Data storage and protection apparatus and methods of data storage and protection

• US 20040243745A1
• Filed: 04/28/2004
• Published: 12/02/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quantum Corporation (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Quantum Corporation (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Bolt, Thomas B., Barnes, Edwin Dale, Maroney, John Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,804 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/68
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0614 Improving the reliability of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices

Abstract

An exemplary storage system for storing data from a host system and emulating a storage tape device is presented. In one example, the storage system includes a compression device configured to associate with a controller of a plurality of storage devices. The compression device is adapted to receive a sequence of data to be stored, divide the sequence of data into two or more blocks, and compress at least two of the two or more blocks in parallel. The system may further create an index associated with the blocks of data to output the data as a continuous stream of data. The compression device may further include dual or multiple ports.

Claims

1. A storage system for storing data emulating a storage tape device, comprising:

a compression device configured to associate with a controller of at least one storage device, wherein the compression device is adapted to

receive a sequence of data,

divide the sequence of data into two or more blocks, and

compress at least two of the two or more blocks in parallel.

2. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the at least one storage device includes a plurality of storage devices.

3. The storage system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of storage devices include at least one of a ATA RAID, SATA RAID, and JBOD storage arrays.

4. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device is further adapted to generate an index associated with the two or more blocks.

5. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes an adapter in communication with the controller.

6. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device is included on a common board with the controller.

7. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes two or more compression devices.

8. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes a dual fibre channel interface.

9. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes a separate local bus associated with the controller.

10. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes reconfigurable hardware to implement at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data.

11. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device may receive a mezzanine card.

12. The storage system of claim 1, wherein the compression device includes a PMC slot.

13. A method for data storage including storage tape device emulation, comprising:

receiving a stream of data;

dividing the stream of data into two or more blocks;

compressing at least two of the two or more blocks in parallel; and

indexing the two or more blocks.

14. The method of claim 13, further including storing the compressed blocks in at least one storage device.

15. The method of claim 13, further including:

reassembling the blocks according to the index;

decompressing the stored blocks; and

outputting the data as a sequential stream of data.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the data is compressed with a hardware compression device.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the two or more blocks are indexed according to an order in which the stream of data is received.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the two or more blocks are indexed with a scatter/gather list.

19. The method of claim 13, further including decompressing the data and outputting the decompressed data serially according to the index of the data.

20. The method of claim 13, further including receiving the data through a dual fibre channel interface.

21. The method of claim 13, further including performing at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data is performed through hardware.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data is performed through reconfigurable hardware.

24. A method for data compression with a storage device including storage tape emulation, comprising:

receiving a stream of data from a host;

dividing the stream of data into two or more blocks;

compressing the two or more blocks in parallel;

indexing the two or more blocks; and

storing the data in a storage device.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the data is compressed with a hardware compression device.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein the two or more blocks are indexed with a scatter/gather list.

27. The method of claim 24, further including decompressing the data and outputting the decompressed data serially according to the index of the data.

28. The method of claim 24, further including performing at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the at least one of an error correction code, cyclic redundancy code, and data encryption on the data is performed through hardware.