Hitachi HUS154530VLF400 User Manual

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Hitachi Ultrastar 15K450 (FC-AL) Hard Disk Drive Specification
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17.1.3  Primitive signals and sequences
The fundamental unit of transfer on a Fibre Channel link is the 8b/10b encoded Transmission Character. Only 256 characters 
are required to represent a byte of data so the set of valid transmission characters is sub-divided into Data Characters and Spe-
cial Characters. 
A Word is a group of four consecutive transmission characters. 
An Ordered Set is a word that starts with a special character (to give word and byte sync) and which has special significance to 
the communication protocol. Fibre Channel defines the following types of ordered sets:
Frame delimiters 
Primitive signals 
Primitive sequences 
A Frame Delimiter immediately precedes or follows the contents of a frame (see 17.1.4, “Frames” on page 56). Fibre Channel 
defines the following:
SOF 
Start of frame 
EOF 
End of frame 
A Primitive Signal is an ordered set that has special meaning when received by itself. Fibre Channel defines the following: 
R_RDY 
Receiver Ready 
IDLE 
Idle
FC-AL adds the following:
ARBx 
Arbitrate 
ARB(F0) 
Arbitrate 
OPNyx 
Open Full-duplex 
OPNyy 
Open Half-duplex 
OPNfr 
Open Broadcast Replicate
1
 
OPNyr 
Open Selective Replicate
CLS 
Close 
MRKtx 
Mark
A Primitive Sequence is an ordered set that is transmitted repeatedly and continuously. Three or more of the ordered sets must 
be received consecutively in order to recognize the primitive sequence. Fibre Channel defines the following:
NOS 
Not Operational
2
OLS 
Offline
LR 
Link Reset
LRR 
Link Reset Received
 
FC-AL adds the following: 
LPByx
Loop Port Bypass 
LPEyx 
Loop Port Enable 
1. Since normal buffer-to-buffer flow control is disabled when OPNr is used, there is no guarantee that the drive has a buffer available to receive an 
in-bound frame. It is therefore, recommended that OPNr not be used.
2. Used to convey information about a dedicated connection and therefore not relevant to FC-AL. If detected during an open connection, the drive 
will immediately close. Otherwise it will simply re-transmit.