Patent · US Expired

Non-volatile cache for providing data integrity in operation with a volatile demand paging cache in a data storage system

US5732238A · kind A · utility

121Cited by
9References
5Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateJun 12, 1996
Grant dateMar 24, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 12, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/0804
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A non-volatile cache mechanism connected to a bus connected for conducting write addresses and data from a host computer to mass storage devices and to a volatile cache wherein each write operation includes a write address and at least one data word. The non-volatile cache mechanism includes a non-volatile memory constructed of a plurality of sub-memories having overlapping read/write cycles for storing the data words, a cache control responsive to the write operations for writing the data words into the nonvolatile memory in parallel with receipt of the data words into the volatile cache, and a cache index for storing index entries relating write addresses of write operations on the bus with corresponding storage addresses of the data words in the non-volatile memory. The cache control is responsive to a write operation for reading the index entries to identify and select at least one available storage address in the non-volatile memory, generating at least one index entry relating the write address of the current write operation and the selected storage addresses in the non-volatile memory, and writing the data words into the non-volatile memory. The cache control is responsive t…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.