Lsi Logic Corporation

Lsi Corporation

Hyundai Electronics America, Inc.

Ncr Corporation

At&t Global Information Solutions Company

Avago Technologies General IP (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Symbios Logic Inc.

William K Petty

William W Voorhees

Timothy E Hoglund

Eugene Saghi

Kevin J Bruno

Eugene L Shrock

Steven P Callicott

Mark S Snyder

Billy B Duncan

Todd A Randazzo

Brian A Day

Stephen B Johnson

Brian K Herbert

Edson Wayne Porter

Mark J Jander

Coralyn S Gauvin

Carl M Stanchak

Joshua P Sinykin

Brett Henning

Ramprasad Raghavan

Owen N Parry

Brian E Burdick

Tony S Partow

Brian G Reise

George Oliver Penokie

Kevin Michael Rishavy

Harold L Johnson

John S Keck

Stephen R Burnham

Srikiran Dravida

Eugene E Freeman

Raymond F Emnett

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.

Structure for non-blocking serial attached SCSI infrastructure utilizing virtual pathways

Systems and methods presented herein provide for tunneling PCIe data through a SAS domain. a data system includes a SAS expander, a PCIe target device coupled to the expander, and a SAS controller communicatively coupled to a host system and the expander. The controller is operable to open a connection with the expander via the SAS protocol, and to transport packet data between the target device and the host system through the connection via the PCIe protocol. For example, the controller and the expander may be operable to buffer packets of data in the connection. The controller may issue a number of the data packets to be transferred in the connection. Then, the issued number of data packets are transported between the target device and the host system through the connection via the PCIe protocol.

PCIe tunneling through SAS

Systems and methods presented herein provide for coupling a storage controller to a plurality of different storage device types. One embodiment of the storage controller includes an interface operable to communicatively couple to a storage device. The storage controller also includes a processor operable to select between hardware protocol detection of the storage device and firmware protocol detection of the storage device, and to detect a protocol of the storage device when the storage device communicatively couples to the interface according to the selected protocol detection. The storage controller then selects a protocol to process input/output requests from a host based on the detected protocol of the storage device.

Multi-protocol storage controller

The invention may be embodied in a SAS expander with register bits within Phys associated with I/O devices. Setting and unsetting the register bit in the Phy associated with a particular physical or logical device allows I/O traffic to be blocked and unblocked, as desired, to the selected physical or logical devices. In a particular embodiment, when the register bit is set to a blocking state, an OPEN request that comes in on the SAS link is rejected using OPEN_REJECT (RETRY). Phy register bits may be provided for multiple different SAS protocols that can be controlled individually for each attached SAS device. The Phy register bit may also be used to reject only SAS connection requests that attempt to leave a particular SAS link.

Non-disruptive selective traffic blocking in a SAS domain

An expander device and method for transmitting serial input/output (SIO) data between an initiator device and a plurality of target devices. The expander device includes a processor/controller configured to receive a master data stream from an initiator device and to transmit a returning master data stream to the initiator device. The expander device includes a plurality of target master ports coupled to the processor/controller and configured to transmit split data streams to corresponding target devices coupled thereto and to receive returning split data streams from the target devices. The processor/controller splits the master data stream, based on its data, into a plurality of split data streams, and directs the split data streams to the target master ports based on the data in the split data streams. The processor/controller also assembles a plurality of returning split data streams into the returning master data stream and transmits the returning master data stream to the initiator device.

Serial input output (SIO) port expansion apparatus and method

An input port is assigned to a SAS expander device. An output port is assigned to the SAS expander device. The output port and the input port are defined to be paired with each other as a primary subtractive port. Only a SAS initiator address is programmed in the route table of the SAS expander. An OPEN command is sent out the output port upon receiving the OPEN command into the input port if the DEST of the OPEN command is not a direct attached device of the SAS expander device and the DEST is not in the route table of the SAS expander device. An OPEN command is sent out the input port upon receiving the OPEN command into the output port if the DEST of the OPEN command is not a direct attached device of the SAS expander device and the DEST is not in the route table of the SAS expander device.

