Serial ATA frame structure routing circuitry and protocols

A topology and devices and protocols comprising a switched fabric which allow attaching multiple mass storage devices through said switched fabric over any serial point to point mass storage interface. This switched fabric interface uses one or more point to point serial interfaces, such as Serial A...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Woodral, David, Richmond, Scott, Palumbo, Frank, Deyring, Klaus-Peter, Rubino, James
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 27.05.2004
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Summary:A topology and devices and protocols comprising a switched fabric which allow attaching multiple mass storage devices through said switched fabric over any serial point to point mass storage interface. This switched fabric interface uses one or more point to point serial interfaces, such as Serial ATA to provide the connectivity of multiple drives to one or more ports on a server or PC class computer and includes routers which use router headers in FIS to establish routes and guide data. Disclosed are the switch concept, switch ASIC devices, and switch firmware in a switch supporting any number of host connections and number of drive connections. The protocols disclosed also provide the ability to connect multiple hosts to a bank of switch mass storage devices. The processes disclosed includes protocol conversions from Serial ATA 2.xx to Serial ATA 1.xx devices. A smart FIFO is disclosed which saves memory by the removal of unused primitives from the input stream, and conditionally re-inserting them into the output stream.