System and method for emulating mainframe channel programs by open systems computer systems

A storage system controller comprising:

• an interface receiving commands;
• a command interpreter coupled to said interface for parsing said commands to determine if said commands are from a first command set or a second command set;
• a command processor coupled to said command interpreter for processing said commands, said command processor responsive to said first set of commands for performing a first set of operations to read or write data of a first data type, said command processor further responsive to said second set of commands for performing a second set of operations to read or write data of a second data type
• wherein said commands of said second command set are received as data embedded in a command of said first command set and wherein said command interpreter extracts said embedded data and provides said commands from said second command set to said command processor.

A storage system comprising:

• an interface for providing a communications channel between a host computer and said storage system;
• a controller coupled to said interface, said controller further comprising
• a command interpreter coupled to said interface for parsing said commands received from said host computer to determine if said commands are from a first command set or a second command set;
• a command processor coupled to said command interpreter for processing said commands from said host computer, said command processor responsive to said first set of commands for performing a first set of operations to read and write data of a first data type, said command processor further responsive to said second set of commands for performing a second set of operations to read and write data of a second data type;
• wherein
• said commands of said second command set are received embedded in a command of said first command set and wherein said interpreter extracts said embedded commands and provides said commands from said second command set to said command processor, and
• a plurality of storage devices for storing said data of said first or second data type and providing said data of said first or second data type to said host computer via said controller.

A computer system comprising:

• a storage system for storing data of a first data format and a second data format;
• an open systems computer, said open systems computer enabled to transmit a first set of commands for performing a first set of operations according to a first communications protocol, said open systems computer further enabled to transmit a second set of commands for performing a second set of operations according to a second communications protocol
• a controller within said storage system responsive to receipt of a first command from said first set of commands, received from said open systems computer, for performing said first set of operations to write said data of a first data format and read and return said data of a first data format to the open systems computer,
• said controller further responsive to receipt of a second command from said first set of commands having a command from said second command set embedded therein, received from said open systems computer, for performing said second set of operations to write said data of a second data format and to read and return said data of a second data format to said open systems computer.

A computer system comprising:

• a storage system;
• a computer coupled to said storage system via a bus requiring communications occurring over said bus to adhere to a first communications protocol;
• a controller within said storage system for receiving commands transmitted over said bus and for executing said commands to access data stored according to a first data format;
• said computer enabled to send commands of a second communications protocol over said bus to said controller embedded within a command of a first communications protocol;
• said controller responsive to receipt of said commands of a second communications protocol embedded for executing said commands of said second communications protocol in order to access data stored according to a second data format and to write data to said storage system according to said second data format.