Industry Terminology
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Fast SCSI - Fast SCSI refers to the use of a 10 MHz SCSI bus speed on an 8-bit bus. It is also sometimes called Fast SCSI-2. The maximum transfer rate is 10 MB/s.
Fast Wide SCSI - Uses a 16-bit bus and supports data rates of 20 MB/sec. FC – Fibre Channel. A 1 Gbps data transfer interface that maps several common transport protocols, allowing it to merge high-speed I/O and networking functionality in a single connectivity technology. It is an open standard as defined by ANSI and OSI and operated over copper and fiber optic cabling at distances of up to 10 kilometers.
FC-AL – Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop. A very high speed (100 MBps) connection which is a true loop technology. Data can be transferred in both directions simultaneously, achieving a nominal transfer rate between two devices of 200 MBps.
FC-EL – Fibre Channel-Enhanced Loop. Contains elements of SSA and FC-AL resulting in an improved protocol at 1 gigabit per second data transfer rates in a full duplex point-to-point communications system over distances up to 10 kilometers. Submitted to ANSI for evaluation as a standard.
FDDI – Fiber Distributed Data Interface. IEEE and ANSI standard that provides 100 Mbps transmission speed over fiber optic or twisted pair cable utilizing Token Ring technology.
Fiber Optics – A high-bandwidth transmission technology that uses light to carry digital information. Fiber transmission facilities occupy far less physical volume for an equivalent transmission capacity and are immune to electrical and radio frequency interference.
FICON – Fibre Channel Connectivity. A standards-based IBM implementation of Fibre Channel.
File-Intelligent Storage Architecture – An integrated hierarchy of storage-related processes with the objective of achieving high performance and data accessibility through the use of file-intelligent I/O technology in which a file-intelligent controller transfers file-level requests to a peripheral storage device that has filesystem knowledge and can make decisions about where the request should be processed.
File-Level I/O – The transfer of a file-level request from a host processor to a file-intelligent controller that contains the metadata necessary to identify the physical location of the data where the request will be processed, resulting in a single request to the host. File-level I/O addresses data by its location within a file. This contrasts with block-level I/O that addresses data by its location on disk.
File Server – A computer that stores data centrally for network users and manages access to that data.
Filter – Software that an application uses for file-format conversion or special effects. Filters can be part of the main application or external programs called plug-ins.
Firewall – A networking device that blocks unauthorized access to all or parts of a network.
Firewire – A high-speed serial bus similar to the Universal Serial Bus (USB), but much faster and more expensive to implement. Its primary use will be as the I/O bus for the next-generation consumer digital products.
Firmware – A category of memory chips that holds their content without electrical power and includes ROM, PROM, EPROM, and EEPROM Becomes “hard software” when holding program code.
FMD – Fluorescent multilayer disc.
Forward Auctions – Auctions with one seller and many buyers.
FRAD - Frame Relay Access Device. A combination of hardware and software that is used to convert communications packets from formats like TCP, SNA, IPX, and others into frames that can then be sent over a frame relay network.
Fragmentation – A condition where parts of a file are stored in different location on a disk. When a file is fragmented, the drive’s read/write head has to jump from place to place to read the data; typically slowing the drive’s performance.
FRAM – Ferroelectric Random Access Memory (also FeRAM). A non-volatile computer memory chip that retains its content for up to 10 years without power.
Frame Relay - A protocol for sending small packets of data over a network. Frame relay uses packets of variable length, unlike cell relay, and requires less stringent error detection than other forms of packet switching because it is designed to take advantage of the more reliable circuits that have become available in recent years. Frame relay is often used for wide area networks, where it can transmit data at high speed more efficiently than point-to-point services. Frame relay is used with digital lines.
FRDS – Failure Resistant Disk Systems. New RAID Advisory Board classification for RAID storage systems. Replaces original numerical designations.
FTAM - File Transfer Access and Management. An application-level protocol governing file access.
FTDS – Failure Tolerant Disk Systems. New RAID Advisory Board classification for RAID storage Systems. Replaces original numerical designations.
FTP – File Transfer Protocol. A TCP/IP-based client/server protocol used to transfer files to and from a remote host. Does not perform any conversions or translations.