Starting With StarFabric: The StarFabric Connectivity Guide Part Number: 15-3000-16, Rev.
Copyright © 2002, Aurora Technologies, Inc, A Carlo Gavazzi Group Company. All Rights Reserved. This publication is protected by Federal Copyright Law, with all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, translated, transmitted, or transcribed in any form or by any means manual, electric, electronic, electro-magnetic, mechanical, optical, or otherwise, in whole or in part without prior written consent from Aurora Technologies, Inc.
Table of Contents Introduction .............................................................................1 Connectivity Past and Present ................................................2 StarFabric - The Next Step in Connectivity ............................4 StarFabric Features & Benefits ...............................................5 Scalability ...........................................................................5 Compatibility .................................................................
Contents (continued) Table of Contents Bridge or Gateway Functionality ................................... 19 Root & Leaf Operation .................................................. 20 Root Operation ......................................................... 20 Leaf Operation ......................................................... 21 StarFabric Routing Methods .......................................... 21 Legacy PCI Routing .................................................
About StarFabric Connectivity Introduction This guide is designed for anyone interested in learning about StarGen’s StarFabric technology and Aurora Technologies’ StarFabric-based connectivity solutions. After reading this guide, you’ll be able to describe: • How connectivity technology has evolved over the years. • Why StarGen’s StarFabric® technology is a leader in next-generation connectivity. • How StarFabric compares with other next-generation technologies.
About StarFabric Connectivity Connectivity Past and Present The history of connectivity has been a steady trend toward scalability, reliability, and better performance. It began in the 1980s with bus-based standards such as the Industry Standard Bus architecture (ISA) for Intel-based computers and VME and SBus for Sun SPARC® workstations. ISA became an industry standard until the early 1990s when processor speeds and application requirements demanded a speedier, more robust replacement. FIGURE 1.
Connectivity Past and Present Bandwidth Advanced Switching Functionality Bandwidth needs and performance requirements for advanced switching, classes of service, and network management continue to rise, but PCI technology is falling behind. Future enhancements to PCI may have more bandwidth but lack the required scalability and switching capabilities for future requirements. Connectivity Technology 30 Gbps* or 3.75 GB/s 1.0 GB/s 5.0 Gbps 2.5 Gbps 1.0 Gbps SBus VME 1980s PCI 1990s PCI.
About StarFabric Connectivity StarFabric - The Next Step in Connectivity StarFabric is the next step in providing next-generation connectivity for your application. StarFabric is a highly scalable, universal switch fabric for all types of communications equipment supporting voice, video, and data network connectivity, as shown in Figure 3. FIGURE 3.
StarFabric Features & Benefits StarFabric Features & Benefits StarFabric’s technology provides the latest connectivity features available, as shown in Figure 4. SCALABILITY •A few to hundreds of endpoints •Chassis-to-chassis or room-scale connectivity •2.
About StarFabric Connectivity switches. Bandwidth speeds run from 2.5 Gbps on each link (622 Mbps for each serial connection) up to 5.0 Gbps bundled links on individual bridges and up to 30 Gbps for switches. Compatibility StarFabric provides you with a simple and cost-effective migration path from today’s industry standard bus architecture to next-generation switch fabric architecture.
StarFabric Features & Benefits Standards Based The StarFabric architecture is designed according to standards to ensure full compatibility with legacy PCI systems. StarFabric’s design complies with the PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.2, and the PCI-to-PCI Bridge Architecture Specification, Revision 1.1. It also complies with the IEEE 1596.3 and TIA/EIA-644 Low-Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) standards StarFabric also supports PICMG 2.
About StarFabric Connectivity StarFabric and Other Next-Generation Solutions The choices for system designers of next-generation switched connectivity solutions are many, but choosing the right solution is difficult. The fact is many nextgeneration connectivity technologies are focused on specific areas in a network, so some are better than others for specific applications. FIGURE 5.
StarFabric and Other Next-Generation Solutions costs through smaller packages, simpler board design, less complex switching, and lower power requirements. If you are looking for scalability, HyperTransport is designed for chip-to-chip connectivity for computer boards no more than two feet apart, making it more of a system solution. However, StarFabric is designed for chip-to-chip, or system-tosystem connectivity up to five meters apart, making it a true room-scale solution with greater scalability.
About StarFabric Connectivity Six Reasons to Migrate to StarFabric Your legacy PCI architecture works well as it is, so why consider introducing new StarFabric technology in your application? The answer is that StarFabric technology resolves many of the critical limitations of legacy PCI environments that become issues as your connectivity needs grow. FIGURE 6.
Six Reasons to Migrate to StarFabric • Latency: Devices in PCI and CompactPCI chassis can’t communicate simultaneously because of the shared bus. So devices have to take turns passing data. The higher priority traffic takes precedence over everyday traffic. Competition on the bus means delays and latency for real-time applications. Since StarFabric connections are point-to-point, devices communicate simultaneously. There is little latency during device communications.
