The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 08, 2000
Aamer Latif, Milpitas, CA (US);
Rodney N. Mullendore, San Jose, CA (US);
Joseph L. White, San Bruno, CA (US);
Brian Y. Uchino, Foster City, CA (US);
Nishan Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for transferring data between IP devices (including, but not limited to, Gigabit Ethernet devices) and SCSI or Fibre Channel devices. The device interfaces may be either SCSI, Fibre Channel or IP interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet. Data is switched between SCSI and IP, Fibre Channel and IP, or between SCSI and Fibre Channel. Data can also be switched from SCSI to SCSI, IP to IP and FC to FC. The port interfaces provide the conversion from the input frame format to an internal frame format, which can be routed within the apparatus. The amount of processing performed by each port interface is dependent on the interface type. The processing capabilities of the present invention permit rapid transfer of information packets between multiple interfaces at latency levels meeting the stringent requirements for storage protocols. The configuration control can be applied to each port on a switch and, in turn, each switch on the network, via an SNMP or Web-based interface, providing a flexible, programmable control for the apparatus.