Introducing OSA-Express2, OSA-Express3, OSA-Express4S, and OSA-Express5S

This publication describes four generations of OSA-Express features. Each supports different LAN technologies and number of ports per feature:

Open Systems Adapter-Express2
Open Systems Adapter-Express3
Open Systems Adapter-Express4S
Open Systems Adapter-Express5S

Table 1 and Table 2 summarize the availability of the OSA-Express features.

Table 1. OSA-Express availability - OSA-Express2
Feature	z10 EC, z10 BC, z196, z114	CHPIDs per feature	Ports per CHPID	Total ports
OSA-Express2	1000BASE-T Ethernet	2	1	2
	Gigabit Ethernet	2	1	2
	10 Gigabit Ethernet	1	1	1

Table 2. OSA-Express availability - OSA-Express3 and newer
Feature	z10 EC, z10 BC, z196, z114	zEC12, zBC12	CHPIDs per feature	Ports per CHPID	Total ports
OSA-Express3	Gigabit Ethernet	Gigabit Ethernet	2	2	4
	10 Gigabit Ethernet	10 Gigabit Ethernet	2	1	2
	1000BASE-T Ethernet	1000BASE-T Ethernet	2	2	4
OSA-Express3–2P	1000BASE-T Ethernet (z10 BC)	1000BASE-T Ethernet (zBC12)	1	2	2
OSA-Express3–2P	Gigabit Ethernet SX (z10 BC)	Gigabit Ethernet SX (zBC12)	1	2	2
OSA-Express4S	Gigabit Ethernet	Gigabit Ethernet	1	2	2
	10 Gigabit Ethernet	10 Gigabit Ethernet	1	1	1
		1000BASE-T Ethernet (zEC12)	1	2	2
OSA-Express5S		Gigabit Ethernet	1	2	2
		10 Gigabit Ethernet	1	1	1
		1000BASE-T Ethernet	1	2	2

All OSA-Express features are hot-pluggable and support the Multiple Image Facility (MIF), which shares channels across logical partitions (LPARs). They can be defined as a shared channel among LPARs within and across Logical Channel Subsystems (LCSSs). In some OSA documentation this is referred to as port sharing (page Port sharing among images).

All OSA-Express features support QDIO mode. QDIO continues to be the preferred architecture on System z for high-speed communication, helping to reduce host interruptions and improve response time. All the OSA-Express features help to ensure you have a balanced system to satisfy the bandwidth demands of your applications.

See Table 1 for a summary of the OSA-Express supported functions.