Dot Hill Assigned Patent

Dot Hill Systems Corporation, Longmont, CO, has been assigned a patent (9,176,835) developed by Davies, Ian Robert, Longmont, CO, Pecone, Victor Key, Lyons, CO, and Kalwitz, George Alexander, Mead, CO, for a “network storage appliance, and method for externalizing an external I/O link between a server and a storage controller integrated within the storage appliance chassis.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A network storage appliance is disclosed. The storage appliance includes a port combiner that provides data communication between at least first, second, and third I/O ports, a storage controller that controls storage devices and includes the first I/O port, a server having the second I/O port, and an I/O connector for networking the third I/O port to the port combiner. A single chassis encloses the port combiner, storage controller, and server, and the I/O connector is affixed on the storage appliance. The third I/O port is external to the chassis and is not enclosed therein. In various embodiments, the port combiner comprises a FiberChannel hub comprising a series of loop resiliency circuits, or a FiberChannel, Ethernet, or Infiniband switch. In one embodiment, the port combiner, I/O ports, and server are all comprised in a single blade module for plugging into a backplane of the chassis.“

The patent application was filed on November 2, 2009 (12/610,525).