Redundant array of independent disks system

• US 20110167216A1
• Filed: 02/18/2010
• Published: 07/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Promise Technology Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Promise Technology Incorporated
• Inventors: Huang, Cheng-Yi, Lin, Shin-Ping
• Application Number:
  US12/656,864
• Publication Number:
  US 20110167216A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1061 Parity-single bit-RAID4, i.e. RAID 4 implementations

Abstract

A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) system is disclosed in this invention. The RAID system includes a plurality of data storage units and a parity storage medium. The parity storage medium can be singular storage hardware or a logical storage module including multiple storage units. The parity storage medium cooperates with the data storage units to form a RAID. The parity storage medium is used for storing parity information of the RAID. A first write speed of the parity storage medium is faster than a second write speed of each data storage unit.

Claims

1. A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) system, comprising:

a plurality of data storage units; and

a parity storage unit, the parity storage unit cooperating with the data storage units to form a RAID, the parity storage unit being used for storing parity check information of the RAID, a first write speed of the parity storage unit being faster than a second write speed of each data storage unit.

2. The RAID system of claim 1, wherein the parity storage unit is a Solid State Drive (SSD), a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive or a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drive.

3. The RAID system of claim 1, wherein the RAID adopts a RAID-3 structure based on a bit-interleaving technology.

4. The RAID system of claim 1, wherein the RAID adopts a RAID-4 structure based on a block-interleaving technology.

5. A redundant array of independent disks (RAID) system, comprising:

a plurality of data storage units; and

a parity storage module, the parity storage module cooperating with the data storage units to form a first RAID, the parity storage module being used for storing parity check information of the first RAID, the parity storage module comprising a plurality of parity storage units, the parity storage units of the parity storage module forming a second RAID, a first write speed of the whole parity storage module being faster than a second write speed of each data storage unit.

6. The RAID system of claim 5, wherein the first RAID adopts a RAID-3 structure based on a bit-interleaving technology.

7. The RAID system of claim 5, wherein the first RAID adopts a RAID-4 structure based on a block-interleaving technology.

8. The RAID system of claim 5, wherein the second RAID adopts a RAID-0 structure based on a data-stripping technology.

9. The RAID system of claim 8, wherein when the second RAID includes N parity storage units, the first write speed of the whole parity storage module is substantially N times as fast as a second write speed of each data storage unit.

10. The RAID system of claim 8, wherein each parity storage unit of the parity storage module is a Solid State Drive (SSD), a Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive, a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) drive or an Integrated Device Electronics (IDE) drive.

11. The RAID system of claim 5, wherein the second RAID adopts a Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) structure based on a logical volume integration technology.

12. The RAID system of claim 11, wherein each parity storage unit of the second RAID is Solid State Drive (SSD).