WRITE REORDERING IN A HYBRID DISK DRIVE
First Claim
1. A method of storing data in a hybrid drive having a control unit programmed to control storing of data into a nonvolatile solid state memory device and a magnetic storage disk, the control unit performing the steps of:
- receiving data to be stored; and
writing the received data directly in the nonvolatile solid state memory device without storing the received data in a DRAM buffer associated with the magnetic storage disk.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A hybrid drive and associated methods increase the rate at which data are transferred to a nonvolatile storage medium in the hybrid drive. By using a large nonvolatile solid state memory device as cache memory for a magnetic disk drive, a very large number of write commands can be cached and subsequently reordered and executed in an efficient manner. In addition, strategic selection and reordering of only a portion of the write commands stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device increases efficiency of the reordering process.
82 Citations
62 Claims
-
1. A method of storing data in a hybrid drive having a control unit programmed to control storing of data into a nonvolatile solid state memory device and a magnetic storage disk, the control unit performing the steps of:
-
receiving data to be stored; and writing the received data directly in the nonvolatile solid state memory device without storing the received data in a DRAM buffer associated with the magnetic storage disk. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
-
-
12. In a data storage device having a nonvolatile solid state memory device, a magnetic storage disk, and a control unit, a method of ordering data blocks to be written to the magnetic storage disk, the method comprising:
-
writing the data blocks to the nonvolatile solid state memory device; selecting N data blocks out of M data blocks stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device, where N is less than M; ordering the selected data blocks prior to writing the selected data blocks to the magnetic storage disk; and writing the first of the ordered data blocks to the magnetic storage disk, wherein selecting N data blocks comprises selecting the N least-recently-used data blocks from a least-recently-used list of data blocks that are stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device and have not been written to the magnetic storage disk. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
-
-
29. In a data storage device having a nonvolatile solid state memory device, a magnetic storage disk, and a control unit, a method of ordering data blocks to be written to the magnetic storage disk, the method comprising:
-
writing the data blocks to the nonvolatile solid state memory device; selecting N data blocks out of M data blocks stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device, where N is less than M; ordering the selected data blocks prior to writing the selected data blocks to the magnetic storage disk; writing the first of the ordered data blocks to the magnetic storage disk; and periodically writing the least-recently-used data block stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device from a least-recently-used list of data blocks that are stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device and have not been written to the magnetic storage disk, wherein selecting N data blocks comprises selecting N data blocks whose logical block addresses correspond to the N closest locations on the magnetic storage disk to the current location of an active read-write head of the magnetic storage disk. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
-
-
44. In a data storage device having a nonvolatile solid state memory device, a magnetic storage disk, and a control unit, a method of ordering data blocks to be written to the magnetic storage disk, the method comprising:
-
writing the data blocks to the nonvolatile solid state memory device; selecting data blocks stored in the nonvolatile solid state memory device whose logical block addresses correspond to locations disposed in a subzone region of the magnetic storage disk in which an active read-write head of the magnetic storage disk is located; ordering the selected data blocks prior to writing the selected data blocks to the magnetic storage disk; and writing the first of the ordered data blocks to the magnetic storage disk. - View Dependent Claims (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
-
Specification