Patent ID: 7516272

Claim:
A storage system comprising: a control board having an electrical connector attached thereto; a disk drive module having a disk drive for storing data and an adapter board electrically connected to the disk drive, the adapter board having an electrical connector attached thereto and a controller; a midplane having a first electrical connector physically mated to the electrical connector of the control board and a second electrical connector physically mated to the electrical connector of the adapter board, the first and second connectors of the midplane being attached to opposite sides of the midplane in alignment with and electrically connected to each other through the midplane; and a communication bus shared exclusively by the control board and the adapter board of the disk drive module, the communication bus extending directly from the control board to the disk drive module through the first and second electrical connectors of the midplane without being routed or distributed over electrical traces on the midplane, the control board communicating with the controller of the adapter board over the communication bus in accordance with a communication protocol in order to control operation of the disk drive.