57 results about "Port expander" patented technology

An extended bridge structure that includes a controlling bridge and port extenders is disclosed. A port extender according to some embodiments of the present invention includes a processor that processes receives packets in a way that executes at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge. A controlling bridge according to the present invention provides data to the port extender that enables it to execute the at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge.

A surgical access port expander for expanding an access path between an incision site and a surgical site during a surgical procedure. The access port expander has an actuator with an actuator rod connected to a plurality of blades. The blades are movable in response to motion of the actuator rod moving in a direction substantially parallel to the blade lengths. Further, each blade is moved in a direction substantially perpendicular to its respective length from a contracted position to an expanded position.

An port expander Fibre Channel switch presents F_ports to form a first Fibre Channel fabric and N_ports to a second Fibre Channel fabric to appear as node devices. The port expander may be used to connect a plurality of blade servers to a Fibre Channel fabric. Fabric events engendered by the insertion or removal of hot-pluggable devices are handled by the port expander and “event storms” on the Fibre Channel fabric are avoided. The port expander presents the blade servers to the FC fabric as a virtualized N_port.

Embodiments relate to forwarding of packets in link aggregation environments. A method for forwarding a packet through an extended switch including a first port extender and a second port extender directly or indirectly communicatively coupled to respectively a first interface and a second interface of a controlling bridge includes, associating a first port extender interface of the first port extender with a global namespace or an interface-specific namespace. The method further includes receiving a packet through the first port extender interface, marking the received packet with an indication of the namespace configuration of the first port extender interface, processing the marked packet in the controlling bridge based at least in part upon the indication, and transmitting the processed packet out of the controlling bridge.

A beverage dispenser (10) with a beverage quantity indicating display (30) controlled by a microprocessor (66) in response to variations in capacitance of a plurality of sensing capacitors (72) detected by a capacitive sensing circuit (70) including one of a general purpose input / output integrated capacitive touch-key sensor, and a general purpose, integrated, input / output port expander with an integrated capacitive touch-key for reduced power consumption, sensitivity and reliability. A reference capacitor (C8) is located above the maximum height (52) of the beverage (74) to keep it spaced from the beverage (74) in air is used to compensate for changes in capacitance of the sensing capacitors (72) due to variations in temperature. All the capacitors (72, C8) are formed from pairs of planer conductive plates (54, 56) respectively mounted to opposed parallel interior surfaces (58, 60) of a sensing tube (36) attached to a down tube (34).

An open-systems classroom information technology automation solution that allows a teacher to control features and content on multiple student workstations (an in-desk Tablet PC) through a wireless network and server solution, including hardware, software and network subsystems. The custom product components include a compact self contained in-desk or in-table Tablet PC with input / output port extender. The custom software utilities and applications allow a teacher console to control access to various components and commercially available applications on the student workstations (an in-desk Tablet PC). Other custom software utilities allow the administrator to easily configure student workstations (an in-desk Tablet PC) making add / change / deletes quick and simple.

A computer chassis is provided that may accommodate direct access storage device cages for various form factors. A 3.5-inch direct access storage device (DASD) cage may support 3.5-inch serial attached SCSI (SAS) direct access storage devices. The 3.5-inch SAS DASD cage includes a DASD backplane with a main connector and eight SAS drive connectors. A SFF direct access storage device cage may support SFF SAS direct access storage devices. The SFF SAS DASD cage may include a DASD backplane with a main connector and two port expanders. The port expanders may support up to twelve SAS DASD with redundant SAS channel wiring and one external 4-channel SAS port.

An port expander Fiber Channel switch presents F_ports to form a first Fiber Channel fabric and N_ports to a second Fiber Channel fabric to appear as node devices. The port expander may be used to connect a plurality of blade servers to a Fiber Channel fabric. Fabric events engendered by the insertion or removal of hot-pluggable devices are handled by the port expander and “event storms” on the Fiber Channel fabric are avoided. The port expander presents the blade servers to the FC fabric as a virtualized N_port.

