Patent ID: 8504755

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a bridge device for connecting a host device to data-storage devices, including: an upstream USB 3 interface in accordance with the USB 3 standard for connecting the bridge device to the host device; a USB core comprising at least two internal USB 3 devices that are configured to present themselves as separate devices for receipt of data packets in accordance with the USB Mass Storage Class Specification, each data packet comprising a USB 3 header and at least one data packet being in accordance with the SCSI standard; an embedded hub configured to route the data packets from the upstream USB 3 interface to respective ones of the internal USB 3 devices; at least two downstream interfaces, each downstream interface being in accordance with a respective data storage standard for a databus having a mass storage device connected thereto; and a protocol converter configured to convert each of the at least one data packet in accordance with the SCSI standard into a data packet in accordance with the respective data storage standard of the downstream interface to which the data packet is destined, each downstream interface being arranged to receive data packets that are in accordance with its respective data storage standard from at least one of the internal USB 3 devices via the protocol converter.