Abstract: Compositions and methods for producing smoke suppressants are disclosed. The smoke suppressant molecularly encapsulates a naturally-occurring inorganic substrate, such as expanded volcanic ash. These intercalated smoke suppressant compositions have particular utility for smoke suppression in polyvinyl chloride (PVC), both flexible and rigid compounds as well as other polymeric resins and materials.

Abstract: A digital data processing system comprises at least one subsystem comprising a plurality of resources, such as a storage subsystem comprising a plurality of drive modules, and a host processor. The host processor is connected to the drive modules through an interconnection which has a topology in the form of a loop. The interconnection has at least one configuration switch that is selectively configurable to a pass-through mode, in which the topology comprises the entire loop, or a bypass mode, in which the topology comprises a portion of the loop including the host processor and, possibly, at least one of the drive modules in the storage subsystem. The host processor can selectively condition the configuration switch into the pass-through mode or said bypass mode to connect more or fewer drive modules into the loop.