Patent ID: 7475328

Claim:
A loop status monitoring apparatus that monitors a status of an arbitration loop that includes a plurality of devices and a switch that has a plurality of ports, each of which is connected to each of the devices, the loop status monitoring apparatus comprising: a data reading unit that reads loop status data which includes the loop status detection data, primitive detection data which indicates the reception status of the primitive at each of the ports, and frame count data which indicates the reception status of the frame at each of the ports from the switch, and attaches identification information to the loop status data read; a failure detecting unit that detects an occurrence of an initialization failure in the arbitration loop, when loop status detection data which identifies a phase of the initialization conflicts with an actual status of the initialization; and a device identifying unit that identifies, when the initialization failure is detected by the failure detecting unit, a device with the initialization failure from a reception status of a primitive or a frame at each of the ports.