System and method for storing data sectors with header and trailer information in a disk cache supporting memory compression
US6539460B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 19, 2001 |
| Grant date | Mar 25, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 17, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/462
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A computing system includes a storage server having a memory organization that includes a compressed memory device for storing sectors, each sector having a sector data portion and associated header and trailers, either attached by the hosts or by components of the computing system. The compressed memory device comprises a memory directory and a plurality of fixed-size blocks. The system implements a methodology for detaching headers and trailers from sectors before storing the sectors in the memory, and storing the headers and trailers in the memory disk cache, separate from the sector data portion; and, reattaching headers and trailers to sector data portions when the sectors are sent from the memory to a host or to a mass storage device. The header and trailer data are managed through the same memory directory used to manage the compressed main memory. The process of detaching headers and trailers from sectors for separate storage results in increased efficacy of data compression, thus yielding better compression ratios, and decreased memory traffic generated by host reads, host writes, cache stages and cache destages.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.