Patent ID: 7849248

Claim:
A method for combining multiple Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS) expanders, comprising: grouping at least one first numbered phy of a first SAS expander with at least one second numbered phy of a second SAS expander physically separate from the first SAS expander into at least one common SAS wide port; assigning an identical SAS address to the first SAS expander and the second SAS expander, the assigning an identical SAS address to the first SAS expander and the second SAS expander includes: remapping a phy numbering of the first SAS expander and the second SAS expander to appear as a single, logically ordered phy numbering of the single, cohesive SAS expander, wherein the first numbered phy of the first SAS expander is remapped to be in a first range of the single, logically ordered numbering and the second numbered phy of the second SAS expander is remapped to be in a second range of the single, logically ordered numbering; and connecting the first SAS expander directly to the second SAS expander for inter-expander communications.