Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Specific memory composition
Reexamination Certificate
2005-05-03
2008-12-02
Kim, Matt (Department: 2186)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Specific memory composition
C711S173000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07461202
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.
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Forrer, Jr. Thomas Richard
Moore Jason Eric
Tavasoli Asghar
Zuzuarregui Abel Enrique
Gerhardt Diana R.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Kim Matt
Schnee Hal
Yee Duke W.
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