Abstract: According to one embodiment of the present invention, a network adapter is provided that may be used to interface to a network environment a first data storage system. The adapter includes a switching system that may be coupled to data exchanging devices in the network environment, and port circuitry that may be used to facilitate establishment of a link between the first data storage system and a second, remote data storage system in the network environment. The link, when established, may facilitate the establishment of a target device in the second data storage device as a mirror device that may comprise a mirror of data residing in a source device in the first network data storage system.

Abstract: A storage cluster includes integrated cached disk arrays (ICDAs) and cluster interconnect such as a set of Fiber Channel links. Selected ICDAs include data storage disks collectively configured as cluster volumes. A switch network in each ICDA provides connections between the cluster interconnect and host interfaces, disk interfaces, and memory modules that may reside in the ICDA. Upon receiving a request, an ICDA determines whether the target disk resides in another ICDA, and if so forwards the request to the other ICDA via the cluster interconnect. The other ICDA services the request and returns a completion indication, which is forwarded to the host. Requests may also flow from the second ICDA to the first ICDA. The ICDAs may also include memory for data caching. The switch network preferably has a common interface to the different functional elements (host interfaces, disk interfaces, memory modules) for greater flexibility in configuring each ICDA.

Abstract: There is disclosed an improved method for manufacturing printed circuit boards which solves the problem of immersion bath contaminants being plated-out onto electrically-conductive, circuit functional pads, (board-features) by introducing into the bath system a mechanism for attracting those contaminants to non-functional “micro-thieves” which are electrically-conductive, non-circuit-functional pads having substantially smaller dimensions than those of the smallest board-feature, thereby taking advantage of previously unknown immersion bath uncontrolled strike phenomena, whereby the contaminants are directed to the micro-thieves and away from the board-features. Application of the micro-thieves in the immersion bath environment also produces plated features, of both finer and larger geometries, having flatter surfaces and a more uniform plated thickness for all features on the printed circuit board, than previously obtained.

Abstract: A distributed computer system includes a plurality of computer nodes, including conventional digital computer systems, mass storage subsystems, servers and the like, and a common event log. The common event log includes a plurality of storage locations for storing common event log entries. Each computer node performs processing operations in connection with a program, and generates, at selected points in its program, an event log entry including status information representing status of the computer node at the point at which the log entry was generated, the computer nodes storing the event log entries which they generate in the common event log contemporaneous with the generation thereof. As a result, the event log entries are stored in the common event log in the order in which the computer nodes reach the points in their respective programs.

Abstract: A method of managing a storage system which includes a local and remote systems is provided. Link services between the two subsystems are provided though the use of a task queue. The task queue resides in a global memory of the local storage system and receives requests from the various host controllers, device, and remote controllers connected to the local storage. The remote controllers of the local storage service the requests placed in the task queue to enable data transfer between the local and remote storage systems. The task queue may be a doubly linked list of records including forward and backward pointers in addition to the request data. A two level locking scheme is employed to prevent the addition of incompatible requests to the queue and to enable maximum parallelism in servicing requests in the queue. The first level of locking applies to the entire queue and is used when records are added to and deleted from the queue. The second level of locking applies to the individual queue records.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing an HTML applications development environment is disclosed. The applications development environment is used to develop large HTML based applications. The invention includes a preprocessor and associated preprocessor commands which are inserted into a source HTML file. The preprocessor reads the source file, evaluates the preprocessor commands, and makes the appropriate substitutions into an output HTML file.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for providing very large logical volumes (Meta Device) in a storage system is provided. The storage system includes host controllers and disk controllers which communicate through a shared memory. I/O requests are received by the host controller and placed into request queues. The request queues are associated with logical devices. A number of request queues in the host controller are concatenated together to produce the larger logical volume. The large logical volume appears to the host as a single addressable logical unit. I/O requests to the large logical volume are analyzed by the host controller to determine which logical devices are actually needed to service the request. The host controller then makes the appropriate queue entries. Processing of the requests then occurs in the same fashion as if the request had been to a non-Meta Device. This allows the disk controllers and memory to operate without modification.

Abstract: A semiconductor interconnect structure which includes a semiconductor substrate having a bottom surface. The printed circuit board also has a plurality of solder wettable pads disposed on the top surface of the printed circuit board. The printed circuit board and the semiconductor substrate are both comprised of material taken from the same group of materials. The interconnect structure also includes a plurality of balls formed of a first solder alloy disposed on the bottom surface of the semiconductor substrate and projecting downwardly therefrom. Each one of the plurality of balls are sized to support the weight of the semiconductor substrate. The interconnect structure also includes a plurality of solder joints formed of a second solder alloy connecting the plurality of balls to the corresponding plurality of wettable pads on the printed circuit board.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing a network attached storage system is presented which includes a web based user interface. The interface allows for the execution of many different commands on several different storage system attributes without loss of context between command execution. The interface is HTML based and provides dynamic construction of Javascript object lists based on a database read by a CGI program executing on an HTTP server. The interface eliminates the hierarchical structure of menu navigation associated with other interfaces.