System and Method for Utilizing Non-Volatile Memory in a Cache

• US 20140047193A1
• Filed: 08/07/2012
• Published: 02/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products BV (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Krueger, Phillip E., Gross, Jason Philip, Pandit, Ranjit, Peterson, Scott David, Greiveldinger, Christopher Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,495,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/144
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/073 in a memory management context, e.g. virtual memory or cache management memory management G06F12/00; testing of static memory units G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0893 Caches characterised by their organisation or structure

Abstract

In one embodiment, a computing system includes a cache having one or more memories, a cache journal operable to store data associated with one or more portions of the cache, and a configuration manager operable to access the cache and the cache journal. The configuration manager is operable to determine whether the cache journal includes data associated with a first portion of the cache, and to create, in the cache journal, data associated with the first portion of the cache if the cache journal does not yet comprise data associated with the first portion of the cache. The configuration manager is also operable to determine whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use, and to communicate with a memory manager associated with the first portion of the cache regarding whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a configuration manager, data from a memory manager associated with a memory comprising a portion of a cache, the configuration manager including a journal, the journal including data associated with the cache;

determining whether the journal includes data associated with the memory;

creating, in the journal, data associated with the memory if the journal does not include data associated with the memory;

determining whether the memory is valid for use;

communicating to the memory manager associated with the memory whether the memory is valid for use.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data received from the memory manager associated with the memory is an identifier of the memory.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the journal includes data associated with the memory includes determining whether the journal includes the identifier of the memory.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein creating, in the journal, data associated with the memory includes creating an entry in the journal for the identifier of the memory and associating the identifier with a state of the memory.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein communicating to the memory manager associated with the memory whether the memory is valid for use includes communicating to the memory manager the state of the memory

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the memory is valid for use includes:

if the journal includes data associated with the memory, determining if the data indicates a state of the memory.

7. A computing system comprising:

a cache comprising one or more memories;

a cache journal operable to store data associated with one or more portions of the cache; and

a configuration manager operable to access the cache and the cache journal,

wherein the configuration manager is operable to determine whether the cache journal comprises data associated with a first portion of the cache, and to create, in the cache journal, data associated with the first portion of the cache if the cache journal does not yet comprise data associated with the first portion of the cache, and

wherein the configuration manager is operable to determine whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use, and to communicate with a memory manager associated with the first portion of the cache regarding whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the configuration manager is further operable to receive a memory identifier from the memory manager associated with the first portion of the cache.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein determining whether the cache journal comprises data associated with the first portion of the cache includes determining whether the cache journal comprises the memory identifier.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein creating, in the cache journal, data associated with the first portion of the cache if the cache journal does not yet comprise data associated with the first portion of the cache includes creating an entry in the cache journal for the memory identifier and associating the memory identifier with a state of the first portion of the cache.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein communicating with the memory manager associated with the first portion of the cache regarding whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use includes communicating to the memory manager the state of the first portion of the cache.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the journal is maintained in a persistent memory.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein determining whether the first portion of the cache is valid for use includes:

if the cache journal comprises data associated with the first portion of the cache, determining if the data indicates a state of the first portion of the cache.

14. A first computing system, comprising:

a cache comprising one or more memories;

a configuration manager; and

a journal;

wherein the configuration manager is operable to;

receive data from a memory manager associated with a memory comprising a portion of the cache, the journal including data associated with the cache;

determine whether the journal includes data associated with the memory;

create, in the journal, data associated with the memory if the journal does not include data associated with the memory;

determine whether the memory is valid for use;

communicate to the memory manager associated with the memory whether the memory is valid for use.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data received from the memory manager associated with the memory is an identifier of the memory.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein determining whether the journal includes data associated with the memory includes determining whether the journal includes the identifier of the memory.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein creating, in the journal, data associated with the memory includes creating an entry in the journal for the identifier of the memory and associating the identifier with a state of the memory.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein communicating to the memory manager associated with the memory whether the memory is valid for use includes communicating to the memory manager the state of the memory.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the journal is maintained in a persistent memory.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein determining whether the memory is valid for use includes:

if the journal includes data associated with the memory, determining whether the data indicates a state of the memory.