Advancements in microprocessor technology, the growth in storage capacity, improved applications and user interfaces mean computers are no longer electronic versions of existing tools.
Further development is hampered by the inability of computers to communicate and share data.
Existing interfaces are either too slow, work over only a short distance, or lack sufficient bandwidth. Fibre Channel is a flexible interface that supports multiple protocols and topologies. It uses hardware functionally to rapidly move large and small amounts of data over long distances. Channels have traditionally operated in closed, hardware-intensive environments where the addresses of all devices are known to the operating system. This yields fast and reliable data, but works in inflexible structures limited to short distances.