ACCELERATOR SYSTEM FOR USE WITH SECURE DATA STORAGE

• US 20110296440A1
• Filed: 05/27/2011
• Published: 12/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Security First Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: Security First Corp
• Inventors: Martin, Don, Wang, Michael H., Sample, Stephen Paul, O'Hare, Mark S., Orsini, Rick L., Kandimalla, Babu Rao, Laurich, Lawrence A., Casselman, Steven Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,601,498 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/326
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/102 where the programme performs an interfacing function, e.g. device driver G06F13/105 takes precedence; scheduling within device drivers G06F9/52; contention policies within device drivers G06F9/4881
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/602 Providing cryptographic facilities or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/72 in cryptographic circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/76 in application-specific integrated circuits [ASIC] or field-programmable devices, e.g. field-programmable gate arrays [FPGA] or programmable logic devices [PLD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/78 to assure secure storage of data address-based protection against unauthorised use of memory G06F12/14; record carriers for use with machines and with at least a part designed to carry digital markings G06K19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/85 interconnection devices, e.g. bus-connected or in-line devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0646 Horizontal data movement in storage systems, i.e. moving data in between storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/20 for managing network security; network security policies in general filtering policies H04L63/0227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/12 Protocol engines
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/14 Multichannel or multilink protocols

Abstract

Data processing and an accelerator system therefore are described. An embodiment relates generally to a data processing system. In such an embodiment, a bus and an accelerator are coupled to one another. The accelerator has an application function block. The application function block is to process data to provide processed data to storage. A network interface is coupled to obtain the processed data from the storage for transmission.

Claims

1. A secure data storage system, comprising:

a bus;

an accelerator coupled to the bus having a Programmable Logic Device (“

PLD”

) having an application function block instantiated in whole or in part in programmable logic resources of the PLD; and

a network interface coupled to a storage network, wherein the application function block is operable to;

generate at least two portions of data from a data set;

communicate the at least two portions of data over the network interface to the storage network; and

store the at least two portions of data within the storage network, wherein the data set is restorable from at least a plurality of the at least two portions of data by recombining data from the plurality of the at least two portions of data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage network is a cloud computing storage network that includes at least two respectively remote storage devices.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the application function block is further operable to generate a virtual machine image, wherein the virtual machine image is operable to access the data set within the cloud computing storage network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the application function block is further operable to transmit the virtual machine image to a second system, wherein the second system is operable to access the data set within the cloud computing storage network.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the cloud computing storage network further comprises at least one resilient networked storage device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first system is further operable to regenerate a data portion stored on the at least one resilient networked storage device from other networked storage devices.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising

a switch coupled between the bus and the accelerator and between the accelerator and the network interface;

memory accessible by the application function block via the accelerator;

wherein the bus is a host system-side peripheral interconnect bus;

wherein the switch provides the data set to and from the peripheral interconnect bus and the accelerator; and

wherein the switch provides the at least two portions of data to and from the memory and the network interface.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the switch is configured to control peer-to-peer routing between the accelerator and the network interface for retrieval of the at least two portions of data from the memory by the network interface; and

the switch is further configured to control peer-to-peer routing between the network interface and the accelerator for storage of the at least two portions of data in the memory by the network interface.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising at least one transmitter or transceiver coupled to the network interface for transmitting the at least two portions of data.

10. A host system, coupled to the data processing system according to claim 9, for providing commands and the data to the switch via the peripheral interconnect bus.

11. The host system according to claim 10, wherein the at least two portions of data do not pass to the network interface via the peripheral interconnect bus.

12. The host system according to claim 10, wherein the network interface includes a direct memory access controller to read and write the at least two portions of data from and to the memory.

