The “Q” model designation indicates products that ship with the latest 6.x-level firmware, featuring full support for the new Enterprise Fabric Suite 2007 management platform as well as NPIV. Identical to previous 56xx switches from a hardware perspective, “Q” products may be stacked and managed together with any other 5000 Series product. As always, QLogic management software is 100% backwards-compatible, which means existing customers can choose to use either the new QuickTools on-board GUI, the optional Enterprise Fabric Suite 2007 interface or their previous SANsurfer interface to manage the SAN.

Please note QLogic recommends all switches in a SAN be loaded with the same firmware version. As a service to existing customers who do not choose to upgrade immediately to 6.x firmware, 5.x-level products will continue to be orderable by their original "non-Q" part numbers. Previous 5.x firmware versions will continue to be posted in the QLogic Downloads section, along with the latest 6.x version. See Release Notes and Read Mes when upgrading previous switches.