Method and apparatus using hard disk drive for enhanced non-volatile caching
US7461202B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | May 3, 2005 |
| Grant date | Dec 2, 2008 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 7, 2026 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/224
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided for allocating a portion of the OD zone of a hard drive disk to be a non-volatile (NV) caching space, where all writes to the disk are carried out. These write operations can be performed much faster than with conventional techniques, and storage costs may be significantly reduced. The disk drive controller manages the cache, and the host system sees improved throughput, especially for write intensive operations. In one embodiment a method is provided for writing specified data to a disk drive in a computer configuration, the disk drive having a magnetic disk and a volatile cache memory. A specified portion of the OD zone of the disk is reserved for an NV cache space, and the specified data is initially stored in the volatile memory, in response to a write command. The method further includes writing the specified data from the volatile memory to the NV cache space at the disk OD, and subsequently writing the specified data from the NV cache space to a selected longer-term storage location on the disk.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.