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.MeLLyMoo. Cadet
Joined: July 03, 2005 Posts: 90 From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| Posted: 2007-02-26 13:50  
I'm a little curious about something. I work in a company that repairs computers, and I am one of the people that orders large amounts of parts everyday. Thousands of dollars of crap 'n parts are being touched by me on a daily basis...
There is a little fiasco going on at the moment, and I'm wondering if someone could please tell me what this part is and what it is used for. (Mostly for my own knowledge)
Here are three part descriptions to the SAME part:
- Fiber Channel Switch Module
- Fiber NIC Card
- 6 Port SW
Apparently this part is worth $15 000.00. Yes you read that right. I just don't know what the hell it is and what it is used for.... (This is an IBM part and it was shipped to Lexmark - Now everyone here is like OMGBBQCHICKENLIKEWTFAHHHH!!)
Any help would be nice.
[ This Message was edited by: .MeLLyMoo. on 2007-02-26 13:52 ]
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Sixkiller Marshal Courageous Elite Commandos
Joined: May 11, 2005 Posts: 1786 From: Netherlands
| Posted: 2007-02-26 14:03  
looking on IBM, it is indeed rather expensive
but from some similar things, they can transfer data at 1, 2 or 4 Gb/s
seems pretty fast to me.
Only, the one I found for 15k is a 20 port one.
For the rest, i really dont have a clue about wtf those things are, but id like to know when you found it out:P
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Drafell Grand Admiral Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003 Posts: 2449 From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2007-02-26 14:28  
Essentially it's an industrial class network interface, similar to what would be used for high end 3D render farms or for central banking systems or even internally by ISP's.
Any application that requires you to transmit and synchronize (securely) huge amounts of data within short time frames. It's not the kind of thing that would ever be used on a home PC. It would tend to link dedicated clusters of servers together for whatever purpose the owners require. You will often find fibre optics used to link between buildings, or across large sites, mostly in any situation where latency is a real issue. A difference of 4-5ms can have an enormous impact in parallel processing applications.
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Feralwulf Grand Admiral
Joined: January 24, 2004 Posts: 1729 From: sitting somewhere drinking beer
| Posted: 2007-02-26 14:53  
What Draf said. Large Companies use it in their networks to link all their Computers etc. $15k eh? I've built quite a few Data centers, and Server Rooms for a lot of Companies......Trashed more than one of those things.
I generally install 24 ports though......sometimes 12 or 20 ports, but 24 and 48 are more common in my experience
[ This Message was edited by: Feralwulf on 2007-02-26 14:55 ]
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Lyedtau Admiral
Joined: January 18, 2007 Posts: 147 From: Dev land
| Posted: 2007-02-26 17:11  
- Fiber Channel Switch Module
Sort of like a router. You can fit multiple streams of data down a fibre cable, and this is to identify/switch to those channels
- Fiber NIC Card
NIC = Network Interface Card. Every computer has one, although they have Ethernet connections 99% of the time. This is one for direct fibre connections, so you don't have to go :
Fibre cable > Modem > PC
You can simply go straight into the back of the computer.
- 6 Port SW
Kind of like a big ol' router.
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flyhawk Commander
Joined: February 13, 2007 Posts: 5
| Posted: 2007-02-28 00:58  
i tink is stuff in develoment that probably why its isn't cheap
might want to consider taking to somwhere safe
_says guy hwo works in a comp shop him self_
hawk
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.MeLLyMoo. Cadet
Joined: July 03, 2005 Posts: 90 From: Calgary, Alberta, Canada
| Posted: 2007-02-28 13:46  
Wow thanks guys! I knew you could help
I just needed to know what it was that everyone was ripping their hair out about. Well I guess having to pay for a part that costs $15K would do it, but I find it kind of hard to believe that this...:
(something similar)
Costs this much.....:
"$14, 855.00"
"New IBM/Qlogic 6 Port Fibre Channel Switch IBM/LENOVO"
[ This Message was edited by: .MeLLyMoo. on 2007-02-28 13:56 ]
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Leonide Grand Admiral Templar Knights
Joined: October 01, 2005 Posts: 1553 From: Newport News, Virginia
| Posted: 2007-02-28 14:38  
wow....pricey piece of hardware.
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Depthcharge Fleet Admiral Galactic Navy
Joined: December 08, 2002 Posts: 1549 From: DFW, Tx
| Posted: 2007-02-28 15:07  
Well if you happen to stumble on a free one, maybe DS could use it =P
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