SATA Data Appliance for Providing SATA Hosts with Access to a Configurable Number of SATA Drives Residing in a SAS Topology

摘要

A method and apparatus for providing a SATA host with access to multiple SATA drives is disclosed. The apparatus may include: an emulated port multiplier for presenting at least one logical drive to the SATA host; a mapping module for maintaining a mapping between the at least one logical drive and a plurality of physical SATA drives, wherein the plurality of physical SATA drives reside in a SAS topology; and a SATA/STP bridge for providing an interface between the SATA host and the SAS topology, the SATA/STP bridge configured to function as a SATA target to communicate with the SATA host and to function as a STP initiator to communicate with the plurality of physical SATA drives in the SAS topology.