data and creates reports that help your system programmers and administrators optimally tune your systems, react quickly to system delays, and diagnose performance problems.

EAL5 certification of IBM Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) logical partition (LPAR) for the z10 BC servers was received May 4, 2009. EAL5 certification provides assurance that many disparate applications running in different operating environments in separate logical partitions on one z10 BC will be secure and distinct from each other. The z10 BC servers now join the z10 EC servers, and previous IBM mainframes, as the world’s only servers with the highest level of hardware security certification, Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 5.

The System z10 servers represent the continuing commitment to the evolution of the mainframe while laying the foundation for future growth.

Planned availability dates