Embodiments of the present invention facilitate access to an information handling system, such as a port extender, from a remote information handling device, such as a controlling bridge. According to embodiments of the invention, a port extender, responsive to receiving a request from a controlling bridge for console access to the port extender, submits one or more instructions to a MUX to switch control of a UART from a host CPU of the port extender to a protocol extension message processor residing on the port extender, and switches control by the MUX of the UART to the processor according to the one or more instructions.

An extended bridge structure that includes a controlling bridge and port extenders is disclosed. A port extender according to some embodiments of the present invention includes a processor that processes receives packets in a way that executes at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge. A controlling bridge according to the present invention provides data to the port extender that enables it to execute the at least one procedure that substitutes for a function of the controlling bridge.

A centralized gateway connects to a broadband digital network for receiving various types of video feeds. The gateway provides output television signals directly to conventional inputs of standard television receivers. Port extenders connected to the gateway via a local-area network allow users to select a video feed sent by the gateway to a television associated with each port extender. The port extenders each provide a convenient and low cost termination point for keyboards, mice, joysticks, digital cameras, and other peripheral devices to interact with computer-based network services via the centralized gateway. The capabilities of the port extenders and the gateway provide a substitute for a personal computer in basic Internet access activities as well as a lower cost system for providing network based video programming to multiple televisions.

Aspects of the present invention include multi-homed node in a port extender environment. In embodiments of the present invention, each port extender can communicate data traffic to the multi-homed node thereby increasing the number of available links to the multi-homed node. The communication with the multi-homed node is based on an identification associated with the data traffic.

A method, system and computer-usable medium are disclosed for providing management of serial attached small computer system interface (SAS) storage devices. A host computer comprises a storage controller connected to a SAS port expander comprising a plurality of ports that are logically assigned to target storage devices. The device ports of all storage devices physically attached to the SAS port expander are bypassed to remove their logical SAS expander port assignments. The storage controller unbypasses the device ports, allowing it to recognize the presence of all physically attached storage devices. The recognized storage devices are inventoried and storage devices that are not logically assigned a SAS expander port are designated as being spare storage devices. SAS expander ports are logically assigned to the non-spare storage devices and SAS storage operations are performed.

Settings are provided by a chassis management controller to an expansion card in a multi-slot server chassis. The chassis management controller in a multi-slot server chassis provides an operating parameter to a server management controller in a server, and the server management controller writes the operating parameter to a port expander of an expansion card installed on the server. The operating parameter is written to the port expander prior to expansion card power up, and the expansion card uses the operating parameter after power up to derive one or more SERDES value. The SERDES value is used to program an ASIC chip comprising a SERDES converter on the expansion card. In one example, the operating parameter is determined by the capabilities of a chassis midplane at the slot where the compute node is installed.

The invention provides a bridge port expansion network and a congestion control method thereof, a port expander (PE) and a control bridge; the method comprises the following steps that: the PE detects the congestion of a first data message which is received and generates a detection result; when identifying the congestion according to the detection result, the PE constructs a congestion announcement message according to a first expansion tag in the head of the first data message, wherein the first expansion tag comprises the information of a first expansion channel, and the information of the first expansion channel is used for indicating the expansion channel for transmitting the first data message; and the PE sends the congestion announcement message to the control bridge, so that the control bridge adjusts the flow according to the first expansion tag in the congestion announcement message. According to the bridge port expansion network and the congestion control method thereof, the PE and the control bridge, the congestion prevention function of a business process engineering (BPE) network is realized, the congestion problem which is caused by the inconsistent input and output rate of the PE is prevented, and the network utilization rate is improved.

