IBM 9077 User Manual

Page of 342
18
 
IBM 9077 SP Switch Router: Get Connected to the SP Switch
Figure 10.  Price Comparison
These price comparisons are based on US prices as of March 1998. In other 
countries these prices may be different. The basic message of these charts is 
that the solutions based on the GRF could be quite competitive and will quite 
often be cheaper than the conventional configurations.
Let us look, for example for a solution connecting an RS/6000 SP via HIPPI to 
a mainframe system. The first chart shows that a GRF solution is cheaper 
than adding a dedicated node for the HIPPI connection to your system, apart 
from the fact that the GRF solution is the better choice from a performance 
point of view.
It is nearly the same if you need a connection to an FDDI network. One GRF 
FDDI media card offers four independent singlering connections. An offer 
based on an dedicated SP node is more expensive than a GRF solution.
Our example on the third chart focuses on an ATM connection. In this case, 
the RS/6000 SP node based solution is the more reasonable solution, if you 
consider only the price. But the difference is not that much; the growth path 
with the GRF-based offer will be better than the node solution.
2.2  GRF Software
The software functionality of the GRF is distributed between the Router 
Manager on the IP Switch Control Board (see also Section 2.3.2, “GRF 
Features” on page 26)
 and the individual media cards. While the Route 
53,000
20,000
73,000
135 MHz Wide Node
   64 MB memory
   4.5 GB Disk
   Ethernet
   SP Switch Adapter
   2 ATM 155 Adapters *
48,000
3,200
1,950
595
10,000
5,390
69,135
9077-04S
   
with one SP Switch Router Adapter
  HIPPI Adapter
53,000
19,000
72,000
135 MHz Wide Node
   64 MB memory
   4.5 GB Disk
   Ethernet
   SP Switch Adapter
   4 FDDI 1-port SAS Adapters *
48,000
3,200
1,950
595
10,000
15,980
75,730
9077-04S
   
with one SP Switch Router Adapter
  HIPPI Adapter
9077-04S
with one SP Switch 
Router Adapter
  HIPPI Adapter
53,000
13,500
66,500
135 MHz Wide Node
   64 MB memory
   4.5 GB Disk
   Ethernet
   SP Switch Adapter
   HIPPI Adapter
48,000
3,200
1,950
595
10,000
17,500
81,245