IBM 9077 Router User Manual


 
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