In storage area networking, Fabric OS is the firmware

Firmware

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...

 for Brocade Communications Systems

Brocade Communications Systems

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. , based in Silicon Valley , is a vendor of storage area network hardware and software. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells networking products and management applications for local, metro, and wide area networks...

's Fibre Channel switch

Fibre Channel switch

In the computer storage field, a Fibre Channel switch is a network switch compatible with the Fibre Channel protocol. It allows the creation of a Fibre Channel fabric, that is currently the core component of most storage area networks . The fabric is a network of Fibre Channel devices which...

es and Fibre Channel directors. It is also known as FOS and Fabos.

First generation

The first generation of Fabric OS was developed on top of a VxWorks

VxWorks

VxWorks is a real-time operating system developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems.- History :...

 kernel and was mainly used in the Brocade Silkworm 2000 and first 3000 series on Intel i960

Intel i960

Intel's i960 was a RISC-based microprocessor design that became popular during the early 1990s as an embedded microcontroller, becoming a best-selling CPU in that field, along with the competing AMD 29000...

. Even today, many production environments are still running the older generation Silkworm models.

Second generation

The second generation of Fabric OS was developed on a PowerPC

PowerPC

PowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...

 platform, and uses MontaVista

MontaVista

MontaVista Software is a software developer that develops embedded Linux system software, development tools, and related software. Its products are targeted at other corporations developing embedded systems such as automotive electronics, communications equipment, mobile phones, and other...

 Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, a Linux derivative with real-time

Real-time computing

In computer science, real-time computing , or reactive computing, is the study of hardware and software systems that are subject to a "real-time constraint"— e.g. operational deadlines from event to system response. Real-time programs must guarantee response within strict time constraints...

 performance enhancements. With the advent of MontaVista, switches and directors have the ability of hot firmware

Firmware

In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...

 activation (without downtime for Fibre Channel fabric), and many useful diagnostic commands.

According to free software licenses terms, Brocade provides access to sources of distributed free software, on which Fabric OS and other Brocade's software products are based.

Additional licensed products

Additional products for Fabric OS are offered by Brocade for one-time fee. They are licensed for use in a single specific switch (license key is coupled with device's serial number). Those include:

• Integrated Routing
• Adaptive Networking: Quality of service
  Quality of service
  The quality of service refers to several related aspects of telephony and computer networks that allow the transport of traffic with special requirements...
  
  , Ingress Rate Limiting
• Brocade
  Brocade Communications Systems
  Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. , based in Silicon Valley , is a vendor of storage area network hardware and software. The company also designs, manufactures, and sells networking products and management applications for local, metro, and wide area networks...
  
   Advanced Zoning
  Fibre Channel zoning
  In storage networking, Fibre Channel zoning is the partitioning of a Fibre Channel fabric into smaller subsets to restrict interference, add security, and to simplify management. While a SAN makes available several virtual disks , each system connected to the SAN should only be allowed access to a...
  
   (Free with rel 6.1.x)
• ISL trunking
  Trunking
  In modern communications, trunking is a concept by which a communications system can provide network access to many clients by sharing a set of lines or frequencies instead of providing them individually. This is analogous to the structure of a tree with one trunk and many branches. Examples of...
  
  
• Ports on Demand
• Extended Fabrics (more than 10km of switched fabric connectivity, up to 3000km)
• Advanced Performance Monitoring (APM)
• Fabric Watch
• Secure Fabric OS (obsolete)

Versions

• Fabric OS 6.x
  • 6.2: Virtual Fabrics-capable
  • 6.1: M-EOS compatibility enhacements
  • 6.0: LDAP support
• Fabric OS 5.x
  • 5.3: switch to Linux 2.6 kernel
  • 5.1: Access Gateway mode
• Fabric OS 4.x
  • 4.1: SSH support, Multiple user access
• Fabric OS 3.x
• Fabric OS 2.x