Hitachi, Ltd.

Victor Company of Japan, Limited

Sony Corporation

Tokyo Electric Co.

Yasuo Inoue

Hidefumi Masuzaki

Hidehiko Iwasaki

Naoya Takahashi

Soichi Isono

Hiroyuki Kurosawa

Masayuki Hoshino

Tatuya Ninomiya

Shuji Nakamura

Mutsumi Hosoya

Naoki Watanabe

Kazuhisa Fujimoto

Yasuhiro Yamada

Masaharu Tadauchi

Kentaro Shimada

Nobuyuki Minowa

Kazuo Hikawa

Kunio Sato

Seiji Koike

Hideki Hama

Masanori Fujii

Hiroshi Suehiro

Akira Yamamoto

Akira Fujibayashi

Yoshifumi Takamoto

Shoji Ueno

Takao Satoh

Hisaharu Takeuchi

Hiroki Kanai

Atsushi Hayami

Kiyohiko Tanno

Yasuyuki Kozima

Tsuyoshi Ono

Takatoshi Ikeda

Izumi Matsushita

Yukihiro Hirosaki

Haruyuki Karibe

Motonobu Hamada

Kazuhiko Morisaki

Hiromitsu Momoki

Takahiko Ohhata

Fumiaki Ono

A disk controller has a channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive; a memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between the host computer and disk drive; a processor adapter for controlling operations of the channel adapter and memory adapter; and a switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting the channel adapter, memory adapter and processor adapter, wherein the channel adapter, memory adapter, processor adapter and switch adapter each include a DMA controller for performing a communication protocol control of the inner network; and packet multiplex communication is performed among the DMA controllers provided in the adapters. The disk controller can realize a high transfer efficiency and a low cost while retaining a high reliability. A storage system includes an interface unit having an interface with a server or hard drives, a memory unit, a processor unit, and an interconnection.

Disk controller

This invention enables a disk subsystem that employs the FC-AL connection to grasp the operation status of each disk drive, quickly locate a disk drive that has failed, and promptly carry out blocking processing. In a disk subsystem including plural drive enclosures which store disk drives, and a disk controller which controls transfer of data stored in the disk drives between the drive enclosures and a host computer. The drive enclosures each comprise a backend switch which is connected to the disk drives and to the disk controller, the backend switch comprises a status monitoring port through which operation status of switch ports of the backend switch is outputted, and the disk controller monitors a fault of the switch ports through the status monitoring port.

Disk subsystem monitoring fault

A plurality of independent cache units and nonvolatile memory units are provided in a disk controller located between a host (central processing unit) and a magnetic disk drive. A plurality of channel units for controlling the data transfer to and from the central processing unit and a plurality of control units for controlling the data transfer to and from the magnetic disk drive are independently connected to the cache units and the nonvolatile memory units through data buses and access lines.

External storage subsystem

A PLD is interposed on the communication route between a microprocessor (hereinbelow called MP) and boot memories. The boot memories store MP start-up data needed to start up the MP and start-up protection code constituting protection code for the MP start-up data. The PLD reads the MP start-up data and the start-up protection code thereof from the boot memories, performs, in hardware fashion, a check of the validity of the MP start-up data using this start-up protection code and, if a negative check result is obtained, resets the MP and if a positive check result is obtained, inputs the start-up data that is thus read to the MP.

Storage control system and boot control system

A disk controller has a channel adapter having a connection interface to a host computer or a disk drive; a memory adapter for temporarily storing data to be transferred between the host computer and disk drive; a processor adapter for controlling operations of the channel adapter and memory adapter; and a switch adapter for configuring an inner network by interconnecting the channel adapter, memory adapter and processor adapter, wherein the channel adapter, memory adapter, processor adapter and switch adapter each include a DMA controller for performing a communication protocol control of the inner network; and packet multiplex communication is performed among the DMA controllers provided in the adapters. The disk controller can realize a high transfer efficiency and a low cost while retaining a high reliability.

Storage system with DMA controller which controls multiplex communication protocol

Disk controller and storage system

A storage system, coupled to a host computer, including at least one controller receiving data from the host computer, and a plurality of memory units connected to the controller. The controller generates parity data and sends the data and the parity data to the memory units. The memory units include a semiconductor memory device which stores the data and the parity data permanently.

Storage system having a semiconductor memory device which stores data and parity data permanently

A storage system to be connected to a large-scale computer includes a plurality of host adaptors connected to a host device, a plurality of storage device for storing data from the host device, a plurality of disk adaptors connected to the storage devices, a plurality of caches for temporarily storing data transferred between the host adaptors and the disk adaptors, and two buses connected to the host disk adaptors, and the caches. The buses transfer data among the host and disk adaptors and the caches.

Storage system having data format conversion function

Growing community of inventors

Odawara, Japan

Yasuo Inoue