Patent ID: 7032062

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a plurality of disk drives for corresponding to a plurality of first paths; a controller to be coupled to a network for receiving data from an information unit coupled to said network and transferring data to said disk drives; an information unit interface, included in said controller, for receiving data from said information unit via said network; a disk drive interface, included in said controller, for transferring data sent from said information unit to said disk drives; and a switch coupled to said controller by at least one of second paths; wherein said switch is further coupled to each disk drive by one of said first paths, thereby forming a point-to-point connection between said switch and said each disk drive; wherein the number of said second paths is less than the number of said first paths; wherein said disk drives store data sent from said information unit through said switch and each of said disk drives has an identification (ID) number; and wherein said switch conducts switching between said first and said second paths by transferring data to a selected disk drive among said disk drives by one of said first paths based on receiving data from said disk drive interface.