Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Multicomputer data transferring via shared memory
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-15
2001-11-20
Vu, Viet D. (Department: 2154)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Multicomputer data transferring via shared memory
C709S215000, C709S217000, C709S225000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321254
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an arrangement for filing or retrieving data in at least one data source which can be coupled to at least one external file store via data transmission means. Furthermore, the invention relates to a system for storage relocation, filing and/or retrieving data which is suitable for use in the said arrangement and has at least one file store and data transmission means for coupling it to one or more data source and/or one or more local networks having at least one or more data sources. Furthermore the invention relates to an interface for such a filing system.
The increasing use of data processing in public and private sectors generates ever-increasing amounts of data which have to be kept or stored in the short, medium or long term. In particular, they have also to be kept ready for re-use. For this purpose, file solutions are known in which the computer systems of the user are connected via local networks to a user-specific file system, that is to say a file system installed locally at the user's premises (for example a private computer system). Off-line media, for example diskettes, CD ROMS, magnetic tapes, etc., which are written onto hardware installed at the user's premises and are connected via client-specific data interfaces (for example SCSI, in-house network) to the user's data processing system, are also widely used for filing. In the case of sensitive (for example, personal) data, it is additionally necessary to ensure that the data cannot be viewed, changed, removed or otherwise misused by unauthorized persons. If off-line media are used, this requires the use of rugged, sealable containers and, if a filing computer is used, a relatively expensive access protection.
A further problem is the investments in the hardware and software of a filing system which are necessary for filing the data.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to provide, while avoiding the abovementioned disadvantages, a reliable and efficient, in particular, also an economically operable filing system which is designed for the (quasi)simultaneous processing of a multiplicity of filing tasks, in particular of different filing clients. To achieve this, the invention proposes, in the case of a filing arrangement of the type mentioned at the outset, that there is provided as data transmission means at least one trunk network or wide-area network and also interfaces which are connected thereto from different places and via which a multiplicity of spatially or geographically remote data sources and/or different local networks with one or more data sources can be coupled centrally to the file store or stores, and the file store has mutually separable storage fields which are allocated in each case to one of the spatially remote data sources or local networks. Suitable as a specific implementation of the interfaces for linking the data sources, local networks and/or the file store to the trunk network are, given a similar structure of the networks to be connected, so-called bridges or, if that is not the case, gateways.
The invention makes it possible to provide, for a multiplicity of external users, a centralized wide-area file which is based on an arrangement of data processing components (hardware and software) for filing and managing data generated on user-oriented computer systems. In this arrangement, the trunk or wide-area network (WAN) is linked in a novel manner with a file system. This makes it possible to file user-specific data externally in a file system which is foreign to the user. This makes it possible to keep (file) in the short, medium or long term data (for example, text documents, graphics, diagrams, personal data, design drawings, etc.) which have been generated by the user on user-oriented computer systems (typically a PC or workstation) using commercial or, alternatively specific software. According to the invention, said data can be transferred via the wide-area network, for example ISDN, the Internet or also in-house company networks. After transmission over the latter, the filing operation can be carried out by writing the relevant data onto off-line media not available at the user's premises but, on the contrary, installed at the premises of a remote file operator. Thus, the investments in a filing system (hardware and software) and also the logistic expenditure in maintenance of the file, including staff to manage off-line data carriers, which investments are necessary for filing the data, can be much more easily amortized.
To achieve the inventive object mentioned at the outset, in a filing system having the features mentioned at the outset, the invention proposes that the data transmission means have a plurality of interfaces which are each designed for connection to a trunk network or wide-area network and which serve to link the one or more data sources and also the file store to the wide-area network, and the addressing of the file store is linked to a user filter which is designed to separate and/or keep apart data of different data sources in the file store.
Thereafter, a file user can be linked via a user-side installed interface, for example a gateway, which is a component of the centralized trunk file system. Via a novel bus system in the filing, the file component is connected to a wide-area network which is implemented as a leased line or a switched-line connection in a suitable public trunk network and a file-side interface, for example a gateway. This linking according to the invention of the user-oriented computer systems to the file component or the file store with upstream wide-area interface makes possible the transmission of data over virtually any desired spatial distances (“wide-area traffic”) between the user computer and the file. Owing to the use according to the invention of the wide-area network, in particular, as a bus, data can be filed by virtually any number of users who are no longer disposed, as in the state of the art, locally with respect to the file component or the file store, but are now externally disposed (multiple external usage possibility of the file system according to the invention). In addition, the filing in an external component is centralized, according to the invention, for the multiplicity of users.
In order to free the individual user from the necessity to transmit filed data on storage means corresponding in each case to the current state of the art, according to an advantageous development of the invention, a media transfer module is introduced which is coupled to the file store or its (possibly obsolete) storage media and is designed for data transfer from the latter onto physically different, preferably modern storage media.
Finally, the achievement of the abovementioned inventive task is served by an interface for the said wide-area file system which is notable for a two-port store disposed at the input or output of the interface for the temporary storage of data to be filed or to be retrieved and which can be connected by means of its one port either to the data source or to the bus of a local network associated, for instance, with the data source or to the file store, and by means of its other port to the wide-area network in each case.
Said interface may form an installed part of the wide-area file both on the user side and on the file side. The functional component “interface” first receives and (temporarily) stores the data to be filed from the data sources and decouples (on the file user side with respect to the wide-area network) the data sources from the filing operation which takes place via the wide-area network. In addition, the interface according to the invention can also be used to decouple (on the file side with respect to the wide-area network) the filing operation from the communication with the interface on the other file user side. After complete transfer of the data to be filed by at least two interfaces according to the invention (one on the file user side, the other on the file side) via the interposed wide-ar
Meyer Ernst Woldemar Wolfgang
Mundry Uwe Hans
Foster Frank H.
Kremblas, Foster Phillips & Pollick
Vu Viet D.
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