Fiber Distributed Data Interface attachment to System/390

Abstract

IBM has articulated a commitment to open systems. An important element in this direction is connectivity based upon pervasive industry standards. A fundamental standard that enables System/390® to participate in heterogeneous systems environments is the Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI), defined by ANSI. The initial IBM offering in support of FDDI is attachment to System/390 machines via the 3172 Interconnect Controller. FDDI provides a high-performance alternative to lower-speed local area networks (LANs) for attachment of workstations to System/390 mainframes. A key feature of the 3172 Micro Channel® (MC) controller is its internal bus structure, derived from PS/2® technology. The 3172 FDDI adapter is capable of data rates up to 80 megabytes per second (MBps). This should be sufficient to support multiple FDDI LANs at their rated speed of 10 MBps. Also, because of its MC orientation, the 3172 FDDI adapter is potentially extendable to other platforms derived from PS/2 and RISC System/6000® technology.