REMOVE-ON-DELETE TECHNOLOGIES FOR SOLID STATE DRIVE OPTIMIZATION

• US 20080263305A1
• Filed: 02/12/2008
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Obr, Nathan S., Shu, Frank J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,207,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/170
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/214 Solid state disk
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7209 Validity control, e.g. using flags, time stamps or sequence numbers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 Management of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

Technologies for identifying data stored on a solid state drive (“SSD”) device that correspond to data associated with a delete event, and marking the deleted data stored on the SSD as invalid such that the SSD can avoid unnecessary operations on the invalid data. Included are interfaces operable to communicate invalid data information and providing a remove-on-delete command that provides invalid data information sufficient to identify the SSD data to be marked as invalid.

Claims

1. A system for marking data stored on a solid state drive (“

SSD”

) as invalid, the system comprising;

an SSD driver coupled to a file system via a first interface wherein the first interface includes a command interface operational to communicate invalid data information from the file system to the SSD driver, and wherein the invalid data information identifies the data stored on the SSD that corresponds to information being deleted by the file system; and

a second interface operable to couple the SSD driver to the SSD sufficient to cause the SSD to mark the data stored on the SSD that corresponds to the information being deleted by the file system as invalid.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the command interface is implemented as a new input-output control (“

IOCTL”

) command.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the command interface is implemented as an extension to an input-output control (“

IOCTL”

) command.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the invalid data information includes logical block addressing (“

LBA”

) and a length.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the marking data stored on the SSD as invalid enables the SSD to avoid unnecessary operations on invalid data.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the enabling the SSD to avoid unnecessary operations on invalid data further involves operations of the SSD driver.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the second interface is an advanced technology attachment (“

ATA”

) interface.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the second interface is a small computer system interface (“

SCSI”

).

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the information being deleted by the file system is a file or a portion thereof.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein valid data stored on the SSD that corresponds to information not deleted by the file system is not marked on the SSD as invalid data.

11. A method of marking data stored on a solid state drive (“

SSD”

) as invalid, the method comprising;

receiving an event indicating information being deleted;

identifying the data stored on the SSD that corresponds to the information being deleted; and

instructing the SSD to mark the identified data as invalid.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the event is received from a file system.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the event is received via an input-output control (“

IOCTL”

) command.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the instructing is performed via an advanced technology attachment (“

ATA”

) interface.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein the instructing is performed via a small computer system interface (“

SCSI”

).

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the identified data marked as invalid enables the SSD to avoid unnecessary operations on invalid data.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the information being deleted is a file.

18. The method of claim 11 wherein the identifying includes logical block addressing (“

LBA”

) and a length.

19. A computer-readable medium including computer-readable instructions embodying a method of marking data stored on a solid state drive (“

SSD”

) as invalid, the method comprising;

receiving an event indicating information being deleted;

identifying the data stored on the SSD that corresponds to the information being deleted; and

instructing the SSD to mark the identified data as invalid.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19 wherein the information being deleted is a file.