HP StorageWorks 2/16V Brocade Glossary (53-1000040-03, November 2006) - Page 8

Glossary BER Bit error rate. The rate at which bits are expected to be received in error. Expressed as the ratio of error bits to total bits transmitted. See also error. BISR Built-in self-repair. BIST Built-in self-test. bit synchroniza- tion The condition in which a receiver is delivering retimed serial data at the required bit error rate. blind-mate A two-way connector used in some Brocade SilkWorm switches to provide a connection between the connector motherboard and the power supply. block In Fibre Channel technology, upper-level application data that is transferred in a single sequence. Bloom A Brocade 2-Gbit/sec switch and director ASIC. boot code Software that initialized the system environment during the early phase of the boot-up process. For example, boot code might determine the amount of available memory and how to access it. boot flash Flash (temporary) memory that stores the boot code and boot. bport Back-end port of the ASIC. broadcast The transmission of data from a single source to all devices in the fabric, regardless of zoning. See also multicast and unicast. buffer-tobuffer flow control Management of the frame transmission rate in either a point-to-point topology or in an arbitrated loop. See also BB_Credit. bypass Circuits that automatically remove a device from the data path when valid signals are dropped. circuitry C CAM Content-addressable memory. CAN Campus area network. A network comprising a limited area but not just one building. See also LAN, MAN, and WAN. canvas In Web Tools, a saved configuration of performance monitor graphs. cascade Two or more interconnected Fibre Channel switches. Brocade SilkWorm 2000 and later switches can be cascaded up to 239 switches, with a recommended maximum of 7 interswitch links (no path longer than 8 switches). See also fabric and ISL. certificate authority A third party organization that provides secure public and private keys. To ease maintenance and allow secure out-of-band communication between switches, consider using one certificate authority (CA) to sign all management certificates for a fabric. 4 Brocade Glossary Publication Number: 53-1000040-03