Systems and methods for allocating an asset to interconnected devices

• US 20040215779A1
• Filed: 04/28/2003
• Published: 10/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Weber, David M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,461 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Systems and methods for allocating assets to a plurality of devices are presented. In one embodiment, devices may be communicatively connected to one another through a device loop. Each device may be configured for determining a portion of an asset that it will use. A controller may also be communicatively connected to the communication medium and configured for determining a capacity of the asset. The controller may transfer control information to the devices so as to allocate the asset to the devices based on the capacity of that asset. In another embodiment, each of the devices may be communicatively connected directly to the controller rather than to one another.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a device loop;

a plurality of devices, wherein each device is communicatively connected to the device loop and configured for determining a portion of an asset to be used by the device; and

a controller communicatively connected to the device loop and configured for determining a capacity of the asset and for transferring control information to said plurality of devices to allocate the asset among the devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is integrally configured with one of the devices.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the control information comprises an asset allocation message used to allocate the asset to one of said plurality of devices.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each device is adapted to generate a capacity release message used to indicate available capacity of the asset and wherein each device is adapted to transfer the capacity release message to another of said plurality of devices upon use of the asset allocation message.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the asset is selected from a group consisting of power, current, voltage, time, and bandwidth.

6. A system, comprising:

a plurality of devices, wherein each device is configured for determining a portion of an asset to be used by the device; and

a controller communicatively connected to each device and configured for determining a capacity of the asset and for allocating the asset among the devices.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the plurality of devices comprises a plurality of storage disks and the controller comprises a queue configured for storing requests to begin spin-up operations from the storage disks when the capacity of the asset is not available.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the controller further comprises an arbitration unit configured for receiving the requests from the storage disks, for determining when the capacity of the asset is available, and for storing the requests in the queue when the capacity of the asset is not available.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the controller further comprises an allocator configured for accessing the queue to allocate the asset when the capacity of the asset is available.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the asset is selected from a group consisting of power, current, voltage, time, and bandwidth.

11. A method for allocating an asset to a plurality of interconnected devices, comprising steps of:

determining a capacity of the asset;

determining a portion of the capacity of the asset to be used by a device of said plurality of interconnected devices; and

transferring control information to said plurality of interconnected devices to allocate the asset among the devices.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of transferring comprises a step of configuring the control information with an asset allocation message used to allocate the asset to a first one of said plurality of interconnected devices.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising steps of:

generating a capacity release message to indicate available capacity of the asset; and

transferring the capacity release message from the first one of said plurality of interconnected devices to a second one of said plurality of interconnected devices upon use of the asset allocation message by the first one of said plurality of interconnected devices.

14. A method for allocating an asset to a plurality of devices, comprising steps of:

determining a capacity of the asset;

determining a portion of the asset to be used by one of said plurality of devices;

requesting allocation of the portion of the asset; and

allocating the asset to the one of said plurality of devices when the capacity of the asset is available.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of requesting comprises a step of requesting to begin spin-up operations from a storage disk.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the step of allocating comprises a step of determining whether the capacity of the asset is available.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the step of allocating further comprises a step of queuing requests from said plurality of devices upon determining that the capacity of the asset is not available.