Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Specific memory composition
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-14
2002-12-03
Yoo, Do Hyun (Department: 2187)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Specific memory composition
C711S113000, C711S114000, C710S008000, C369S047360
Reexamination Certificate
active
06490651
ABSTRACT:
RESERVATION OF COPYRIGHT
This patent document contains material subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document, as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to hard disk drives, and more particularly, to techniques for improving hard disk drive performance.
2. Description of Background Information
Hard disk drives store information as magnetization patterns on magnetic media and are common components in today's personal computers. Typically, hard disk drives are the primary non-volatile storage location for both user data and software program data.
FIG. 1
is a diagram illustrating a conventional host computer system and its hard drive. Host computer system
12
includes fast access solid state memory
16
, computer system bus
20
, and CPU
18
. Memory
16
is a solid-state semiconductor memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) that stores the data being manipulated by CPU
18
. For example, memory
16
may store application code
32
, operating system code
24
, or user data
25
. CPU
18
and memory
16
communicate with one another over bus
20
.
Host computer
12
may read or write data from/to DRAM
16
to disk drive
10
. Read or write commands from host computer
12
are received and interpreted by controller
26
. Controller
26
controls spindle and actuator drivers
28
to read or write data to one or more magnetic platters in hard disk array (HDA)
30
.
To increase performance, disk drive
10
may include a solid-state memory cache
32
. In operation, data read from HDA
30
, as well as being transferred to host system
12
, is also placed in cache
32
. If a subsequent disk read from computer system
12
requests data stored in cache
32
, controller
26
retrieves the data from the faster cache memory
32
instead of the slower HDA
30
. Because cache memory
32
is comprised of high-speed memory, when data requested by host system
12
is present in cache memory
32
(i.e., a “cache hit”), controller
26
is able to quickly access and return the requested data. Thus, cache memory
32
improves the overall performance of the disk drive.
Cache memory
32
is significantly more expensive per storage bit than data stored on the magnetic platters of HDA
30
. The issue of cost therefore tends to limit the size of on-disk cache
32
. Thus, there is a need in the art to increase disk drive performance without unduly increasing the cost of the disk drive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to increase the performance of a hard disk drive without increasing the cost of the disk drive.
One aspect of the present invention is a computer system comprising a plurality of components. In particular, the computer system includes a hard disk drive, a random access memory, a virtual disk, and a processor. The random access memory stores operating system data and user data. The virtual disk models physical parameters of the hard disk drive. The processor optimizes data requests to the hard disk drive based on the physical parameters modeled by the virtual disk.
A second aspect of the present invention is a method for optimizing the perceived performance of a hard disk drive. The method comprises modeling physical parameters of the hard disk drive at a location external to the hard disk drive and optimizing data requests to the hard disk drive based on the modeled physical parameters.
A third aspect of the present invention is a computer readable medium containing computer instructions executable by a computer, the computer being coupled to a hard disk drive. The computer instructions, when executed by the computer, perform the steps of modeling physical parameters of the hard disk drive at a location external to the hard disk drive and optimizing data requests to the hard disk drive based on the modeled physical parameters.
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patent: 6249824 (2001-06-01), Henrichs
Bagachev Iouri
Camp Claude
Schlumberger Maurice
Shats Serge
Maxtor Corporation
Miele Anthony L.
Namazi Mehdi
Palmer & Dodge LLP
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