Patent attributes
A system for management of storage devices includes compatibility with either or both of COM/RS232 port and USB port connectivity using, for example, Fibre Channel (FC) signal transmission. A USB to serial RS232 bridge device allows a storage processor (SP) to communicate with an COM/RS232 port of a universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) coupled to downstream disk array enclosures (DAEs) to provide DAE management information without the need to modify the connection of the switch to the DAEs, which may include FC interconnects. The output from an COM/RS232 port on an SP interface and the RS232 output on the USB to Serial bridge device may be muxed at the UART, and the output signal therefrom diplexed with a high frequency differential signal and transmitted to one or more of the downstream DAEs as an FC diplexed signal.