Paralan - SCSI Extenders - # MM16

Paralan's high-quality family of SCSI Bus Extender and RegeneratoR™ products lengthen data transmission distance with complete transparency. Whether you choose to extend the SCSI Bus from feet to miles, Paralan has the solution. Product Highlights include: Extend SCSI Bus serially over Gigabit Ethernet Extend over standard SCSI parallel cable Maintain data throughput Transparent to software, hardware and operator Will not consume a SCSI I.D. Full SCSI cable lengths on all segments Models for SE, HVD, LVD Plug and go installation Complies with all ANSI X3T10 SCSI standards

 

There is more than one way to extend SCSI:

1. Extend SCSI with iSCSI Bridges™ :

iS500 Family of iSCSI Bridges™will easily and inexpensively locate storage and backup SCSI devices anywhere for disaster recovery or remote backup - yards, meters, kilometers, or miles - the distance is unlimited!

2. Extend SCSI with RegeneratoRs™ :

Paralan's RegeneratoRs™ create a completely new SCSI bus segment of the same LVD, SE or HVD type, allowing longer SCSI lengths. They can be used back-to-back for even greater distances:

• SIR-D16 to extend HVD SCSI
• MM16/MM17 to extend LVD or SE SCSI

3. Extend SCSI with Converters:

Whether Single Ended (SE) LVD or HVD SCSI, Paralan Converters can be used to extend SCSI cable length. The following converters extend SCSI when converting as well as when used in a back to back configuration:

 

 

SCSI Expander Model MM16

Getting the Most from LVD/MSE SCSI			SCSI Multimode Expander Extends the SCSI Bus Length of an LVD/MSE System
Extend Bus Length Up to 160 MByte/sec sustained throughput Convert Between LVD and Single-ended Isolate Segments of a SCSI bus Targets and initiators may be located on both the A and B sides of the Expander Backward compatible with older versions of SCSI Does not consume a SCSI ID The board-level version Model MM17 is sized to fit in a standard 3.5" drive bay

Expand the functionality of LVD/MSE SCSI in several ways: 1) conversion from LVD to SE or vice versa, 2) extending the SE or LVD SCSI bus length, 3) isolating one SCSI segment from another SCSI segment, and 4) join SCSI segments. All this is accomplished without any impact on SCSI protocol or data thruput by using Paralan’s Models MM16 / MM17.

Extending the Bus Length

There are several ways to utilize Expanders to extend the SCSI bus length well past standard SCSI limits. Some examples:

Using a single Multimode Expander – The effective bus length can be doubled by the addition of a single Multimode Expander. With all LVD devices, the standard 12m (40 ft) bus length can be extended to 24m (80 feet).

Maximizing Thruput with Mixed Devices

Multimode LVD SCSI will automatically change to Single-Ended (SE) if an SE device is on the bus segment. When both LVD and SE devices share the same bus segment, the entire SCSI bus segment will operate at the lower performance level of single-ended SCSI, including reduced bus length. However, by grouping LVD and SE devices, and isolating them with a Multimode Expander, the LVD devices can be operated at their full designed thruput levels.

Using Two Multimode Expanders in a Back-to-Back Connection

Contact Paralan Technical Support for information.

When Used to Extend the SCSI Bus

Cable causes timing delays of approximately 1.5 ns per foot of length. When SCSI-specified cable length is exceeded, this cable-caused delay would normally cause a system to malfunction. Logic circuitry in the Expander manages this delay such that disconnect, reconnect, arbitration and all other SCSI features are not affected. The SCSI signals are regenerated, reshaped, and retransmitted, all transparent to the system.

Paralan Expanders are completely compatible with all devices that conform to the full ANSI X3T10 standard. They are available either as stand-alone units utilizing wall power, or as board-level units for installation in other equipment.

Isolation for Hot Swapping

The logical isolation between the two sides of an Expander allows a device on side B, for example, to be disconnected without disturbing side A.

Narrow/Wide Conversion

The MM16 and MM17 (wide) models may be used to interconnect narrow SCSI devices on side B, for example with wide SCSI on side A.

Differential (lVD and HVD) SCSI Extenders and Converters

Paralan also has Converters (Paralan MHxx models) for converting between High Voltage Differential (HVD) and LVD or single-ended SCSI devices. Converters may also be used to provide extension of an LVD or single-ended bus up to 50m (160 feet).
To extend an existing HVD bus, see the data sheet for Paralan’s SIR-D16 RegeneratoR™.

PDF version of this data sheet.

Specifications For MM16/17 SCSI Multimode Expander:

Ordering Guide: