USB-attached-SCSI flash-memory system with additional command, status, and control pipes to a smart-storage switch

A USB-Attached-SCSI (UAS) and Bulk-Only-Transfer (BOT) flash-memory card comprising:

• a Universal-Serial-Bus (USB) connector for connecting to a host;
• a physical layer, coupled to the USB connector, for generating and receiving physical signals through the USB connector;
• a data link layer, coupled to the physical layer, for arranging data packets in a sequence sent through the USB connector;
• a protocol layer, coupled to the data link layer, for extracting data and commands from data packets received through the USB connector, and for sending data and status messages through the USB connector;
• a UAS/BOT detector for signaling a UAS mode when a UAS identifier and a UAS operation code are detected in a command received by the protocol layer;
• a data-out pipe, coupled to receive data packets from the protocol layer, for storing data packets received from the host through the USB connector;
• a data-in pipe, coupled to send data packets to the protocol layer, for storing data packets for transmission to the host through the USB connector;
• a command pipe, coupled to receive commands from the protocol layer when the UAS mode is signaled, for storing commands received from the host through the USB connector when operating in UAS mode;
• and
• a status pipe, coupled to send status messages commands to the protocol layer when the UAS mode is signaled, for storing status messages for transmission to the host through the USB connector when operating in UAS mode;
• wherein the data-out pipe is further for storing commands when the UAS mode is not signaled and the UAS/BOT flash memory device is operating in a BOT mode;
• wherein the data-in pipe is further for storing status messages when the UAS mode is not signaled and the UAS/BOT flash memory device is operating in the BOT mode,
• whereby commands are stored in the command pipe when the UAS mode is signaled, and are stored in the data-out pipe when the UAS mode is not signaled.