Patent ID: 7865652

Claim:
A communication system for use with at least two hosts and a storage device and configured to conform to one of SATA and/or SAS standards comprising: a multi-port bridge device having at least two ports, said multi-port bridge device being in communication with at least two hosts through at least two links, one of the at least two hosts being an active link and coupled to one of the at least two ports through one of the at least two links, another one of the at least two hosts being coupled to another one of the at least two ports through another one of the at least two links, the multi-port bridge device including a command status manager (CSM) responsive to commands and status from the at least two hosts, the CSM including, a command issue state machine, a command pending table coupled to the command issue state machine and the command processor state machine and being operative to maintain track of commands received from the at least two hosts under the control of the command issue state machine, a drive queue table coupled to the command issue state machine and being operative to maintain track of the commands that are destined to be transmitted to a SATA device under the control of the command issue state machine, the command pending table and the drive queue table allowing acceptance of more commands from the at least two hosts than the SATA device is able to handle without concern to the at least two hosts; and a data manager (DM) responsive to data from one or more of the at least two hosts for buffering data separately from that of commands and status, the multi-port bridge device further including a power control block operative to control power to a storage device through a power connection, the power control block provide power to the storage device even when the at least one of the at least two links is operational.