Patent ID: 7970953

Claim:
A host bus adapter (HBA) comprising: a plurality of serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) ports of the HBA; and a shared SATA transport layer protocol engine including (a) a single shared transport layer frame information structure (FIS) generation logic of the HBA that is shared and used by each of the plurality of SATA ports, the single shared transport layer FIS generation logic to generate FISes for each of the plurality of SATA ports, the single shared transport layer FIS generation logic including logic that is coupled with each of the plurality of SATA ports, and (b) a shared transmit buffer that is shared by the plurality of SATA ports and to store one or more of data, headers, and control parameters for the plurality of SATA ports; and a single shared port addressing logic, coupled to the single shared transport layer FIS generation logic, to receive the FISes, and to address each of the FISes to a respective one of the plurality of SATA ports.