The invention provides a stacking system split detection method and device. The method comprises the following steps: when a target parent device is a master device of a stacking system, sending an MAD detection message through a PEX port of a preset port expander, so that a PEX device receiving the MAD detection message forwards the MAD detection message to other PEX ports excluding an inlet port until the MAD detection message arrives at other parent devices in the stacking system, wherein the MAD detection message carries a domain identifier Domain ID and an activation identifier Active ID of the stacking system to which the target parent device belongs; and when the target parent device receives the MAD detection message, determining whether stacking system split happens according to the Domain ID and the Active ID carried in the MAD detection message. By adoption of the stacking system split detection method and device provided by the embodiment of the invention, the networking reliability can be improved.

An information handling system is provided herein. The information handling system includes a controlling bridge having a plurality of bridge ports and at least one port extender coupled to one of the bridge ports of the controlling bridge to form an extended bridge. The port extender has a plurality of extension ports. The information handling system further includes an access point coupled to the port extender such that a wireless association between the access point and one or more stations appears as a logical bridge port to the controlling bridge and to an access controller system. The access point has a wireless transceiver to communication with the one or more stations. Associated methods are provided herein for providing wireless network access to a local area network.

The invention discloses a message processing method and message processing equipment. The message processing method is applied on a system which comprises control bridges (CB) and port expanders (PE). The message processing comprises the steps of querying a locally stored media access control (MAD) address table item through a destination MAC address that is carried in an uplink message when the PE receives an uplink message which carries a destination MAC address, determining destination port information of the uplink message, querying a locally stored outlet port item according to the determined destination port information, and defining an uplink outlet port of the uplink message; carrying the determined destination port information in the uplink message, and transmitting the uplink message from the determined uplink outlet port to the CB which is directly connected with the determined uplink outlet port for forwarding. The message processing method and the message processing equipment can ensure shortest forwarding path so that a small number of CBs participate message forwarding. Not only is bandwidth resource among the CBs reduced, but also package loss rate caused by CB fault is reduced.

Described herein are techniques for arranging a plurality of M.2 solid state drive (SSD) modules and flash storage elements into a compact form factor. On a first side of an SSD sled, a plurality of M.2 SSD modules may be communicatively coupled to a port expander. On a second side of the SSD sled, a plurality of flash storage elements (not packaged into M.2 SSD modules) may be present. A plurality of SSD sleds (with the above-described characteristics) may be sized so as to collectively fit into a single hard disk drive (HDD) compatible compartment of a chassis.

The invention relates to non-contraction tube expanding equipment, comprising a tube expander for expanding a copper tube and a port expender for expending the port of the expanded copper tube. The non-contraction tube expanding equipment is characterized in that the tube expander comprises a lower rack for clamping a workpiece and an upper rack for expanding the workpiece, wherein an expansion rod for expanding the tube is arranged in the upper rack; the port expander comprises a lower rack for fixing the workpiece and an upper rack for expanding the port of the workpiece, a movable beam and a port expanding device are arranged in the upper rack, wherein the port expanding device is fixed below the movable beam which is connected with a pressing device. The non-contraction tube expanding equipment of the invention can avoid the quality problems that the traditional tube expander generates a breach on the copper tube or does not expand the port during expanding the tube, the qualification rate of expansion on the tube with small tube diameter of phi 5mm reaches over 99%, and the invention is suitable for expanding the copper tube with the tube diameter of phi 4 to 9.52 mm.

Techniques implementing redundancy in an extended bridge comprising a controller bridge (CB) unit and a plurality of port extender (PE) units are provided. In one embodiment, the CB unit can receive join requests from the plurality of PE units and can determine, based on the join requests, whether the plurality of PE units are physically connected to the CB unit and / or other CB units in the extended bridge according to a ring topology. If the plurality of PE units are physically connected to the CB unit or the other CB units according to a ring topology, the CB unit can select a link in the ring topology as being a standby link.

Aspects of the present invention include a port extender environment using the port extenders to dynamically select a data path. In embodiments of the present invention, each port extender can communicate data traffic to another port extender or to a host receiver. The communication path is selected in the port extender using a hashing system.

