Patent ID: 7340549

Claim:
A storage router for providing virtual local storage on storage devices to a host device, comprising: a buffer providing memory work space for the storage router; a first controller operable to connect to and interface with a first transport medium; a second controller operable to connect to and interface with a second transport medium, wherein the first transport medium is connected to a host device and the second transport medium is connected to the storage devices, and wherein at least one of the first transport medium and the second transport medium is a serial transport medium; and a supervisor unit coupled to the first and second controllers and the buffer, the supervisor unit operable to: maintain a map that maps between the host device and at least a portion of the storage devices, the map comprising a representation of the host device and a representation of at least a portion of a first storage device; and access the map to control access from the host devices connected to the first transport medium to the storage devices to allow the host device to access the at least a portion of the first storage device through native low level block protocol.