Abstract: A conventional storage system immediately executes a received I/O command because of importance of response time. Provided is a storage system which is coupled to a network and executes an I/O command received from at least one host computer through the network, in which: the storage system holds judgment information including predetermined conditions set therein, and upon reception of the I/O command, the processor judges whether the received I/O command satisfies the predetermined conditions or not based on the judgment information, queues a plurality of I/O commands that satisfy the predetermined conditions, rearranges the plurality of queued I/O commands, executes the plurality of queued I/O commands in a rearranged order, and executes I/O commands that do not satisfy the predetermined conditions in a received order.

Abstract: In one embodiment, an apparatus may include a plurality of ports capable of being coupled to a plurality of devices via an associated plurality of communication links, the links being compliant with Serial Attached Small Computer Systems Interface (SAS) protocol. The apparatus may further include circuitry to provide selectable communication control between at least a first device and at least a second device of the plurality of devices. Of course, many alternatives, variations, and modifications are possible without departing from this embodiment.

Abstract: An information terminal disclosed herein includes a data storage in which data is stored; an internal controller which accesses the data storage by a request from inside the information terminal; and an external controller which accesses the data storage by a request from outside the information terminal. If a request that the internal controller access the data storage is generated while the external controller is accessing the data storage, then the external controller repeatedly transmits a negative reply that data has not been properly received in response to access from the outside and the internal controller accesses the data storage while the external controller repeatedly transmits the negative reply.