System and Method for Enhancing External Storage

• US 20090077284A1
• Filed: 11/24/2008
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Technology Properties Limited LLC
• Original Assignee: MCM Portfolio LLC
• Inventors: JONES, Larry L., VENKIDU, Arockiyaswamy, IYER, Sree M.
• Application Number:
  US12/277,190
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077284A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/74
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0607 by facilitating the process of upgrading existing storage systems, e.g. for improving compatibility between host and storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0632 by initialisation or re-initialisation of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

An external storage controller provides access for a host to a peripheral storage device of a computer system. The controller identifies a presence of multiple disk drives, and provides logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive having a storage capacity greater than a storage capacity of any one of the multiple disk drives.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an external storage controller to provide access for a host to a peripheral storage device of a computer system, the controller configured to;

identify a presence of multiple disk drives; and

provide logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive having a storage capacity greater than a storage capacity of any one of the multiple disk drives.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to provide logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive having a storage capacity equal to a sum of the storage capacity of the multiple disk drives.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller, at startup, is further configured to determine if one of a jumper and an indicator is set to indicate the multiple disk drives are to be accessed as a logical single disk drive.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the controller is further configured to determine a storage capacity of the separate disk drives of the multiple disk drives.

5. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the controller, in response to receiving an access request having a logical address greater than a quantity of addresses for a first disk drive of the multiple disk drives, is further configured to provide access to an address on a second disk drive corresponding to the logical address by offsetting the logical address by the quantity of addresses for the first disk drive.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the presence of multiple disk drives is identified at startup.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to report to the host the availability of a single storage block corresponding to the multiple disk drives.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller is further configured to:

receive read/write requests from the host for the storage block; and

route each read/write request to one of the multiple disk drives based on an address of the request.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

a first drive of the multiple disk drives acts like a master; and

a second drive of the multiple disk drives acts like a slave.

10. An apparatus comprising:

an external storage controller to provide access for a host to a peripheral storage device comprising multiple disk drives, the controller configured to;

scan, at startup, the multiple disk drives to compute a total storage capacity for a single storage block provided by the multiple disk drives;

receive read/write requests from the host for the storage block; and

provide logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive comprising routing each read/write request to one of the multiple disk drives based on a logical address of the request.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a memory, and wherein the controller is further configured to store a size of the storage block in the memory.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising a memory, and wherein the controller is further configured to:

scan, at startup, one of the multiple disk drives for firmware; and

load the firmware in the memory for use by the controller during normal operation.

13. A method for an external storage controller to provide access for a host to a peripheral storage device of a computer system, the method comprising:

identifying a presence of multiple disk drives; and

providing logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive having a storage capacity greater than a storage capacity of any one of the multiple disk drives.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing, in response to receiving an access request having a logical address greater than a quantity of addresses for a first disk drive of the multiple disk drives, access to an address on a second disk drive corresponding to the logical address by offsetting the logical address by the quantity of addresses for the first disk drive.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the presence of multiple disk drives is identified at startup.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising reporting to the host the availability of a single storage block corresponding to the multiple disk drives.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving read/write requests from the host for the storage block; and

routing each read/write request to one of the multiple disk drives based on an address of the request.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

scanning, at startup, one of the multiple disk drives for firmware; and

loading the firmware in the memory for use by the controller during normal operation.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining, at startup, if one of a jumper and an indicator is set to indicate the multiple disk drives are to be accessed as a logical single disk drive.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising providing logical access to the multiple disk drives as a single disk drive having a storage capacity equal to a sum of the storage capacity of the multiple disk drives.