INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT IMPLEMENTATION OF A STORAGE-SHELF ROUTER AND A PATH CONTROLLER CARD FOR COMBINED USE IN HIGH-AVAILABILITY MASS-STORAGE-DEVICE SHELVES THAT MAY BE INCORPORATED WITHIN DISK ARRAYS

摘要

One embodiment of the present invention is an integrated circuit implementing a storage-shelf router (1102), used in combination with path controller cards (1110) and optionally with other storage-shelf routers (1104), to interconnect SA' disks (1108) within a storage shelf (1100) or disk array to a high-bandwidth communications medium, such as an FC arbitrated loop (1008). When two, four, six, or eight or more storage-shelf routers are used within a storage shelf, and tl interconnections between the storage-shelf routers, disk drives, and external communications media are properly designed and configured, the resulting storage shelf constitutes a discrete, highly-available component that may be included in a disk array or in other types of electronic devices. The storage-shelf router features a disk-drive adaptation layer (3604) that allows a storage-shelf router to interface to, and manage, any of many different types of disk drives (3608-3611). The disk-drive adaptation layer includes a disk-profile table (3902) and associated firmware logic.