International Business Machines Corporation

Lsi Corporation

Thomas E Richardson

Mohamad H El-Batal

William A Brant

Michael Edward Nielson

Zahirudeen Premji

Noel Simen Otterness

Henry Yu

Xuliang Jiang

An apparatus and method for enabling a circuit board or data storage module located within a slot in an enclosure to determine the identification of the slot by detecting a characteristic feature of the slot. In this manner the circuit board or data storage module can be instructed to operate in accordance with the function of that slot. This is important when a plurality of slots having different functions contains identical circuit boards or modules.

Enclosure slot identification by modules

A circuit providing a wireless connection for receipt and/or transmission of electronic signals between a storage device and an external device such as a host system, a storage subsystem controller, or a storage subsystem. The wireless connection circuit may include a wireless data connection to provide wireless exchange of data signals between the storage device and the external device. The wireless connection circuit may also provide an inductive coupling for power supplied to the storage device. In one aspect hereof the wireless connectivity (data, power or both) may be provided as enhanced circuits on a controller circuit integrated with the storage device. In another aspect hereof, the wireless connectivity may be provided as an adapter or interface circuit coupled to an existing storage device interface to adapt wired connections of the storage device to an external device through a wireless signal exchange protocol.

Wireless storage device connectivity

A storage enterprise comprising multiple storage enterprise components coupled to exchange signals via respective wireless interfaces. The signals exchanged may include power signals and/or information signals. Power signals may be exchanged by an inductive coupling (wireless) between a first component and a second component. Information signals may include command/status and data signals exchanged between a first component and a second component. Any of several hierarchies of the connections in a storage enterprise may utilize such wireless connections. Exemplary wireless connection may include: storage controller to storage device or storage enclosure, storage enclosure to storage device, SAN appliance to storage device or storage enclosure or storage controller, computing node to storage device or storage enclosure or storage controller or SAN appliance.

Wireless storage enterprise connectivity

A process, apparatus, and system stores data check information on an electronic storage medium that uses standard sector data field sizes. The check information may include a cyclic redundancy check (CRC), a logical block address (LBA), a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC), state information, a sequence number, or other information to identify data state, misplacement, or corruption. The check information, instead of being appended to the data within the data sector, may be stored in an independent check sector. The check information corresponding to multiple data sectors may also be aggregated and stored in a single check sector. The process or apparatus may be incorporated in a storage system controller, a RAID controller, a software SCSI stack in a computer, an operating system, a storage device driver, or another appropriate application that interfaces with standard and commodity storage system components.

Process, apparatus, and system for storing data check information using standard sector data field sizes

A bridged controller for reducing the overhead of cache coherency processing on each of a plurality of primary controllers and increasing the overall throughput of the system. The bridged controller interfaces with dual-active pair of host-side controllers and the backend disk drive buses. The third controller allows a doubling of the number of backend busses, reduces the overhead of cache coherency processing on each primary host-side controller and doubles the overall throughput.

Apparatus for reducing the overhead of cache coherency processing on each primary controller and increasing the overall throughput of the system

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for providing battery-backed immediate write back cache for an array of disk drives in a computer system. Cooperation between a new replacement controller and a survivor controller is enabled so that write back cache operation can start immediately, and not be dependant on the battery condition in the replacement controller. Protection of the data through a single point of failure is maintained. When a controller fails, a replacement controller is installed and battery state information is exchanged. If any battery backup meets a predetermined threshold, all of the controllers run in the write back cache mode. However, if not one of the battery backups meets a predetermined threshold, all of the controllers run in the write through cache mode. Thus, the system does not need to wait for a replacement controller's battery backup to be reconditioned before the higher speed write back cache is used.

Method and apparatus for providing battery-backed immediate write back cache for an array of disk drives in a computer system

System, apparatus and method for interconnecting computer devices define an interconnect topology maximizing performance and device availability in the event of a communication channel failure. Structure and method are particularly relevant and beneficial to a computer RAID disk interconnection topology for Fibre Channel connections to improve RAID array performance and data availability, but is not limited to such RAID systems, and other devices may be interconnected according to the structure and method of the invention. A topology having multiple dual-ported controllers configured in a tube topology is provided for a switchable configuration having a plurality of channels and an plurality of controllers arranged in a tube topology or structure. In the event of a channel failure for this structure, the load will be evenly distributed to the remaining controllers. One embodiment provides a data storage system having a plurality of storage devices each having first and second access ports, a plurality of communication channels, a controller controlling access by the plurality storage devices to the plurality of channels, where at least one of the devices is connected via the first access port to a first one of the channels and via the second access port to a second one of the channels, so that the one device may be accessed by the controller via either the first or second channels channel. Mathematical relationships between the and minimum number of devices for an automatically balanced system and the number of channels are described.

Growing community of inventors

Golden, CO, United States of America

Thomas E Richardson