Patent ID: 8261003

Claim:
Apparatus within a storage controller of a virtualized storage system for logical to physical mapping of virtual volumes, the apparatus comprising: a memory adapted to store one or more mapping segment objects each mapping segment object adapted to map logical block addresses of a corresponding virtual volume to corresponding physical storage locations; a content parsing circuit having an input signal path coupled with an attached initiator and having an output signal path, the content parsing circuit adapted to parse a SCSI command block as the SCSI command block is received from the initiator, wherein the content parsing circuit generates a tag value applied to its output signal path, the tag value generated based on information in the received SCSI command block; a mapping segment selection circuit having an input signal path coupled with the output signal path of the content parsing circuit to receive a tag value and having an output signal path, the mapping segment selection circuit adapted to select a mapping segment object in the memory based on a received tag value, the mapping segment selection circuit further adapted to apply a signal to its output signal path indicating the selected mapping segment object; and an I/O processing circuit coupled with the memory and having an input signal path coupled with the mapping segment selection circuit, the I/O processing circuit adapted to access the selected mapping segment object in the memory and adapted to process a received SCSI command block by accessing physical storage locations determined in accordance the selected mapping segment object.