Distributed and packed metadata structure for disk cache
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- storing a metadata and a cache line together during an update of the cache line, the metadata associated with the cache line; and
storing the metadata and another metadata together during a system shutdown operation, the other metadata associated with another cache line.
2 Assignments
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method to reduce the initialization time of a system is disclosed. In one embodiment, upon a cache line update, metadata associated with the cache line is stored in a distributed format in non-volatile memory with its associated cache line. Upon indication of an expected shut down, metadata is copied from volatile memory and stored in non-volatile memory in a packed format. In the packed format, multiple metadata associated with multiple cache lines are stored together in, for example, a single memory block. Thus, upon system power up, if the system was shut down in an expected manner, metadata may be restored in volatile memory from the metadata stored in the packed format, with a significantly reduced boot time over restoring metadata from the metadata stored in the distributed format.
113 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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storing a metadata and a cache line together during an update of the cache line, the metadata associated with the cache line; and
storing the metadata and another metadata together during a system shutdown operation, the other metadata associated with another cache line. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method comprising:
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copying a plurality of metadata, each of the plurality of metadata associated with a different cache line, from a non-volatile memory to a volatile memory during a system initialization operation;
wherein if an indication of an unexpected power down is detected, the copying the plurality of metadata comprises copying the plurality of metadata from a plurality of distributed storage locations in which each of the plurality of metadata is stored with its associated cache line; and
wherein if an indication of an expected power down is detected, the copying the plurality of metadata comprises copying the plurality of metadata from a packed storage location in which the plurality of metadata are stored in a packed format in a single storage location. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. An apparatus comprising:
a memory controller configured to store a metadata and a cache line together during an update of the cache line, the metadata associated with the cache line; and
the memory controller further configured to store the metadata and another metadata together during a system shutdown operation, the other metadata associated with another cache line.- View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A system comprising:
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a volatile memory;
a non-volatile memory; and
a memory controller coupled to the volatile memory and the non-volatile memory, the memory controller configured to store a metadata and a cache line together during an update of the cache line, the metadata associated with the cache line; and
the memory controller further configured to store the metadata and another metadata together during a system shutdown operation, the other metadata associated with another cache line. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification