On Thu, May 04, 2000 at 08:35:52AM -0700, Carruth, Rusty wrote:
>
> > The primary limitation is probably the rotational speed of the disks and
> > how fast you can rip data off the drives. For instance, ...
>
> Well, yeah, and so whatever happened to optical scsi? I heard that you
> could get 1 gbit/sec (or maybe gByte?) xfer, and you could go 1000 meters -
> or is this not coming down the pike?
>
> (optical scsi - meaning using fiber instead of ribbon cable to interconnect
> controller to drive)
Optical is an interesting idea. Fiber has a better throughput (I
think the limiting factor is the LED/laser modulation), but fiber has
a longer latency. I.e., light travels slower in fiber than
electricity through wire. (No, light doesn't travel at 'light speed'
through a dense medium like plastic or glass.) But you can pack more
data in a fiber. (I.e., more on-off transitions per second.)
I think fiber is mostly used for running long distances, or for
isolating (electricly) between nodes/networks. Some NSP's require
that your link be fiber to prevent the possibility of you frying their
equipment if you, say, wire your DS1 (T1) pairs to an electrical
outlet.. ;')
For shorter distances, I think differential pairs of wires is
faster/cheaper/easier for most things.
Phil
--
Philip Edelbrock -- IS Manager -- Edge Design, Corvallis, OR
[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://www.netroedge.com/~phil
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