CACHING OF BOOT DATA IN A STORAGE DEVICE

• US 20120303942A1
• Filed: 05/25/2011
• Published: 11/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Peacock, Eric
• Application Number:
  US13/115,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20120303942A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57

Abstract

Example embodiments relate to caching data in a storage device. In example embodiments, a storage device is configured to receive a command to access data on the storage device. In response, the storage device may determine whether a computing device to which the storage device is coupled is currently booting. When the computing device is currently booting, the storage device may cache the data in a first portion of a cache used to cache boot data.

Claims

1. A storage device comprising:

a memory to maintain a cache, the cache including a first portion for caching boot data and a second portion for caching non-boot data; and

a controller to;

receive a command to read data from the storage device or write data to the storage device,

detect whether a computing device to which the storage device is coupled is currently booting, and

trigger a write of the read or written data to the first portion of the cache when the computing device is currently booting.

2. The storage device of claim 1, wherein a size of the first portion of the cache is substantially equal to a total size of all files accessed while booting the computing device.

3. The storage device of claim 1, wherein, to detect whether the computing device is currently booting, the controller is configured to:

monitor for at least one predetermined command provided from the computing device to the storage device, the at least one predetermined command associated with a boot procedure.

4. The storage device of claim 3, wherein the monitoring for the at least one predetermined command is triggered by a boot routine initiated when power is provided to the storage device.

5. The storage device of claim 3, wherein, to monitor for the at least one predetermined command, the storage device is configured to:

detect a first predetermined command, and

determine that the computing device is booting when at least a second predetermined command is received within a predetermined period of time from the first predetermined command.

6. The storage device of claim 5, wherein the predetermined period of time is substantially equal to an amount of time required for a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of the computing device to initialize the computing device.

7. The storage device of claim 3, wherein the at least one predetermined command is at least one of:

a reset command provided to the storage device,

a command requesting identification data from the storage device,

a command checking a Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (SMART) status of the storage device, and

a command accessing a Master Boot Record (MBR) of the storage device.

8. The storage device of claim 1, wherein, after detecting that the computing device is currently booting, the controller is configured to write the data to the first portion of the cache until reaching one of a predetermined amount of data and a predetermined period of time.

9. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

trigger a write of the read or written data to the second portion of the cache when the computing device is not currently booting.

10. A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device comprising a memory for maintaining a cache, wherein the storage device receives storage commands from the processor and is configured to;

determine whether the computing device is currently performing a boot procedure based on the storage commands provided from the processor to the storage device,

cache data in a first portion of the cache when it is determined that the computing device is currently performing the boot procedure, and

cache data in a second portion of the cache when it is determined that the computing device is not currently performing the boot procedure.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein, to determine whether the computing device is currently performing the boot procedure, the storage device is configured to:

monitor for at least one predetermined command associated with the boot procedure after power is provided to the storage device.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein, to determine whether the computing device is currently performing the boot procedure, the storage device is configured to:

detect a first predetermined storage command, and

determine that the computing device is booting when at least a second predetermined storage command is received within a predetermined period of time from the first predetermined storage command.

13. A method for caching data in a cache maintained in memory of a storage device coupled to a computing device, the method comprising:

receiving, in the storage device, a plurality of storage commands provided by the computing device;

determining whether the computing device is currently booting by determining whether the storage commands include at least one command from a predetermined list of storage commands associated with a boot process; and

caching data in a first subset of the cache when it is determined that the computing device is currently booting.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

caching data in a second subset of the cache when it is determined that the computing device is not currently booting.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the determining comprises:

detecting a first command in the predetermined list of storage commands, and

determining that the computing device is booting when at least a second command in the predetermined list of storage commands is received within a predetermined period of time from the first command.