Disk controller and storage system

A disk controller comprising:

• a channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive;
• a memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between said host computer and said disk drive;
• a processor adapter for controlling operations of said channel adapter and said memory adapter;
• and
• a switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting said channel adapter, said memory adapter and said processor adapter,
• wherein,
• said channel adapter, said memory adapter, said processor adapter and said switch adapter each include a plurality of DMA controllers for performing a communication protocol control of said inner network, and one or more data link engines shared by said DMA controllers;
• said DMA controller include a plurality of reception FIFO buffers and a plurality of transmission FIFO buffers, one data link engine being made in correspondence with a plurality of buffers;
• contention of reception data is arbitrated among respective reception FIFO buffers belonging to a plurality of DMA controllers, and contention of transmission data is arbitrated among respective transmission FIFO buffers belonging to a plurality of DMA controllers, to thereby set a priority order of a plurality of buffers;
• and
• a control system inner network and a data system inner network are mixed in one data link engine, and packet multiplex communication is performed among said DMA controllers provided in said adapters.

A disk controller comprising:

• a channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive;
• a memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between said host computer and said disk drive;
• a processor adapter for controlling operations of said channel adapter and said memory adapter;
• and
• a switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting said channel adapter, said memory adapter and said processor adapter,
• wherein,
• said channel adapter, said memory adapter, said processor adapter and said switch adapter each include a DMA controller for performing a communication protocol control of said inner network;
• a packet to be transferred among said DMA controllers provided in said adapters has an address field for designating a targeting DMA controller, an address field for designating an initiating DMA controller and a DMA sequence field for managing a transfer order when one DMA transfer is divided into a plurality of packets;
• and
• said DMA sequence field has a task ID unique to one DMA transfer.

A disk controller having one disk controller and another disk controller, wherein said one disk controller comprises:

• one channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive;
• one memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between said host computer and said disk drive;
• one processor adapter for controlling operations of said one channel adapter and said one memory adapter;
• and
• one switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting said one channel adapter, said one memory adapter and said one processor adapter,
• wherein,
• said one channel adapter, said one memory adapter, said one processor adapter and said one switch adapter each include a DMA controller for performing a communication protocol control of said inner network;
• and
• packet multiplex communication is performed among said DMA controllers provided in said adapters, and
• wherein,
• said other disk controller comprises adapters having similar structures to structures of said one channel adapter, said one memory adapter, said one processor adapter and said one switch adapter of said one disk controller;
• said one switch adapter is connected to each of said one adapters and to each of said other adapters;
• and
• said other switch adapter is connected to each of said other adapters and to each of said one adapters.

A disk controller comprising:

• a channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive;
• a memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between said host computer and said disk drive;
• a processor adapter for controlling operations of said channel adapter and said memory adapter;
• and
• a switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting said channel adapter, said memory adapter and said processor adapter,
• wherein,
• said channel adapter, said memory adapter, said processor adapter and said switch adapter each include a DMA controller for performing a communication protocol control of said inner network, and a data link engine for executing DMA transfer to and from said inner network;
• and
• a packet to be transferred among said DMA controllers provided in said adapters comprises an address field for designating a targeting DMA controller, an address field for designating an initiating DMA controller and a DMA sequence field for managing a transfer sequence when one DMA transfer is distributed to a plurality of packets.

A storage system comprising:

• a hard disk drive;
• an interface unit that includes a connection unit for connecting at least one of a computer and the hard disk drive;
• a memory unit;
• a processor unit;
• and
• an interconnection which connects the interface unit, the memory unit and the processor unit.