Disk drive/CPU architecture for distributed computing

• US 20060195842A1
• Filed: 02/28/2005
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands BV (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Williams, Larry Lynn
• Granted Patent: US 8,015,568 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/100
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/549 Remote execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• 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 3/0676 Magnetic disk device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

A disk drive is described which includes means for executing distributed computing tasks including a CPU and associated memory. The communication interface with the host computer is modified to allow the host computer to send executable code for a task to the drive and to allow the drive to communicate the results and status information about the task to the host computer. In a preferred embodiment the disk drive has a task control program, task program code, task data and status information for the distributed task. In alternative embodiments, the disk drive can communicate with other similar disk drives in the bus to provide the results of computation to the other processors. The RAM memory, and mass storage are intimately connected through the associated hard disk controller such that the exact location of the required data and program instructions are known.

Claims

1. A disk drive comprising:

a processor and a memory for storing data and a program for the processor;

a task control program executable by the processor loaded into the memory, the task control program including means for accepting a task definition command from a host computer, the task definition command including a specification of a task program of code executable by the processor and a specification of data for the task program;

means for executing the task program as an interruptible process using the data for the task, the means for executing the task program including means for storing task status and pointers when an interrupt occurs and resuming execution of the task program when an interrupt has been processed;

means for signaling the host that the task program has completed;

means for transmitting results of the task program to the host; and

means for resetting the task status to indicate that no task program is pending after the task program has completed.

2. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein means for accepting a task definition command further comprises means for accepting the task program as data in a write command which follows a diagnostic command.

3. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein the means for signalling further comprises means for sending a request for a diagnostic inquiry.

4. The disk drive of claim 3 wherein the means for transmitting further comprises means for responding to the diagnostic inquiry by sending information to the results of the task program.

5. The disk drive of claim 1 wherein the means for means for accepting a task definition command further comprises means for using a logical block identifier for previously written data as the source for the task program.

6. A method of operating a disk drive comprising the steps of:

receiving a task definition command from a host computer, the task definition command including a specification of a task program of code executable by the processor and a specification of data for the task program;

executing the task program as an interruptible process using the data for the task, executing step further comprising storing task status and pointers when an interrupt occurs and resuming execution of the task program using the stored task status and pointers when the interrupt has been processed;

signaling the host that the task program has completed;

transmitting results of the task program to the host; and

resetting the task status to indicate that no task program is pending after the task program has completed.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein step of receiving a task definition command further comprises accepting the task program as data in a write command which follows a diagnostic command.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of signalling further comprises means for sending a request for a diagnostic inquiry.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of transmitting further comprises responding to a diagnostic inquiry from the host by sending information on the results of the task program.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of accepting a task definition command further comprises using a logical block identifier in the task definition command for previously written data as the source for the task program.