Storage Technology Corporation

Atiq Ahamad

Christopher John Van Krevelen

Timothy John Mueggenberg

James Prescott Hughes

Ravi Kumar Kavuri

Reed Stillman Nelson

A hardware frame modifier apparatus where the functions of the virtual device and virtual host are combined so that a single processor may perform them is provided. The hardware frame modifier apparatus may virtualize command and status frames without a store and forward operation. The modified command and status frames are sent to the physical host and physical device. The hardware frame modifier apparatus used a virtual table, updated by the virtual device/virtual host, to determine the appropriate mapping of the logical storage device of the frames to a physical storage device. Based on this mapping, the hardware frame modifier changes the frame header to direct the frame directly to the physical storage device and to determine the appropriate conversion of command and status type. In this way, the number of store and forward operations required to send data frames to, or read from, the physical storage devices is reduced or eliminated, thus reducing the delay or latency.

Hardware frame modifier apparatus and method for storage virtualization

A data processing system, method, and product are disclosed for managing a virtual storage system. A first command is received from a host to store data utilizing a storage scheme. At least one second command is generated to write data according to the storage scheme to ones of the storage devices in response to the receipt of the first command. The at least one second command is then transmitted to the ones of the plurality of storage devices. Data is stored in the ones of the storage devices according to the storage scheme in response to a receipt of the second command by a storage device.

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Maple Grove, MN, United States of America

Atiq Ahamad