The invention discloses a method and a system for realizing S-channel building. In the method of the invention, a directly-connected port expander (PE) which is directly connected with a C-component / S-component announces own port information to the C-component / S-component; the C-component / S-component announces expanded virtual local area network identification E-VID corresponding to each port to the directly-connected PE; and the PE configures a member group of the E-VID according to distributed E-VID. The technology for realizing S-channel building provided by the invention can support S-channel by either the method or the system.

The invention provides a protocol message forwarding method and device. The method and the device are applied to a port extender of an extended bridge. The method comprises the steps of receiving a first protocol message with a first E-tag through an upstream port; receiving a second protocol message with a second E-tag through the upstream port; searching a first extended port and an extended port class identity according to a first extended port identity carried in the first E-tag; searching a second extended port and the extended port class identity according to a second extended port identity carried in the second E-tag; searching matched first table entry in an access control list according to the extended port class identities, wherein an action of the first table entry is forwarding allowance; sending the first protocol message without the first E-tag through the first extended port; and sending the second protocol message without the second E-tag through the second extended port.

The invention provides a method, a system and a device for achieving three-layer communication of a management message. The method comprises the following steps that a controlling bridge creates a first VME port with a first MAC address, and allocates a first IP address to the first VME port; a port extender creates a second VME port with a second MAC address; the port extender requests the IP address of the second VME port to the controlling bridge; the controlling bridge allocates a second IP address to the second VME port, and informs the second IP address and the first IP address to the port extender; the controlling bridge acquires the second MAC address of the second VME port in order to send the management message to the second VME port through three-layer communication and receivethe management message from the second VME port; and the port extender acquires the first MAC address of the first VME port in order to send the management message to the first VME port through three-layer communication and receive the management message from the first VME port.

A simplified host accesses SATA and SAS storage media devices by abstracting the SATA and SAS protocols with one full duplex protocol that supports full command queuing to each storage media device, whether SATA or SAS, where the abstraction protocol is performance-centric and supports common high-level read and write access to a pool of storage media devices, each of which may have a SATA or SAS interface. The abstraction protocol is link-agnostic and may be carried via a multiplicity of direct attach or networked interfaces, including but not limited to PCIe, Ethernet (e.g., 1 GbE, 10 GbE, 40 GbE, or 100 GbE), Infiniband, ThunderBolt, Firewire, USB, and / or custom interfaces. The abstraction protocol also supports communicating with port expanders and port multipliers.

A device including a first circuit operable to perform a first function, and a second circuit operable to perform a second function. The second circuit includes a male port connector, a port replicator chip, and a female port connector. In one embodiment, the first circuit includes one or more semiconductor devices adapted to store information. In another embodiment, the first circuit includes one or more semiconductor devices adapted to print information. In still another embodiment, the first circuit includes one or more semiconductor devices adapted to input information, such as a keyboard, a game pad, or a joy stick. The male port connector is adapted to connect to a port on a host computer. The female port connector is adapted to receive another male port connector.

The port expander such as a USB hub or dock has a control unit and a plurality of input / output (I / O) ports and is used to connect a computer. An application program corresponding to the hub is installed to the computer. The control unit detects whether one of the ports is connected to an external device. The control unit identifies the external device if it has connected to the I / O port and reports a connection status of the I / O port to the program in the computer. Finally, the program shows the connection status of the I / O port and the external device.

An information handling system is provided herein. The information handling system includes a controlling bridge having a plurality of bridge ports and at least one port extender coupled to one of the bridge ports of the controlling bridge to form an extended bridge. The port extender has a plurality of extension ports. The information handling system further includes an access point coupled to the port extender such that a wireless association between the access point and one or more stations appears as a logical bridge port to the controlling bridge and to an access controller system. The access point has a wireless transceiver to communication with the one or more stations. Associated methods are provided herein for providing wireless network access to a local area network.