Pre-seeking process for enhancing reading and writing performance in a mass storage system having multiple individual disk drives
US5550998A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 14, 1993 |
| Grant date | Aug 27, 1996 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 14, 2013 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/0673
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A process, preferably executed by software in a RAID mass storage system, involves seeking a transducer of an individual disk drive of the mass storage system to a predetermined write pre-seek location at which the next write operation is expected to be performed, and selecting the transducer of that individual disk drive by which to perform the next write operation. By pre-seeking to the write pre-seeking location and by selecting the transducer in advance of receiving the next write command, the time required for seeking to the write location and selecting the transducer becomes less of a restriction on system I/O throughput. Write pre-seeking is achieved by recognizing the execution of a predetermined write algorithm from at least one write operation. Recognition of the write algorithm allows the location for the next write operation to be predicted. Read pre-seeking is also used. Read pre-seeking involves seeking the transducer to a location within an active area to which a predetermined number of read operations have previously occurred. By establishing the read pre-seek location within the active area which is less than the complete recording area of the disk drive, there is …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.