MASS STORAGE SYSTEM AND METHOD USING HARD DISK AND SOLID-STATE MEDIA

• US 20110320690A1
• Filed: 08/17/2011
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kioxia Corporation
• Original Assignee: OCZ Technology Group, Inc. (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Schuette, Franz Michael, Petersen, Ryan Maurice
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,946 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2015 Redundant power supplies power supply failure G06F1/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/217 Hybrid disk, e.g. using both magnetic and solid state storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0611 in relation to response time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0626 Reducing size or complexity of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/128 of the plurality of recording/reproducing devices, e.g. disk drives, onto a chassis

Abstract

Methods and systems for mass storage of data over two or more tiers of mass storage media that include nonvolatile solid-state memory devices, hard disk devices, and optionally volatile memory devices or nonvolatile MRAM in an SDRAM configuration. The mass storage media interface with a host through one or more PCIe lanes on a single printed circuit board.

Claims

1. A mass storage system for use in a host system, the mass storage system comprising:

a printed circuit board having a PCIe edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, the edge connector being adapted to supply power to the mass storage system and enable data exchange between the mass storage system and a PCIe expansion slot;

at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components;

at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter; and

at least a first RAID controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device;

wherein the mass storage system is configured so that the solid-state mass storage device stores files with a read access frequency above a threshold, the hard disk mass storage device stores files with a read access frequency below the threshold, and if the read access frequency of a file stored on the hard disk mass storage device increases above the threshold, a copy of the file is written to the solid-state mass storage device.

2. The mass storage system of claim 1, wherein the at least one solid-state mass storage device and the at least one hard disk mass storage device are removably attached to the printed circuit board with docking connectors.

3. The mass storage system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device is integrated into the printed circuit board.

4. The mass storage system of claim 1, further comprising at least a second RAID controller, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with different PCIe lanes via the edge connector.

5. The mass storage system of claim 1, further comprising at least a second RAID controller and a PCIe switch, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with the edge connector through the PCIe switch.

6. The mass storage system of claim 5, wherein the first RAID controller controls a plurality of the hard disk drives in an array using striping with distributed parity and the second RAID controller controls at least two arrays of the nonvolatile solid-state memory components in striping mode.

7. The mass storage system of claim 6, wherein parity calculations for the hard disk drives are carried out in hardware by the first RAID controller.

8. The mass storage system of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile solid-state memory components are chosen from the group consisting of NAND flash, phase change memory, magnetic RAM, and magneto-resistive RAM.

9. A mass storage system for use in a host system, the mass storage system comprising:

a printed circuit board having a PCIe edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, the edge connector being adapted to supply power to the mass storage system and enable data exchange between the mass storage system and a PCIe expansion slot;

at least one volatile memory module having volatile memory components;

at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components;

at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter; and

at least a first RAID controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device;

wherein the mass storage system is configured so that the volatile memory module is a cache for the solid-state mass storage device, the solid-state mass storage device permanently stores data with an access frequency above a threshold, the hard disk mass storage device stores data with an access frequency below the threshold.

10. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein if the read access frequency of data stored on the hard disk mass storage device increases above the threshold, a copy of the data is written to the solid-state mass storage device.

11. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein upon loss of power to the mass storage system, the mass storage system is adapted to recover energy from the rotatable platter of the hard disk mass storage device to perform a memory dump from the volatile memory module to the solid-state mass storage device.

12. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein the solid-state mass storage device has an over-provisioning pool of at least the capacity of the volatile memory module.

13. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein the at least one solid-state mass storage device and the at least one hard disk mass storage device are removably attached to the printed circuit board with docking connectors.

14. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein at least one of the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device is integrated into the printed circuit board.

15. The mass storage system of claim 9, further comprising at least a second RAID controller, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with different PCIe lanes via the edge connector.

16. The mass storage system of claim 9, further comprising at least a second RAID controller and a PCIe switch, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with the edge connector through the PCIe switch.

17. The mass storage system of claim 16, wherein the first RAID controller controls a plurality of the hard disk drives in an array using striping with distributed parity and the second RAID controller controls at least two arrays of the nonvolatile solid-state memory components in striping mode.

