System and method for selective write-back caching within a disk

Details System and method for selective write-back caching within a disk System and method for selective write-back caching within a disk

1995-11-13

1996-11-05

Beausoliel, Jr., Robert W.

G06F 1216

Patent

active

055726607

ABSTRACT:
A fault tolerant disk array subsystem is provided that includes a plurality of data drives for storing real data and a parity drive for storing redundant data. Each data drive is associated with a dedicated write-through cache unit and the parity drive is associated with a dedicated write-back cache unit. An array scheduler schedules read and write operations to access the data drives and includes a parity control unit for updating parity information when new data is written to one of the data drives. Since a write-back caching technique is used to store updated parity information, the write latency of the parity drive does not limit the write-throughput of the disk array subsystem. Furthermore, since a non-volatile memory unit is provided to store the addresses of any dirty parity information within the write-back cache unit, parity information can be reconstructed in the event of a power failure. The disk array subsystem provides a low cost, mass storage resource having improved write performance characteristics. The disk array subsystem also accommodates data redundancy to allow data restoration in the event of disk failure.

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