HP Mainframe Connectivity Design Guide

speed of 1 Gb/s, 2 Gb/s, or 4 Gb/s, and a maximum of 64 concurrent I/O operations per
port. FCV mode is not supported.
• FICON Express 8—Includes four independent channels, each of which has one port with an
LC duplex connector (four ports total). Supports a link speed of 2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, or 8 Gb/s,
and a maximum of 64 concurrent I/O operations per port. A link speed of 1 Gb/s is not
supported. FCV mode is not supported.
• FICON Express 8S—Includes two independent channels, each of which has one port with an
LC duplex connector (two ports total). Supports a link speed of 2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, or 8 Gb/s,
and a maximum of 64 concurrent I/O operations per port. A link speed of 1 Gb/s is not
supported. FCV mode is not supported.
NOTE: You can define FICON Express 2, FICON Express 4, and FICON Express 8 ports as
spanned channels that are shared by LPARs within and across LCSSs.
CHPIDs can be configured as follows:
• Native (FC) mode—A typical FICON channel connected to the CU
• Converter (FCV) mode—A FICON channel connected to an ESCON CU through a FICON
bridge
• FCP mode—A CHPID connected to SCSI storage devices in a zLinux environment.
FICON supports the following Fibre Channel port types:
• N_Port, F_Port, and E_Port
• G_Port if it adopts the characteristics of an N_Port, F_Port, or E_Port
IBM S/390 processor FICON support rules
Support for the IBM S/390 processor includes the following:
• The IBM S/390 9672 G5 and IBM S/390 9672 G6 processors run the OS/390 operating
system.
• The IBM S/390 9672 G5 processor supports a maximum of 24 channel cards.
• The IBM S/390 9672 G6 processor supports a maximum of 36 channel cards.
The S/390 processors offer the following FICON features:
• FICON (FC) native mode CHPID support
• FICON (FCV) converter mode CHPID support
• Point-to-point support (directly attached to the CU with no FICON director)
• FICON channel cards
• Single-switch fabric support
NOTE: Cascaded directors are not supported.
When building a FICON SAN with IBM S/390 processors, consider the following:
• The maximum number of FICON channel cards depends on the mainframe model. If the
mainframe contains other channel cards (for example, ESCON or OSA), this reduces the
maximum number of FICON channel cards.
• FCV channels connect to a FICON bridge card in an IBM 9032 Model 5 ESCON director.
NOTE: IBM discontinued FICON bridge cards and the 9032 Model 5 ESCON director in
2004.
• FCV mode channels cannot connect to a FICON CU or FICON director.
IBM S/390 processor FICON support rules 87