content_image/1004449.jpg
The IBM Flashsystem 900 AE3 implementation of NVMe-FC is by the addition of a new High-speed 16 Gb Fibre Channel NVMe over Fabrics interface adapter card. 

This new card, feature code AF3C, coupled with the NVMe-FC protocol provides the following characteristics: 

GLYPH<SM590000> Read latency reduced by 15% to 85 microseconds. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Supports both Fibre Channel and FC-NVMe at the same time on the same port. 

GLYPH<SM590000> The current IBM FlashSystem 900 AE3 can have an MES added with the new adapter card AF3C. 

GLYPH<SM590000> Firmware 1.6 or higher is needed to support the new NVMe adapter card. 

The evolution of NVMe is shown in Figure 1-6. 

<img src='content_image/1004449.jpg'>

NVMe is an alternative to SCSI (small computer system interface). The SCSI became a standard in 1986 for connecting and transferring data between hosts and storage devices (HDD and tape). SCSI-based file commands work well with disk storage, but performance does not improve as much when working with flash systems. 

