Storage control apparatus having power saving controller which stops particular data transfers based on connection and data transfer rates

Abstract

A storage control apparatus capable of reducing a power consumption in network port units, including a host communication control unitwhich includes a plurality of network portsand which controls communications with a host computerthat is connectable through the network ports, a storage-device communication control unitwhich controls communications with a plurality of storage devices, a plurality of DMA portionsby which data to be transmitted/received between the host computer and the storage devices are transferred between the host communication control unitand the storage-device communication control unit, a plurality of cache memoriesin which the data to be transferred by the DMA portionsare temporarily stored, and a power saving control portionwhich stops the DMA portionand the cache memorythat are previously associated with one network port, on the basis of a connection situation of the pertinent network port with the host computer and a data rate to be inputted/outputted to/from the pertinent port.