Patent ID: 8799523

Claim:
A data storage architecture extension system comprising a pass-thru disk drive controller (PTDDC), said PTDDC further comprising: (a) host bus adapter (HBA) port; (b) disk drive interface (DDI) port; (c) pass-thru input (PTI) port; and (d) pass-thru output (PTO) port; wherein said HBA port, said DDI port, said PTI port, and said PTO port are serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) interfaces; said PTDDC is configured to connect a plurality of PTDDCs to form a serial daisy-chain by only interconnecting the PTO port of one PTDDC to the PTI port of another PTDDC in said daisy-chain; said PTDDC is configured to present a continuous logical block address space via said HBA port comprising disk drives electrically connected to PTDDCs in said daisy-chain; said PTDDC is configured to receive disk drive data access command (DDDAC) input via said HBA port or said PTI port; said PTDDC is configured to translate said DDDAC and electrically transmit said translation via said DDI port in a form suitable for use by any attached and logically addressed disk drive electrically connected to said DDI port; said PTDDC determines if said DDDAC falls within the logical block address (LBA) range of said attached disk drive, and if so, passes said DDDAC to said attached disk drive after modifying said DDDAC to account for said LBA range mapped by said attached disk drive; said PTDDC determines if said DDDAC falls within said LBA range of said attached disk drive, and if not, said DDDAC is passed via said PTO port to the PTI port of any daisy-chained PTDDC attached to said PTDDC PTO port; and said PTDDC logically connects said DDI port from said attached disk drive with said HBA port and said PTI port to pass-thru data transfers requested by said DDDAC to/from said attached disk drive and said HBA port or said PTI port.