Apparatus system and method for N-way RAID controller having improved performance and fault tolerance
US6601138B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 4, 1999 |
| Grant date | Jul 29, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 4, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/2089
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
This invention describes structure and method for an efficient architecture allowing n-controllers to work together to improve system performance and fault tolerance, when n is greater than two. This invention provides a new type of RAID architecture using operational primitives in a message passing multi-controller environment to solve the problems presented in having multiple controllers distribute a non-uniform workload. This architecture allows for expansion of the I/O processing capability limited only by the efficiency of the underlying message transport method. In simple terms, the inventive technique breaks input/output (I/O) operations into a set of simple methods which can then be passed around as tokens, or pieces of work to be executed by whichever controller has the least amount of work to perform. (I/O operations include all operations needed to perform the tasks of a RAID controller. These include host read/write commands, rebuilds, data migration, etc.) The workload distribution adapts to the available and types of processing resources available in the system. The advantage of this type of architecture is that additional processing resources can be added to the syst…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.