SAS paired subtractive routing

Methods and systems for encoding and/or decoding digital signals representing serial attached SCSI (SAS) out of band (OOB) signals exchanged over an optical communication between two SAS devices. A SAS OOB signal to be transmitted from a first SAS device to a second SAS device is first encoded as a digitally encoded signal representing the analog SAS OOB signal and then transmitted over an optical communication medium to another SAS device. A receiving SAS device coupled to an optical communication medium decodes a received digitally encoded signal to detect a received, encoded SAS OOB signal and processes the received SAS OOB signal when receipt is detected. The digitally encoded signal may comprise an idle word portion and a burst word portion to represent various SAS OOB signals. Further, the digitally encoded signal may be precomputed in a variety of disparity forms and stored in a memory for lookup and retrieval.

Methods and apparatus for interconnecting SAS devices using either electrical or optical transceivers

Apparatus and methods for full address resolution in a zoning SAS expander. A single memory circuit is used in a zoning SAS expander to store zone information associated with the SAS address (e.g., WWN) of devices exchanging information through the expander. The source and destination addresses in a received SAS frame are used as inputs to the memory circuit to generate outputs of the memory circuit representing the source and destination zone group identifiers. These outputs are then applied to the zone permission table to determine the zoning permission for forwarding the frame through the expander. Pipelined logic within the expander sequences the operations of the memory circuit and the zone permissions table to account for clock cycle delays in processing of each. In one exemplary embodiment, the memory circuit is a content addressable memory (CAM). In another exemplary embodiment, the CAM also includes port routing information.

Apparatus and methods for improved dual device lookup in a zoning SAS expander

An apparatus comprising a first plurality of parallel switches and a second plurality of parallel switches. The first plurality of parallel switches may be configured to control a voltage on a first output pin. The second plurality of parallel switches may be configured to control a voltage on a second output pin. The first and second pluralities of parallel switches may be configured to provide rise time control of a differential waveform and be driven by a phased data signal.

Programmable transmit SCSI equalization

A method for communicating on a SCSI bus permits out-of-band addressing and communication for normally non-addressable devices such as SCSI expanders and terminators. The method remaps 18 SCSI data lines for out-of-band operation and manipulates no more than those data lines. Some of the data lines are remapped for purposes of out-of-band signaling and data transfers. Advantageously, manipulation of only the SCSI data lines prevents the possible response of a device on the SCSI network that does not support the out-of-band operations. Accordingly, the disclosed method is backward compatible with existing SCSI networks while allowing implementation of devices having the increased functionality of out-of-band communication.

Method of communicating on a network

Method for out-of-band network communication

An apparatus detects the approach and touch-down of an object relative to a sensor panel. The apparatus includes a digital filter for determining a first derivative of a current flow in the sensor panel and a controller determines when the first derivative reaches a maximum. In a preferred embodiment, a magnitude for current flow in a plurality of corners of the sensor panel is determined by the controller. These magnitudes are then summed to determine a current flow from which the first derivative is computed. The current flow is analyzed by the controller to determine when an object is approaching the sensor panel, has contacted the sensor panel, and is withdrawn from the sensor panel. Thresholds are used to avoid false detection of approaching objects.

Method and apparatus for touch detection based on the velocity of an object relative to a sensor panel

A precision delay circuit having two delay chains to provide equal delay periods is described. A rising edge of an input pulse signal is supplied to the first delay chain and the falling edge is supplied to the second delay chain. The resultant output signal maintains the pulse width of the input signal and pulse distortion is minimized. In another aspect, a delay circuit for generating a delayed assertion signal that does not maintain the width of the original input signal pulse and which is substantially immune to noise problems is described. An assertion edge of a resultant pulse is timed by the incoming pulse, but the de-assertion edge is timed by the delayed de-assertion edge of the incoming pulse.

Dual path asynchronous delay circuit

A method and apparatus for determining when an approaching object has contacted a sensor panel. The method includes the steps of (a) using a controller which is connected to the sensor panel, (b) determining a value for the approaching object based on a current flow between the sensor panel and the controller, (c) repeating step (b) until the value has reached a maximum value, and (d) generating a signal when the value has reached the maximum value to indicate that the object is contacting the sensor panel.

Method and apparatus for touch detection based on the current flow

The invention concerns digitizing tablets in portable computers, wherein position of a stylus, located on the tablet, is computed. The invention corrects for various errors which creep into the computation, in order to produce a more accurate stylus position. The digitizing tablet has multiple sensors used to determine the stylus' position with respect to the digitizing tablet. Error signals are generated by measuring the sensors outputs when the stylus is not inducing a signal into the digitizing tablet. In one embodiment, these error signals are used to modify certain parameters used in calculating the stylus position.

Growing community of inventors

Colorado Springs, CO, United States of America

William K Petty