Structure for non-blocking serial attached SCSI infrastructure utilizing virtual pathways
AssigneeAvago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
InventorsWilliam W. Voorhees, Srikiran Dravida, Timothy E. Hoglund, William K. Petty
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Abstract
Structure is disclosed for a non-blocking SAS architecture utilizing virtual connections between SAS devices. One embodiment comprises a SAS expander. The SAS expander comprises a plurality of physical links (PHYs) and a Virtual Connection Manager (VCM) coupled with the plurality of PHYs. The VCM exchanges information over a plurality of concurrently established virtual pathways between a first PHY of the plurality of PHYs and a second PHY of the plurality of PHYs.
Claims19
A Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander comprising:
- a first physical Link (PHY);
- a second PHY;
- and
- a Virtual Connection Manager (VCM) adapted to exchange information over a plurality of concurrently established full-duplex virtual pathways directly between the first PHY and the second PHY.
A Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander comprising:
- a first physical link (PHY);
- a second PHY;
- a third PHY;
- and
- a Virtual Connection Manager (VCM) adapted to receive SAS frames, to segment the SAS frames into a plurality of virtual SAS cells, and to transmit the plurality of virtual SAS cells utilizing a plurality of concurrently established full-duplex virtual pathways directly between the first PHY and the second and third PHY.
A Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) expander comprising:
- a first physical link (PHY);
- a second PHY;
- and
- a Virtual Connection Manager (VCM) adapted to receive a plurality of virtual SAS cells comprising segmented SAS frames at the first PHY, and to forward the plurality of virtual SAS cells utilizing a plurality of concurrently established full-duplex virtual pathways directly from the first PHY to the second PHY.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.