Disk drive array with request fragmentation
US5313585A · kind A · utility
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 17, 1991 |
| Grant date | May 17, 1994 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 17, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG11C29/76
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A disk controller which fragments host requests into atomic requests or one cycle operations prior to execution. The disk controller is coupled to a disk array and receives requests from a host CPU. Host requests are fragmented down to atomic operations. This is highly advantageous for error handling because the controller is not required to determine which phase of an operation is being requested, since every operation is single phase. The present invention includes use of fence markers or execution-control markers to "fence" of mark a block of tasks and ensure that the atomic operations are executed in sequence, if necessary. These markers ensure that related sequences of atomic operations are kept together without, for example, possibly disruptive intervening writes.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.