About StarFabric Connectivity data transfers of multiservice applications such as voice, video or data. That’s more than five times the speed of the legacy PCI over normal links and up to 10 times faster than PCI when you bundle links, at five times the distance. • Troubleshooting: PCI’s shared bus also makes it difficult to isolate failures. The entire bus segment is susceptible to a single point of failure and that makes it difficult to troubleshoot.
StarFabric Connectivity in Detail StarFabric Connectivity in Detail Developers and application designers refer to StarFabric technology as a switch fabric because each StarFabric-enabled device connects to any other StarFabricenabled device through data paths over a switch fabric that resembles interwoven threads in a large cloth, as shown in Figure 7. FIGURE 7.
About StarFabric Connectivity As shown in Figure 8, the StarFabric-enabled card interfaces virtually reside within the StarFabric. The StarFabric-enabled cards and buses reside inside the switch fabric as shown here using XP-SG expansion chassis and a PMC-SB card, but the user cards operate as normal outside the switch fabric. FIGURE 8.
Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products Aurora Technologies has developed a family of StarFabric-based bridge, switch, and expansion products to provide next-generation connectivity for your mission critical, real-time, high demand applications, as shown in Figure 9 FIGURE 9.
About StarFabric Connectivity PCI-SB StarFabric PCI Interface Card The PCI-SB StarFabric PCI Interface Card shown in Figure 10 supports bridge and gateway functionality on a form factor board between a StarFabric switch fabric and legacy expansion technologies such as PCI and CompactPCI. FIGURE 10. PCI-SB StarFabric PCI Bridge Interface The PCI-SB translates PCI or other legacy traffic into serial frame format for transmission across the switch fabric or directly to any StarFabric-enabled device.
Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products PMC-SB Series StarFabric PCI Mezzanine Card The PMC-SB Series StarFabric PCI Mezzanine Card shown in Figure 11 supports bridge and gateway functionality between a StarFabric switch fabric and PCI, CompactPCI, or other legacy standards in a CompactPCI chassis. . FIGURE 11. PMC-SB StarFabric PCI Bridge Interface As a bridge, the interface card supports all legacy traffic for full compatibility with existing PCI software and hardware.
About StarFabric Connectivity The PMC-SB Series has two models: • PMC-SBF - a front-mount version using shielded CAT5 cabling and RJ-45 connectors for interconnectivity • PMC-SBR - a rear mount version connecting the PMC-SBR to a PICMG 2.17 backplane for entire chassis interconnectivity Both types support multi-chassis I/O expansion and interconnectivity between different hardware platforms such as linking CompactPCI systems with other StarFabric-enabled devices.
Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products Bridge or Gateway Functionality The SG2010 is a multi-function device that operates as bridge or a gateway, as shown in Figure 13. PCI FIGURE 13. Conceptual View of SG2010’s Multi-function Support Operating as a bridge, the SG2010 transparently bridges PCI traffic to and from the StarFabric. It supports legacy address-routed traffic, providing full compatibility with your existing PCI application.
About StarFabric Connectivity Root & Leaf Operation As a bridge or gateway, the SG2010 has two operating modes: • Root • Leaf These operating modes control how StarFabric resets are done and how StarFabricenabled devices are identified in the fabric. ROOT OPERATION Setting the SG2010 bridge/gateway to Root operation means it is responsible for enumerating or assigning Fabric Identification Numbers (FIDs) to all the StarFabric-enabled devices in the switch fabric, as shown in Figure 14 on page 21.
Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products LEAF OPERATION Setting the SG2010 bridge/gateway to Leaf operation means it is operating as a downstream device from the Root device. It accepts all resets and fabric enumeration from the Root device. PCI buses attached to Leaf interfaces are considered secondary or remote PCI buses, as shown in Figure 14. Secondary PCI Bus Secondary PCI Bus The Root node enumerates all the StarFabric devices in the fabric. There can be only one Root in the switch fabric.
About StarFabric Connectivity STARFABRIC NATIVE PATH ROUTING This refers to more sophisticated routing methods including Path Routing and Multicast Routing. StarFabric Native Path Routing is supported during gateway operation. The SG2010 gateway translates between PCI frames and path routed and multicast using static or dynamic address tables to determine the source and destination for data traffic in your application.
Aurora’s StarFabric Family of Products MODEL TYPES The XP-SG Series comes in two versions: • XP-2SG with two expansion slots for 3.3v or Universal PCI cards • XP-3SG with three expansion slots for 5.0v or Universal PCI cards FEATURES & BENEFITS Both types of XP-SG Series expansion chassis use the SG2010 bridge chip to convert a conventional parallel 32-bit or 64-bit PCI bus operating at up to 66 MHz into dual high-speed serial links compliant with the StarFabric protocol.
