Patent ID: 7167359
Filing Date: 2007-01-23
Classification: G06F,G11B

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: an enclosure; a connector circuit board held in the enclosure and having a plurality of disk-drive connectors in a plurality of adjacent rows, including a first disk-drive connector and a second disk-drive connector adapted to be connected to a respective first and second disk drive; and a circuit having a plurality of expander circuits each connected to a plurality of disk drive connectors, and providing a plurality of host-side serial busses, wherein a plurality of the disk-drive connectors is reserved for spare disk drives, and wherein the number of disk drives in the enclosure is large enough to perform meaningful statistics on the remaining lifetime of the apparatus, wherein the first disk-drive connector and the second disk-drive connector are positioned adjacent to one another and having their longest sides facing one another in a first row of disk-drive connectors, wherein the first row includes a first plurality of disk-drive connectors and extends generally from a front to a back of the enclosure, wherein the apparatus is configured such that when disk drives are plugged into the first plurality of disk-drive connectors in the first row, the enclosure forms a first air inlet manifold that extends generally from the front toward the back of the enclosure along a first side of the first row of disk-drive connectors and a first air outlet manifold that extends generally from near the front to the back of the enclosure along a second side of the first row of disk-drive connectors, and wherein the apparatus is configured such that when disk drives are plugged into the first plurality of disk-drive connectors a major face of each disk drive generally faces a major face of an adjacent disk drive, and when the apparatus is in operation, air flows from outside the enclosure into the first inlet air manifold, then through spaces between the major faces of adjacent disk drives of the first row into the first outlet manifold, and then out of the enclosure.