Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Anthony Joseph Benson

James J deBlanc

James Lawrence White

Patrick McGoey

Dovard K Howard

Chadi Farid Theodossy

Joanna Baisden

Thin Nguyen

A signal routing circuit board has electronics common to circuit boards coupled to the signal routing circuit board. The signal routing circuit board may be coupled to a storage array circuit board and at least one input/output (I/O) controller circuit board. The storage array circuit board has storage device connectors to couple storage devices to the storage array circuit board.

Signal routing circuit board coupling controller and storage array circuit board for storage system

A connection architecture for a data-storage system may include: a connection-plane structure; a data-storage module attached to, and drawing power from, the connection-plane structure; an input/output (I/O) module attached to, and drawing power from, the connection-plane structure; and wireless means for exchanging data wirelessly between the data-storage module and the I/O module.

Data-storage system having a wireless connection architecture for wireless data exchange between modules

A bus controller is capable of controlling a dual ported bus interface in combination with a peer interface. The bus controller comprises a state machine capable of executing in the dual ported bus interface. The dual ported bus interface has first and second front end ports for connection to hosts, and is capable of insertion into one of first and second slots for connection to one or more buses on a backplane. The state machine determines bus interface state based on information from the peer interface received across the backplane, and status of the first and second front end ports.

High speed multiple ported bus interface control

The output of an open-collector comparator and a programmable logic device are connected to a high voltage differential device. In conjunction with the comparator output, the programmable logic device controls the diffsense prime signal sent to the high voltage differential device in order to switch it on or off.

Circuit for switching one or more HVD transceivers

A backplane having a bus is adapted to receive two bus controller cards of the same model. One of the bus controller cards becomes a master card and the other becomes a servant card. Each of the bus controller cards has a bank of switches that may be set to compatible positions. The positions of the switches on the two bus controller cards are compared, and the servant card is disconnected if its switches are not set to positions compatible with those of the master card. The backplane also may be adapted to receive different models of bus controller cards. Where two different models of bus controller cards are present on the backplane at the same time, one of the cards is not connected to the bus in order to prevent corruption or loss of data traveling over the bus.

Data corruption avoidance on a backplane bus adapted to receive bus controller cards of different types

A connector apparatus is adapted for determining cable connection status and comprises a first connector. The first connector comprises a plurality of contacts capable of coupling to a corresponding plurality of conductors in a cable, a substrate supporting the plurality of contacts, and an insulator layer encasing at least a portion of the individual contacts of the plurality of contacts and mutually isolating the contacts. The first connector further comprises a shroud enclosing the plurality of contacts, the substrate, and the insulator layer. The shroud is electrically conductive and separated into first and second electrically isolated segments. Each of the first and second segments is electrically connected to respective first and second reference contacts.

Interface connector that enables detection of cable connection

An apparatus capable of determining whether connections are properly mated includes a control device that monitors the state of input lines associated with connectors. The input lines are held at a predetermined state until a device is connected to or disconnected from one or more of the connectors. The control device detects the change in state on the input line and determines whether a connection or disconnection is occurring. When a connection is occurring, the state of an output signal is set to provide connection feedback to the device being connected via another signal line coupled to the connector. The capability to monitor connections and disconnection of multiple devices allows a system to determine whether devices are properly connected to provide the required functionality, such as properly terminating a communication port, and enabling communication with other devices.

System and method to monitor connections to a device

A backplane includes two data buses and two slots, each slot having two connectors, where each connector in the slot connects to a different data bus. The slots are adapted to receive two bus controller cards each having two backplane connectors, where the installed orientation of one card is opposite from the other installed card. On a particular bus controller card, each backplane connector is associated with a different data bus, depending on the slot into which the card is inserted. After insertion into a slot in the mass storage unit, a card recognizes the data bus connected to each backplane connector via the slot, and defines the relationship between the setting of each switch and control signals relating to the card and the backplane. The DIP switch settings for a card can then remain the same, independent of the particular slot into which the card is inserted.

DIP switch configuration for increased usability with multiple cards

An enclosure for a storage system includes a housing, redundant power supply slots for receiving one or more power supplies, redundant fan slots for receiving one or more fan cards, and redundant bus controller card slots for receiving one or more bus controller cards. The redundant controller card slots have a first backplane connector for coupling to an odd bus and a second backplane connector for coupling to an even bus. The odd bus and the even bus are accessible independently through the enclosure.

High-availability, highly-redundant storage system enclosure

An interface card includes a plurality of data paths with each data path extending from a first connector to a second connector. The second connector for coupling to a bus backplane. One or more of the data paths include a transceiver that accesses signals in a first bus signaling type, an isolator/converter that mutually isolates the plurality of data paths and that converts signals from the first bus signaling type to a second bus signaling type, and a bridge coupled from a first data path to a second data path of the plurality of data paths. The bridge is capable of controlling communication of signals between the first data path and the second data path.

Multiple-path interface card for interfacing multiple isolated interfaces to a storage system

A communication system has multiple communication buses and multiple bus controller cards each supplying at least two independent channels of communication between one or more hosts and the communication buses. One of the controller cards is designated as a primary controller card for managing the communication buses and resetting the communication buses such that if a controller card is inserted to or removed from the system then the buses are reset.

Bus reset management by a primary controller card of multiple controller cards

A communication system with a plurality of interface slots includes control logic for determining and designating the status of one or more controller cards inserted in one of the slots such that: a controller card is designated as the primary card if it is inserted in an interface slot while the other slots are empty; a controller card in an interface slot with primary status retains its primary status while other controller cards are added or removed from the system; a controller card in an interface slot with a non-primary status assumes primary status if the controller card with non-primary status is plugged in a slot that after a power interruption is designated as the slot to assume primary status, or the controller card with primary status is removed from the system.

Communication bus controller including designation of primary and secondary status according to slot position

A device includes a first SCSI bus, a second SCSI bus, a first bus controller slot, a second bus controller slot and a bus controller in one of the first bus controller slot and the second bus controller slot. The bus controller includes reset circuitry for generating a SCSI bus reset signal. The SCSI bus reset signal being used to reset the first SCSI bus when the bus controller is in the first bus controller slot and the first SCSI bus is isolated from the second SCSI bus. The SCSI bus reset signal being used to reset the second SCSI bus when the bus controller is in the second bus controller slot and the first SCSI bus is isolated from the second SCSI bus. The SCSI bus reset signal is to reset both the first SCSI bus and the second SCSI bus when the first SCSI bus and the second SCSI bus are bridged and one of the following conditions is met: the bus controller is in the first bus controller slot, or the bus controller is in the second bus controller slot and the first bus controller slot is empty.

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Roseville, CA, United States of America

Anthony Joseph Benson