ARRAY CONTROLLER, SOLID STATE DISK, AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING SOLID STATE DISK TO WRITE DATA

• US 20180165014A1
• Filed: 02/06/2018
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Jiang, Peijun, Xue, Qiang, Huang, Keji
• Granted Patent: US 10,761,731 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0253 Garbage collection, i.e. reclamation of unreferenced memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/06 Addressing a physical block of locations, e.g. base addressing, module addressing, memory dedication G06F12/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0804 with main memory updating G06F12/0806 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0868 Data transfer between cache memory and other subsystems, e.g. storage devices or host systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1036 Life time enhancement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7201 Logical to physical mapping or translation of blocks or pages
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7203 Temporary buffering, e.g. using volatile buffer or dedicated buffer blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7204 Capacity control, e.g. partitioning, end-of-life degradation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7205 Cleaning, compaction, garbage collection, erase control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7208 Multiple device management, e.g. distributing data over multiple flash devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

Application relates to storage technologies, and in particular, to writing data in a storage system having solid state disks. Embodiments of the application provide an array controller, including a communication interface and a processor. The processor receives information about a logical block from a solid state disk. The information about the logical block includes a size of the logical block and indication information of the logical block, and the logical block includes one or more physical blocks. The processor sends multiple write data requests to the solid state disk. Each write data request includes data, and each write data request instructs the solid state disk to write the data into the logical block indicated by the indication information of the logical block. A total size of data included in the multiple write data requests is equivalent to the size of the logical block.

Claims

1. An array controller in a storage system, comprising:

a communication interface coupled to a solid state disk (SSD), wherein the SSD comprises one or more flash memory chips, each flash memory chip comprises a plurality of physical blocks; and

a processor, configured to;

obtain logical block information of the SSD, wherein the logical block information includes a size and indication information of a logical block of the SSD, wherein the logical block corresponds to one or more physical blocks of the SSD; and

send, via the communication interface, one or more data writing requests to the SSD, to instruct the SSD to store data carried in the data writing requests;

wherein a total size of data carried in the data writing requests equals to the size of the logical block, and wherein the data carried in the data writing requests are written into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block.

2. The array controller according to claim 1, wherein the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block are located in different channels of the SSD.

3. The array controller according to claim 1, wherein the logical block is in a to-be-written state, and logical blocks in the to-be-written state are allocated by the SSD to store data.

4. The array controller according to claim 1, wherein the indication information of the logical block comprises an identifier of the logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises the identifier of the logical block.

5. The array controller according to claim 1, wherein the indication information of the logical block comprises a logical address range of logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises a portion of the logical address range.

6. A solid state disk (SSD), comprising:

one or more flash memory chip each comprising a plurality of physical blocks; and

a SSD controller, configured to;

provide logical block information to an array controller coupled to the SSD, wherein the logical block information includes size and indication information of a logical block of the SSD, and wherein the logical block corresponds to one or more physical blocks of the SSD;

receive one or more data writing requests from the array controller; and

write data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block;

wherein a total size of the data carried in the data writing requests equals to the size of the logical block.

7. The solid state disk according to claim 6, wherein the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block are located in different channels of the SSD.

8. The solid state disk according to claim 6, wherein the SSD controller is further configured to:

determine a logical block that is in a to-be-written state, wherein logical blocks in the to-be-written state are allocated to store data;

and wherein in providing logical block information to the array controller, the SSD controller is configured to;

provide logical block information of the logical block that is determined to be in the to-be-written state to the array controller.

9. The solid state disk according to claim 6, wherein the indication information of the logical block includes an identifier of the logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises the identifier of the logical block;

and wherein in writing data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block, the SSD controller is configured to;

write the data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block identified by the identifier.

10. The solid state disk according to claim 6, wherein the indication information of the logical block includes a logical address range of the logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises a portion of the logical address range;

and wherein in writing data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block, the SSD controller is configured to;

determine the logical block according to the portion of the logical address range in each of the data writing requests and the logical address range of the logical block; and

write the data carried in each of the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the determined logical block.

11. A method for an array controller in a storage system to write data into a solid state disk (SSD), comprising:

receiving, by the array controller, logical block information of the SSD, wherein the logical block information includes a size and indication information of a logical block, wherein the logical block corresponds to one or more physical blocks of the SSD; and

sending, by the array controller, one or more data writing requests to the SSD, to instruct the SSD to store data carried in the data writing requests;

wherein a total size of data carried in the data writing requests equals to the size of the logical block, and wherein the data carried in the data writing requests are written into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block are located in different channels of the SSD.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the logical block is in a to-be-written state, and the logical blocks in the to-be-written state are allocated by SSD to store data.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the indication information of the logical block comprises an identifier of the logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises the identifier of the logical block.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein the indication information of the logical block comprises a logical address range of the logical block, and wherein each of the data writing requests comprises a portion of the logical address range.

16. A data writing method for use by a solid state disk (SSD) in a storage system, where the SSD comprises one or more flash memory chip, and each flash memory chip comprise a plurality of physical blocks, the method comprising:

providing logical block information to an array controller coupled to the SSD, wherein the logical block information includes size and indication information of a logical block of the SSD, and wherein the logical block corresponds to one or more physical blocks of the SSD;

receiving one or more data writing requests from the array controller; and

writing data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block;

wherein a total size of the data carried in the data writing requests equals to the size of the logical block.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block are located in different channels of the SSD.

18. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

determining a logical block that is in a to-be-written state, wherein the logical blocks in the to-be-written state are allocated to store data;

and wherein providing logical block information to the array controller comprises;

providing logical block information of the logical block that is determined to be in the to-be-written state to the array controller.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the indication information of the logical block includes an identifier of the logical block, wherein each of the data writing requests comprises the identifier of the logical block, and wherein writing data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block comprises:

writing the data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block identified by the identifier.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the indication information of the logical block includes a logical address range of the logical block, wherein each of the data writing requests comprises a portion of the logical address range, and wherein writing data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the logical block comprises:

determining the logical block according to the portion of the logical address range in each of the data writing requests and the logical address range of the logical block; and

writing the data carried in the data writing requests into the one or more physical blocks corresponding to the determined logical block.