Apparatus and method to provide virtual solid state disk in cache memory in a storage controller
US6567889B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 19, 1997 |
| Grant date | May 20, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 6, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/2515
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A portion of a storage controller's cache memory is used as a virtual solid state disk storage device to improve overall storage subsystem performance. In a first embodiment, the virtual solid state disk storage device is a single virtual disk drive for storing controller based information. In the first embodiment, the virtual solid state disk is reserved for use by the controller. In a second embodiment, a hybrid virtual LUN is configured as one or more virtual solid state disks in conjunction with one or more physical disks and managed using RAID levels 1-6. Since the hybrid virtual LUN is in the cache memory of the controller, data access times are reduced and throughput is increased by reduction of the RAID write penalty. The hybrid virtual LUN provides write performance that is typical of RAID 0. In a third embodiment, a high-speed virtual LUN is configured as a plurality of virtual solid state disks and managed as an entire virtual RAID LUN. Standard battery backup and redundant controller features of RAID controller technology ensure virtual solid state disk storage device non-volatility and redundancy in the event of controller failures.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.