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:  The evolution of NVMe is shown in Figure 1-6. 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. Figure 1-6 NVMe evolution 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. 16  Implementing IBM FlashSystem 900 Model AE3 IBM St orage & SDI The Evolution of NVMe 2014 2011 • NVM Express Spec 1.0  published by industry  leaders on March 1 2012 • NVMe Specification 1.1 on Oct 11 multi-path I/O (basic),  namespace sharing and scatter-gather I/O • NVM Express Spec 1.2  released on November 3 • NVM Express Work Group  was incorporated at NVMe  Inc., the consortium respon- sible for the development of the NVM Express specification • Work on the NVM Express over Fabrics  (NVMe-oF™) Specification kicked-off • NVM Express Management Interface (NVMe-MI™)  Specification officially released. Provides out-of-band  management for NVMe™ components and systems and  a common baseline mgmt.  feature set across all  NVMe™ devices and  systems. 2015 • NVM Express over Fabrics (NVMe-oF™)  Specification published; extending  NVMe™ onto fabrics such as Ethernet,  Fibre Channel and InfiniBand®, providing  access to individual  NVMe™ devices &  storage systems. 2016 2018 IBM Delivers NVMe & NVMe-oF Solutions 2013 • Nothing Happened 2017 • NVMe Spec 1.3 published.  Addresses the  needs of mobile  devices, with  their need for  low power and  other technical  features, making  it the only storage  interface  available  for all platforms  from mobile  devices through  data center  storage systems.  1 st Partial NVMe solutions from Competitors http://nvmexpress.org/resources/specifications/