SilkWorm 2000 Entry Family Reference 1-1
Chapter
1
Overview
The SilkWorm 2000 Entry Family of switches are low cost, high-performance 8-port,
gigabit Fibre Channel switches used to interconnect storage devices, hosts, and servers in
a Storage Area Network (SAN). The switches offer full non-blocking performance for all
eight ports with each port able to deliver 100 MB/s full duplex. Cut-through routing
guarantees a maximum latency of 2 microseconds from switch port to switch port.
Seven of the eight ports on the SilkWorm 2000 Entry Family switches are fixed short-
wave length optical media for interconnecting devices at distances up to 500m. One port is
configured as a removable GBIC slot providing the flexibility to configure other physical
media such as long-wave length optical or copper.
Designed as a 1U high device, the switches may be installed in industry standard EIA
racks or in a table-top environment. Overall cost of ownership is reduced through the use
of high reliability components, continuous monitoring of environmental components (fan
status and temperature), and a Single Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) design strategy.
The SilkWorm 2010 Loop Switch
The SilkWorm 2010 Loop Switch is configured as a high-speed interconnect for fiber-
channel arbitrated loop (FC-AL) environments. As an alternative to hub-based solutions,
the SilkWorm 2010 offers a true switching environment that provides enhanced
performance, increased availability through better fault isolation, and investment
protection through migration to full fabric topologies. The SilkWorm 2010 is suited for
low-end SAN environments with hosts and devices that only support FC-AL, such as NT
clusters. By enabling the embedded software with a software license key, the SilkWorm
2010 can be upgraded to a 2050 using the already deployed hardware.
The SilkWorm 2040 Entry Fabric Switch
The SilkWorm 2040 provides a low-cost fabric alternative for entry-level SAN environ-
ments. It delivers true switch fabric scalable performance in a simple switch topology.
Using the SilkWorm 2040, an entry level SAN can be implemented using a single or dual
switch configuration. Each switch can allow one other fabric switch to be connected to
the SAN in addition to storage devices. This provides an additional expansion step to
extend fabric configurations before moving to the full fabric design.
The SilkWorm 2040 is the dominant configuration for most entry-level SANs. Its
uniqueness allows simple fabric connectivity without the intricacy of a cascaded mesh of
fabric switches. It provides all of the benefits of a switched environment while keeping
the simplicity of the entry-level SAN configuration. As the SAN connectivity
requirements grow, the SilkWorm 2040 can be upgraded to a SilkWorm 2250 by enabling
preloaded software with a software license key.
