COMPETITIVE BRIEF
Power Efficiency of QLogic 8Gb HBAs
QLogic’s 8Gb Adapters Demonstrate Highest Performance per Watt
Industry Challenges
Technology advancements such as multi-core processors and
the transition to high-density servers (blade servers) allow
significantly more processing power in a much smaller space.
However, these advancements have created new challenges for
IT managers, who now need to provide adequate energy and
cooling for the compact data center. Going “Green” and reducing
power consumption is critical to data centers, but not at the cost
of reduced performance. Host bus adapter (HBA) manufacturers
must contribute to the solution by reducing power consumption
and increasing the performance-to-power ratios.
QLogic 2500 Series 8Gb HBA Advantage
QLogic single and dual port HBAs require “No•
Airflow”
The QLogic 2500 Series 8Gb FC HBA offers “Cool
HBA™” technology requiring “no airflow” and “no
heatsink”.
QLogic 8Gb adapters utilize 20 percent to 30 percent•
less power than Emulex
QLE2560, Single Port: 5.5 Watts–
QLE2562, Dual Port: 6.2 Watts–
QLogic 8Gb adapters provide “Dynamic Power•
Management”, saving an additional 1.3 Watts per
HBA
QLogic 8Gb adapters provide up to 70 percent•
higher IOPS per watt than Emulex
QLogic has a 27 percent to 35 percent–
advantage without Dynamic Power
Management
QLogic has a 66 percent to 70 percent–
improvement over Emulex with Dynamic
Power Management
QLogic
IOPS/W
Emulex
IOPS/W
QLogic
Advantage
8Gb Single Port HBA 38K/W 30K/W 27%
8Gb Dual Port HBA 50K/W 37K/W 35%
IOPS1per Watt Without Dynamic Power Management
QLogic
IOPS/W
Emulex
IOPS/W
QLogic
Advantage
8Gb Single Port HBA 50K/W 30K/W 66%
8Gb Dual Port HBA 63K/W 37K/W 70%
IOPS1per Watt With Dynamic Power Management
Competitive Shortfalls
Emulex 8Gb HBAs (LPe1200x product family) consume up to•
42 percent more power than QLogic 8Gb HBAs
LPe12000 Single Port: 6.9 Watts–
LPe12002 Dual Port: 8.8 Watts–
Emulex single and dual port 8Gb HBAs require up to 150LFM•
airflow
Higher power consumption results in higher heat generation
and increased cooling requirements in the server ecosystem.
Emulex requires a heat-sink to keep the 8Gb LPe1200x•
family cool
In addition to the 150LFM, the Emulex 8Gb HBAs require a
heat-sink to reduce the temperature and achieve the same
reliability as QLogic 8Gb adapters.
Emulex’s 8Gb HBAs have an up to 70 percent IOPS•
performance disadvantage per watt
1 Benchmarks performed with Quad-Core Intel®Xeon®, Windows Server®
2003 R2, and IOmeter at 4KB read/write block size
