Escon and Ficon

[R. M. Maia]

Escon

Short for Enterprise Systems Connection, or Enterprise Systems
Connectivity, an IBM fiber optic connection technology that
interconnects S/390 mainframe computers, workstations and network-
attached storage devices across a single channel and supports half
duplex data transfers. One of the key elements of ESCON is the ESCON
Director, an I/O switch capable of providing dynamic, nonblocking, any-
to-any connectivity for up to 60 fiber optic links operating at 200 Mb/
s. The links can be up to 36 miles (60 kilometers) apart. ESCON is
useful in CANs and MANs.

Ficon

Short for Fiber Connection, or Fiber Connectivity, IBM’s fiber optic
channel technology that extends the capabilities of its previous fiber
optic channel standard, ESCON. Unlike ESCON, FICON supports full
duplex data transfers and enables greater throughput rates over longer
distances. FICON uses a mapping layer that is based on technology
developed for Fibre Channel and multiplexing technology, which allows
small data transfers to be transmitted at the same time as larger
ones. IBM first introduced the technology in 1998 on its G5 servers.