Method and apparatus for enhancing synchronous I/O in a computer

Details Method and apparatus for enhancing synchronous I/O in a computer Method and apparatus for enhancing synchronous I/O in a computer

1994-04-29

1996-05-21

Swann, Tod R.

Boots, shoes, and leggings

395494, 395463, 364DIG1, G06F 1310, G06F 1314

Patent

active

055198538

ABSTRACT:
An acceleration device for enhancing the speed of synchronous writes in a computer system includes a novel control subsystem, in one embodiment a device driver, and stable storage having an access time on the same order of magnitude as the access time of the main memory in the computer system. In one embodiment, the novel device driver is interposed in the operating system of the computer between the proprietary kernel and one or more peripheral storage unit device drivers. The novel device driver intercepts I/O commands, for example, synchronous write commands, from the operating system that are intended for one of the peripheral storage unit device drivers and subsequently copies the data specified in the write command from main memory of the computer to the stable storage of the acceleration device. The stable storage is operated as a cache and upon one of a set of predetermined conditions being satisfied, selected data stored in the stable storage are transferred, i.e., flushed to the appropriate peripheral storage device using the device driver for that storage device. The set of predetermined conditions includes user commands and the charge of the battery supplying power to the stable storage becoming low.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4636946 (1987-01-01), Hartung et al.
patent: 4779189 (1988-10-01), Legvold et al.
patent: 4916605 (1990-04-01), Beardsley et al.

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