A silent mirroring protocol is provided, which eliminates the
arbitration/selection times associated with all nexuses after the first
nexus. During the initial SCSI bus negotiation, the initiator determines
the transfer mode capability of all targets. The initiator establishes a
group identification. Participants of the group recognize the group and
look for an individual identification within the group. The initiator
performs arbitration/selection with attention to the leader of the group.
The initiator uses a message out phase with a vendor command to select a
participant for a data block transfer. Each participant snoops the bus
and recognizes when it is the target. If the initiator has more data to
mirror, the process is repeated. When the last data block is transferred,
the initiator sends a message out to the last participant, which is
interpreted by the target leader as a command to release the bus. Each
participant reselects the nexus initiator and returns a status.