Patent ID: 7676613

Claim:
A Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface/Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SAS/SATA) controller for coupling a host system to a plurality of Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices via a Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS) wide port of the SAS/SATA controller and a SAS expander coupled between the SAS/SATA controller's wide port and the plurality of SATA devices, the SAS/SATA controller comprising: a plurality of link controllers that comprise the SAS wide port of the SAS/SATA controller wherein each link controller is associated with connection status information regarding any SATA device communicatively coupled thereto through an intervening SAS expander; a plurality of receive buffers each associated with a corresponding link controller of the plurality of link controllers wherein each receive buffer is associated with receive status information regarding one or more received frames stored therein; and a transmission control logic, coupled to the plurality of link controllers and coupled to the plurality of receive buffers, to controllably prevent transmissions of frames from an identified SATA device wherein the transmission control logic is adapted to use the receive status information of each receive buffer such that at any particular point in time only one receive buffer of the plurality of receive buffers stores any frames received from the identified SATA device.