13. A computer system, comprising:

a general-purpose processor for execution of a user application in an application mode and kernel-mode drivers in a kernel-mode, wherein the kernel-mode drivers include a class driver and a filter driver;

an accelerator system coupled to the general-purpose processor via a first bus;

wherein the class driver is in communication with the user application to receive a request packet to provide a request block in response to the request packet;

wherein the filter driver is in communication with the class driver to receive the request block;

wherein the request block includes a system payload pointer that points to a first location of a data set stored in system memory and one of a write command or a read command; and

wherein for the write command a configured Programmable Logic Device of the accelerator system is to;

retrieve the data set from the system memory using the system payload pointer;

generate at least two portions of data from the data set; and

store the at least two portions of data in local memory of the accelerator, wherein the data set is restorable from at least a plurality of the at least two portions of data by recombining data from the plurality of the at least two portions of data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the kernel-mode drivers include a device driver, a stack driver, and a port driver; and

the filter driver generates first commands and second commands responsive to the command, each of the first commands and the second commands include a same set of local payload pointers generated by the filter driver;

the device driver is in communication with the filter driver to receive the system payload pointer and the first commands; and

the device driver is in communication with the accelerator system to provide the first commands and the payload pointer to the accelerator system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least two portions are stored at locations in the local memory of the accelerator pointed to by the local payload pointers of the first commands.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the stack driver is in communication with the filter driver to receive the second commands;

the port driver is in communication with the stack driver to receive the second commands; and

the accelerator system is in communication with the port driver to receive the second commands.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the port driver is in communication with a network interface of the accelerator system;

the network interface is coupled to the local memory using the local payload pointers of the second commands to transmit the at least two portions of data for storage in storage devices coupled to a network.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the network is a cloud computing storage network that includes at least two respectively remote storage devices.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein for the read command:

the network interface is responsive to the second commands to;

retrieve the at least two portions of data from the storage devices; and

store the at retrieved at least two portions of data in local memory at the locations pointed to by the local payload pointers of the second commands; and

the Programmable Logic Device is configured to;

retrieve the at least two portions of data from the local memory at the locations pointed to by the local payload pointers of the first commands; and

restore the retrieved at least two portions of data responsive to the first commands to provide the data set.

20. A method for processing data, comprising:

providing a data set and a system payload pointer from a host system to an accelerator system;

generating at least two portions of data in the accelerator system;

storing the at least two portions of data in memory of the accelerator system;

converting the system payload pointer into at least one local payload pointer for the storing;

passing the at least one local payload pointer to an interface;

accessing the at least two portions of data from the memory by the interface using the at least one local payload pointer; and

transmitting the at least two portions of data accessed by the interface, wherein the data set is restorable from at least a plurality of the at least two portions of data by recombining data from the plurality of the at least two portions of data.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein:

the at least one local payload pointer is passed to a driver stack;

the driver stack passes the at least one local payload pointer to the interface; and

the interface generates packets for the transmitting of the at least two portions of data.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein:

the driver stack is a Small Computer System Interface (“

SCSI”

) driver stack; and

the packets are SCSI packets.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein:

the packets are Internet SCSI packets (“

iSCSI”

) for remote storage of the at least two portions of data in a cloud computing storage network; and

the interface is a network interface having access to the at least two portions of data locally stored in the memory of the accelerator system without having to provide the interface with the system payload pointer.

24. A method for processing data, comprising:

providing a command and a payload pointer to an accelerator system;

obtaining, by the accelerator system, a data set responsive to the payload pointer;

generating at least two portions of data from the data set by the accelerator system responsive to the payload pointer;

storing the at least two portions of data locally in memory of the accelerator system;

initiating a memory access by a network interface of the accelerator system;

obtaining the at least two portions of data from the memory responsive to the memory access; and

transmitting the at least two portions of data obtained by the network interface to a cloud computing storage network, wherein the cloud computing storage network includes at least two respectively remote storage devices, and wherein the data set is restorable from at least a plurality of the at least two portions of data by recombining data from the plurality of the at least two portions of data.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein:

the memory access is a direct memory access;

the direct memory access and the at least two portions of data obtained in response thereto are routed peer-to-peer by a switch coupling the network interface and Programmable Logic Device (“

PLD”

) to one another; and

the memory is coupled to the PLD.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

retrieving, using the network interface, the at least two portions of data from the cloud computing storage network; and

storing the retrieved at least two portions of data in the memory for subsequent processing by the PLD.

27. The method of claim 24, wherein generating the at least two portions of data and transmitting the at least two portions of data to the cloud computing storage network is substantially transparent to the accelerator system.