Patent ID: 7099980

Claim:
A data storage system for transferring data between a host computer/server and a bank of disk drives through a system interface, comprising: (A) a backplane adapted to have plugged therein a plurality of director boards and a plurality of memory boards; wherein: (B) each one of such director boards, comprises: a plurality of director board transmit/receive units, each one of the director board transmit/receive units being associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of memory boards, each one of the director board transmit/receive units being adapted to be disabled in the absence of the one of the memory boards associated with such one of the director board transmit/receive units; (C) each one of the memory boards having: a plurality of memory board transmit/receive units, each one of the memory board transmit/receive units being associated with a corresponding one of the plurality of director boards, each one of the memory board transmit/receive units being adapted to be disabled to prevent transmit/receive data therethrough in the absence of the one of such director boards associated with such one of the memory board transmit/receive units.