About StarFabric Connectivity StarFabric Switching Aurora Technologies is developing a StarFabric switching platform that provides high-speed serial switching within a switched fabric interconnect. The Aurora switch is cascadable for large-scale topologies requiring high bandwidth and high availability. This switch provides six serial links (two RJ-45 connectors per link) with speeds up to 5.0 Gbps each to provide high-speed connectivity for StarFabric bridges or gateways.
StarFabric Applications StarFabric Applications StarFabric-enabled devices can support connectivity for a wide range of embedded distributed processing applications for system processors and I/O modules, as shown in Figure 17 FIGURE 17.
About StarFabric Connectivity • Military systems for sonar, radar, and imaging • Automated Test Equipment for networking • Scientific systems • Storage systems Basic StarFabric Connectivity Aurora’s PCI-SB and PMC-SB interface cards provide the bridge functionality to seamlessly and transparently connect primary PCI buses or CompactPCI mezzanine systems to high speed StarFabric switch fabrics or simply connect to other StarFabric-enabled devices, chassis to chassis. FIGURE 18.
StarFabric Applications This means a host device with an Aurora PCI-SB or PMC-SB card installed, as shown in Figure 18, can connect to many different types of StarFabric-enabled devices such as an Aurora Technologies XP-SG Series PCI expansion chassis, a StarFabric switch, or other application-specific devices such as StarFabric-enabled card readers, cash registers, or item scanners.
About StarFabric Connectivity Large Scale StarFabric Connectivity By deploying Aurora’s StarFabric-enabled switches in your topology, you can support up to 220 endpoints or PCI expansion slots off a single PCI-SB or PMC-SB card, as shown in Figure 19. You can deploy up to 220 endpoints or PCI expansion slots from a single StarFabric bridge interface by adding StarFabric-enabled switches to the topology. FIGURE 19.
StarFabric Applications Sample Application - PCI Scalability Next-generation PCI expansion is one of the most common needs in the industry. If you need to increase PCI slot count, but also have concerns about increasing bandwidth speeds with a larger number of PCI slots, while retaining the value of your original investment in legacy PCI or CompactPCI hardware, StarFabric may be the solution for you. Without StarFabric...
About StarFabric Connectivity With StarFabric... A better way to do this is to deploy next-generation StarFabric bridges and switches in the topology, as shown in Figure 21. StarFabric provides high-speed 2.5 to 5.0 Gbps, point-to-point connections between the Host and other devices over the switch fabric. FIGURE 21. Simple PCI Expansion With StarFabric Technology With StarFabric, point-to-point connectivity means all the available bandwidth goes to the devices on the local buses.
What’s Next for StarFabric Technology? What’s Next for StarFabric Technology? As an emerging next-generation technology, there are many developments on the way for StarFabric, including: • PICMG 2.17 Integration • PCI Express Support Integration with PICMG 2.17 The PICMG 2.17 StarFabric CompactPCI Backplane specification currently provides a way to implement a StarFabric switch fabric in a backplane using standardized backplane connector pinouts, instead of cables. PICMG 2.
About StarFabric Connectivity Contact Aurora Technologies Now that you know more about the features and benefits of StarFabric technology, contact Aurora Technologies to learn how you can upgrade your I/O connectivity to a next-generation solution today. Contact Aurora Technologies by: • The Web at www.auroratech.com for product literature, phone numbers and address. • Email at info@auroratech.com. • Telephone at (508) 588-6110.
Glossary Terms and Definitions This glossary describes some of the basic terminology you should be familiar with when discussing StarFabric-based products and technology. Asynchronous A communications system in which data transmits intermittently rather than in a steady stream. Asynchronous protocols require a start bit and a stop bit to indicate the beginning and the end of a data transmission.
Enumeration An initialization process after reset that automatically assigns each StarFabric-enabled node in the switch fabric with a unique identifier and provides information about the switch fabric’s topology. Isochronous Refers to a data communications system where data must be delivered within a certain amount of time. For example, multimedia streams require an isochronous transport mechanism to ensure that data is delivered as fast as it is displayed to ensure the audio is synchronized with the video.
PCI 1.1 PCI-to-PCI Bridge Standard Refers to the PCI SIG PCI specification that addresses the need for increased bandwidth of PCI devices. PCI-1.1 enables the design of systems and devices that operate at clock speeds up to 133 MHz, or 1 GB/s. It also provides for protocol enhancements that enable devices to operate more efficiently by providing more usable bandwidth at any clock frequency. PICMG PCI Industrial Computer Management Group. PICMG 2.
StarFabric A next-generation switched interconnect technology that provides a universal, scalable, and highly-reliable switch fabric for data, voice, and video communications networks. StarFabric Bridge An edge node that provides protocol translation. For example, the PCI-SB and the PMC-SB cards act as bridges between a PCI bus and a switch fabric running the StarProtocol. StarProtocol (SP) The switched-serial protocol used to transmit data across the StarFabric switch fabric.
A About this manual 1-31 Audience 1-1 Aurora Technologies contacting 1-2 Availability StarFabric 1-6 Card 1-16 PICMG 2.
