News

posted on 09 May 2008 14:46

QLogic thinks FCoE is a short-term opportunity that has to be grasped now as eventually all major Ethernet switch vendors will add it to their products.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) involves sending Fibre Channel frames across an Ethernet link via a Converged Network Adaptor (CNA) plugged in to a server. FCoE depends upon a new loss-less, datacenter-class Ethernet still under development. QLogic CEO H.K. Desai reckons that, eventually, all the main Ethernet switch vendors will add FCoE capability to their NICs (Network Interface Cards) and the storage supplier-specific CNA market will disappear.

For now though, he said in the earnings transcipt call: "FCoE represents our major market expansion opportunity for us beyond storage into data networking. We are sampling FCoE products now and expect to be first to market with FCoE converged network adaptors."

He does not intend that QLogic should enter the mainstream Ethernet switching market though.

Other development initiatives at QLogic include investing in 16Gbit/s Fibre Channel, the successor to the current 8Gbit/s which customers are beginning to transition to.

He said QLogic was late to market for DDR (double data rate) InfiniBand HCAs (Host Channel Adapter), with production only starting this quarter. The company will increase its spending in the InfiniBand area, both in the DDR product area and in the coming QDR one (quad data rate).

It is also considering whether to focus more on Fibre Channel HBAs and less on Fibre Channel switches/directors or not. Cisco and Brocade lead by a mile in the FC switch market.

^{[Paul Roberts, news editor.]}