OptiConnect supports all three bus technologies within a single OptiConnect network. OptiConnect will always configure Virtual OptiConnect when possible. If there is more than one possible connection between any two servers it will configure both HSL OptiConnect and SPD OptiConnect and alternate between them.
Figure 5 shows an example of a mixed technology environment. In this figure, the iSeries™ 830 and 840 model servers can participate as OptiConnect nodes in both SPD and HSL OptiConnect environments. A migration unit is required to allow some 8xx model servers to participate in an SPD OptiConnect network. Servers with the current HSL-2 port technology do not support the attachment of migration units. There is no seamless upgrade path for an SPD based 7xx model server in an SPD OptiConnect network to a current model iSeries server in an HSL OptiConnect network.