18. The mass storage system of claim 17, wherein parity calculations for the hard disk drives are carried out in hardware by the first RAID controller.

19. The mass storage system of claim 9, wherein the nonvolatile solid-state memory components are chosen from the group consisting of NAND flash, phase change memory, magnetic RAM, and magneto-resistive RAM.

20. A method of using hierarchical storage management on a mass storage system in a host system, the method comprising:

providing a mass storage system comprising a printed circuit board, an edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components, at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter, and at least a first RAID controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device;

determining a frequency of access for a file stored on the hard disk mass storage device and copying the file to the solid-state mass storage device if the access frequency is above a threshold; and

updating the access path for the file to point to the solid-state mass storage device.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising removably installing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device on and removing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device from the printed circuit board using docking connectors.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the mass storage system further comprises at least a second RAID controller, and the method further comprises interfacing the first and second RAID controllers with different PCIe lanes via the edge connector.

23. The method of claim 20, wherein the mass storage system further comprises at least a second RAID controller, and the method further comprises interfacing the first and second RAID controllers with the edge connector through a PCIe switch.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first RAID controller controls a plurality of the hard disk drives in an array using striping with distributed parity and the second RAID controller controls at least two arrays of the nonvolatile solid-state memory components in striping mode.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising carrying out parity calculations for the hard disk drives with the first RAID controller.

26. A method of using hierarchical storage management on a mass storage system in a host system, the method comprising:

providing a mass storage system comprising a printed circuit board, an edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components, at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter, at least a first RAID controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device, and at least one memory module having memory components associated with the solid-state mass storage device;

determining a frequency of access for a file stored on the hard disk mass storage device and copying the file to the solid-state mass storage device if the access frequency is above a threshold; and

updating the access path for the file to point to the solid-state mass storage device.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the memory module is a volatile memory module, the memory components of the memory module are volatile memory components, and the solid-state mass storage device has an over-provisioning pool of at least the capacity of the volatile memory module.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising removably installing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device on and removing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device from the printed circuit board using docking connectors.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein upon loss of power to the mass storage system, the mass storage system recovers energy from the rotatable platter of the hard disk mass storage device to perform a memory dump from the memory module to the solid-state mass storage device.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the mass storage system comprises a second solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and a second controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components thereof, the memory module is a 64-bit wide DRAM memory module configured to have separate address and command lines to an upper 32-bit block and a lower 32-bit block, the upper 32 bits serve as cache for the first solid-state mass storage device, and the lower 32 bits serve as cache for the second solid-state mass storage device.

31. The method of claim 26, wherein the memory module is a nonvolatile memory module and the memory components of the nonvolatile memory module are nonvolatile MRAM components with an SDRAM interface.

32. A method of using hierarchical storage management in a host system, the method comprising:

providing a mass storage system comprising a printed circuit board, an edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, first and second RAID controllers interfacing with the edge connector through a PCIe switch, at least two solid-state mass storage devices in a striped array, each of the solid-state mass storage devices having nonvolatile solid-state memory components functionally connected to the first RAID controller, multiple hard disk mass storage devices functionally connected to the second RAID controller, each of the hard disk mass storage devices having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter, and a 64-bit wide DRAM memory module as cache for the solid-state mass storage devices, the memory module configured into a functional upper 32-bit block and a lower 32-bit block, each of the upper and lower 32-bit blocks having separate command and address buses, the upper 32-bit block being a cache for a first of the solid-state mass storage devices and the lower 32-bit block being a cache for a second of the solid-state mass storage devices;

copying a file accessed from the hard disk mass storage devices to one of the caches provided by the memory module and updating the access path for the file to point to the solid-state mass storage devices;

storing a copy of the file in the nonvolatile solid-state memory components of the solid-state mass storage devices if the host system writes the file back to the mass storage system;

determining a frequency of access of the file;

storing the file to the hard disk mass storage devices if the frequency of access drops below a threshold; and

deleting the file from the solid-state mass storage device and the memory module.