Patent ID: 8924610

Claim:
A device for improving data transfer performance within a serial attached SCSI (SAS) domain comprising a host and a target, the host comprising a SAS initiator, the target comprising a SAS drive or a serial ATA (SATA) drive, the device comprising: a host-side interface configured to communicate with the host at a host-side rate; a drive-side interface configured to communicate with the target at a drive-side rate, the drive-side rate being equal to or slower than the host-side rate; a buffer configured to receive and store data frames from the host-side interface or the drive-side interface, wherein the data frames are SAS frames when the target comprises the SAS drive, and wherein the data frames are SATA frame information structures (FIS's) when the target comprises the SATA drive; and control logic coupled to the buffer to control communication of the data frames between the buffer and the host at the host-side rate, and to control communication of the data frames between the buffer and the target at the drive-side rate.