Scsi interface employing bus extender and auxiliary bus

Abstract

A bus interface employs a bus extender for connecting an auxiliary bus to a single port on a main bus in such a way as to interconnect one or more host computers on the main bus to one or more peripheral devices on the auxiliary bus. The bus extender employs a transceiver coupled to the main bus, another coupled to the auxiliary bus, and signal transfer and logic circuitry passing signals between and controlling the operation of the transceivers. The circuitry also performs all address translation necessary for inter-bus communication. Once communication links have been established with the designated devices on the other bus, the extender sends message data signals received over the one bus directly onto the other bus without modification. Since the interface can comply with SCSI standards, any of a variety of types of commercially available peripheral devices having controllers complying with those standards can be supported on the auxiliary bus.