Patent ID: 6925511

Claim:
A disk array control apparatus comprising a plurality of disk array control units, each having: a channel interface interfacing with a host computer; a disk interface interfacing with a magnetic disk device; a cache memory for temporarily storing data to be read/written from/to the magnetic disk device; a shared memory portion for storing control information concerning data transfer between the channel interface and the cache memory and between the disk interface and the cache memory and management information of the magnetic disk device; connection means for connecting the channel interface and the disk interface to the cache memory; and connection means for connecting the channel interface and the disk interface to the shared memory portion; wherein for data read/write request from the host computer, the channel interface performs data transfer between the interface with the host computer and the cache memory while the disk interface performs data transfer between the magnetic disk device and the cache memory, thereby performing data read/write, and wherein connection network means is provided for connection between the shared memory portions in the plurality of disk array control units and connection network means is provided for connection between the cache memories in the plurality of disk array control units, thereby enabling transfer processing requiring data transfer between the shared memory portion in one of the disk array control units and the shared memory portion in another disk array control unit.