Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. was founded in August of 1995 by Paul Bonderson, Dave Banks (Systems and ASICs), Paul Ramsey (Software) and Kumar Malavalli (Standards and Technology) and release its first Fibre Channel switch in 1997. CEO Greg Reyes joined company in 1998. CEO Michael Klayko (Took over as CEO January 2005)

Product Family

Silkworm = Fibre Channel Switches and Directors Tapestry = Wide Area File Services, Application Resource Manager

1st Generation Products Generation 1 - 1997 to 1999

ASICs Stitch 2 FC ports; F and E port only “central memory’ interface to other Stitch ASICs Used in SilkWorm 1000 and McData 1032 Flannel 2 FL ports plus central memory I/F Used in SilkWorm 1000 and some HP-specific McData product Platforms SilkWorm 1000 Chassis with 8 slots for 2-port FC or FC-FL cards 16 and 8 port versions FabricOS (FOS) 1.0 FOS 1.6 – licenses for Quickloop, Zoning, Webtools, and SES OEMs Compaq, DEC, Sequent (IBM), HP

2nd Generation Products Generation 2 – 1999 to 2001

ASICs

LOOM 4 FC ports; F, E, FL “central memory’ interface to another LOOM ASIC

Platforms

SilkWorm 2800 and 2400 Fixed configurations. 16 port 2800 and 8 port 2400 50,000+ units shipped. First shipped in 2H99

SilkWorm 2000 and 2200 Low-cost focus - fixed media; fixed power and cooling 2000 – 8 copper ports 2200 – 14 copper and 2 GBIC holes

First “Value Line” offering 2010 – loop support ONLY. Competed with Hubs 2x40 – 1 E-port only 2x50 – full fabric First shipped in 2000; blocked competition (Gadzoox, Vixel, )

SilkWorm 6400 (ann. 11/00, GA 3/01) First “Integrated Fabric” 6x2250 racked into a 64 port “SAN in a can” Included Fabric Manager 1.0 to integrate management 14U held footprint for 12000; Sold by Compaq, HP, others; NOT EMC.

FOS 2.2 – added licenses for Extended Fabrics, Remote Switch, Fabric Watch

Added OEMs – EMC, Netapp, STK, others

3rd Generation Products Generation 3 – 2001 to 2004

ASICs

Wave 1

BLOOM (Big LOOM) 8 2Gig/Sec FC ports; F, E, FL “central memory’ interface to another BLOOM ASIC Trunking, Frame Filtering support

Platforms

SilkWorm 3800 (announced 8/01, GA 10/01) First Brocade 2G switch – replaced 2800

SilkWorm 3900 (announced 2/03, GA 3/03) 32 ports in 1.5U. Response to McData 3032 FOS 4.x

SilkWorm 3200 (announced 1/03, GA 2/03) 8 port in 1U. Switch FRU. Low cost; Replace 20x0 and 2400

SilkWorm 12000 (announced 3/01, GA 4/02) First Brocade Director FOS 3.x for 3800 and 3200 (<16 ports); 4.x for 3900, 12000 (>16 ports) added licenses for Secure Fabric OS, Trunking, Advanced Perf Mon

Wave 2

ASICs BLOOM II (die shrink, cost reduction)

Platforms

SilkWorm 3250, 3850 (announced 3/04, GA 4/04) 8 or 16 port in 1U. Switch FRU. Low cost; Replace 3200 and 3850 switch FRU with dual power (Single FRU) First 4.x-based small switches.

SilkWorm 24000 (announced 3/04, GA 4/04) Second Gen director. 128 ports in one domain. FOS

4th Generation Products Generation 4 – 2004 - 2005

ASICs

Condor - 32-port 4Gb/sec chip Goldeneye - 24-port 4Gb/sec chip

Platforms

Silkworm 200E (GA 10/05) 8 to 16 port 4Gb/sec switch in 1U. Based on "Goldeneye ASIC", Ports on demand licensing, Single FRU. Low Cost.

Silkworm 4100 16 - 32 port 4Gb/sec switch in 1U. Based on "Condor ASIC", Ports on demand licensing, hot-swap PS and Fans.

Silkworm 48000 Director Up to 256 4Gb/sec ports in a single 14U chassis. Based on "Condor ASIC", Redundant components.

Market Share

The SilkWorm 12000 quickly gained over one-third director market share after its introduction in 2002, and it has supported hot code load since October of 2003. In addition, Brocade gained the confidence of some of the toughest customers in the world by bringing FICON and FICON CUP support to the 12000.

In 2003, the 12000 was named 'Storage Product of the Year' by the European IT Publication, Computing. Before the SilkWorm 12000, McData held over 90% market share in directors. After the 12000, Brocade gained over 30% market share, and McData dropped below 50% in director ports shipped.

Brocade continued its leadership in the director market with the introduction of the 128-port, 2Gb SilkWorm 24000 in April of 2004. It continued its industry innovation with the 256-port, 4Gb SilkWorm 48000 in September of 2005, bringing NPIV, 4Gb and other new enhancements to the Fibre Channel switching market.

With 5.5 million ports sold, Brocade currently holds nearly 50% of the overall market, over 60% of the switch market, and with over 8000 directors sold, nearly 30% of the director market (Dell'Oro). (As of Oct 2005)

Over 10 years, Brocade has authored more Fibre Channel standards than all other companies combined, and continues its technical leadership today. (As of Oct 2005)

Brocade was the first vendor to ship 4Gb switches with the SilkWorm 4100 in 2004, and was the first vendor to deliver 4Gb across the board, from embedded, to edge, to director.

See also

---

• List of Fibre Channel switch vendors

External link

---

• Official website

Telecommunications companies | Companies based in the Silicon Valley