Patent ID: 7120728

Claim:
A virtualization device for use with at least one host connected to a first fabric and at least one physical storage unit connected to either the first fabric or a second fabric, the device comprising: receive port logic for receiving frames; a lookup table containing physical storage unit addressing information related to virtualized storage units, said physical storage unit addressing information including fabric designation information; frame information extraction logic coupled to said receive port logic to extract frame addressing information; staging memory coupled to said receive port logic for temporarily holding a received frame; lookup logic coupled to said lookup table and said frame information extraction logic and using said extracted frame addressing information to retrieve related physical storage unit addressing information; substitution logic coupled to said lookup logic and said staging memory to retrieve said received frame and substitute said related physical storage unit addressing information into said received frame; first transmit port logic for coupling to the first fabric to transmit said substituted frame into the first fabric; second transmit port logic for coupling to the second fabric to transmit said substituted frame into the second fabric; and routing logic coupled to said substitution logic, said lookup logic and said first and second transmit port logic to route said substituted frame to said first or second transmit port logic based on the fabric designation information in said related physical storage unit addressing information.