Distribution of I/O requests across multiple disk units

A storage system to be coupled to a host computing system including at least one processor unit, comprising:

• a controller configured to receive from the host computing system read requests;
• a memory associated with the controller;
• and
• a plurality of physical disk units coupled to the controller;
• wherein the memory stores data structure information to provide a plurality of logical volumes including a first logical volume and a second logical volume and to map each of the first and the second logical volumes to a corresponding one or more of the physical disk units, each of the first and the second logical volumes carrying the same data,
• wherein a first read request from the host computing system is assigned to the first logical volume, and a second read request from the host computing system is assigned to the second logical volume.

A storage system to be coupled to a host computing system including at least one processor unit, comprising:

• means for providing a plurality of logical volumes including a first logical volume and a second logical volume;
• means for mapping each of the first and the second logical volumes to a corresponding one or more of the physical disk units, each of the first and the second logical volumes carrying the same data;
• means for receiving from the host computing system a first read request;
• means for assigning the first read request to the first logical volume;
• means for receiving from the host computing system a second read request;
• and
• means for assigning the second read request to the second logical volume.