STAGING SORTED DATA IN INTERMEDIATE STORAGE

• US 20140281183A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Gaertner, Mark A., Edgar, Brian Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,588,886 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/104
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0692 Multiconfiguration, e.g. local and global addressing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1252 for discontinuous data, e.g. digital information signals, computer programme data
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/10 Input/output [I/O] data interface arrangements, e.g. I/O data control circuits, I/O data buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 7/1012 Data reordering during input/output, e.g. crossbars, layers of multiplexers, shifting or rotating

Abstract

A data storage system includes data storage and random access memory. A sorting module is communicatively coupled to the random access memory and is configured to sort data blocks of incoming write data received in the random access memory. A storage controller is communicatively coupled to the random access memory and the data storage and is configured to write the sorted data blocks as individually-sorted data block sets to a staging area of the data storage. A method and processor-implemented process provide for sorting data blocks of incoming write data received in a random access memory of data storage and writing the sorted data blocks as individually-sorted data block sets to a staging area of the data storage.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

sorting data blocks of incoming write data received in a random access memory of data storage; and

writing the sorted data blocks as individually-sorted data block sets to a staging area of the data storage.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

dynamically mapping logical block addresses of the written data blocks to new physical block addresses in the staging area of the data storage.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the sorting operation comprises:

sorting the data blocks according to a logical block address order.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the sorting operation comprises:

sorting the data blocks according to a most-frequently-accessed order.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the sorting operation comprises:

sorting the data blocks according to a most-recently-accessed order.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the writing operation is performed on a number of data blocks constrained by a size of a sortable portion of the random access memory.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped in individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to the staging area.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to another intermediate storage area.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets of recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to a host device.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to a destination storage area.

11. A data storage system comprising:

data storage;

random access memory;

a sorting module communicatively coupled to the random access memory and configured to sort data blocks of incoming write data received in the random access memory;

a storage controller communicatively coupled to the random access memory and the data storage and being configured to write the sorted data blocks as individually-sorted data block sets to a staging area of the data storage.

12. The data storage system of claim 11 wherein the sorting module is further configured to sort the data blocks according to a logical block address order.

13. The data storage system of claim 11 wherein the storage controller is further configured to read into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage, to re-sort the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets.

14. The data storage system of claim 13 wherein the storage controller is further configured to write the individually-re-sorted data block sets to another intermediate storage area.

15. The data storage system of claim 13 wherein the storage controller is further configured to write the individually-re-sorted data block sets to a destination storage area.

16. One or more processor-readable storage media storing processor-readable instructions for performing a system-implemented process in a data storage system, the process comprising:

sorting data blocks of incoming write data received in a random access memory of data storage; and

writing the sorted data blocks as individually-sorted data block sets to a staging area of the data storage.

17. The one or more processor readable storage media of claim 16 wherein the process further comprises:

dynamically mapping logical block addresses of the written data blocks to new physical block addresses in the staging area of the data storage.

18. The one or more processor readable storage media of claim 16 wherein the sorting operation comprises:

sorting the data blocks according to a logical block address order.

19. The one or more processor readable storage media of claim 16 further comprising:

reading into the random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to another intermediate storage area.

20. The one or more processor readable storage media of claim 16 further comprising:

reading into random access memory multiple individually-sorted data block sets recorded in the staging area of the data storage;

re-sorting the individual data blocks from the multiple sorted data blocks in the random access memory, the re-sorted individual data blocks being grouped individually-re-sorted data block sets; and

writing the individually-re-sorted data block sets to a destination storage area.