TRANSFERRING COMPUTATIONAL OPERATIONS TO CONTROLLERS OF DATA STORAGE DEVICES

• US 20200133531A1
• Filed: 10/31/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Subramaniam, Eswaran, Subramanian, Sathyanarayanan, Gaur, Jatin
• Granted Patent: US 11,320,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3268 Power saving in hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24553 of query operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/509 Offload
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals

Abstract

Systems and methods for offloading computational operations. In some implementations a method includes determining whether a data storage device coupled to a computing device is capable of performing a set of computational operations. The data storage device may be hot swappable. The method also includes offloading the set of computational operations to the data storage device in response to determining that the data storage device is capable of performing the set of computational operations. The method further includes performing the set of computational operations on the computing device in response to determining the data storage device is not capable of performing the set of computational operations.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing device configured to;

receive, from a computing device by a data storage device, a request to perform a set of computational operations, wherein the data storage device is hot swappable;

perform the set of computational operations, wherein;

the set of computational operations is offloaded to the data storage device by the computing device; and

the set of computational operations comprises one or more tensor operations; and

transmit a set of results of the set of computational operations to the computing device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

receiving, from the computing device, a query requesting capability data, wherein the capability data indicates a set of types of operations that the data storage device is capable of performing; and

transmitting the capability data to the computing device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing device is further configured to:

establishing a communication channel between the data storage device and the computing device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data storage device comprises one or more computation engines configured to perform the set of computational operations.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the set of results indicates a set of locations in a non-volatile memory of the data storage device where the set of results are stored.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the data storage device lacks an internal power source; and

the data storage device receives power to operate the data storage device from the computing device.

7. A method, comprising:

determining whether a data storage device coupled to a computing device is capable of performing a set of computational operations, wherein the data storage device is hot swappable;

offloading the set of computational operations to the data storage device in response to determining that the data storage device is capable of performing the set of computational operations; and

performing the set of computational operations on the computing device in response to determining the data storage device is not capable of performing the set of computational operations.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data storage device comprises one or more computation engines configured to perform the set of computational operations.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein offloading the set of computational operations comprises:

establishing a communication channel between the computing device and the data storage device;

transmitting, by the computing device, first data indicating a set of parameters for the set of computational operations to the data storage device via the communication channel; and

receiving, by the computing device, a set of results of the set of computational operations from the data storage device via the communication channel.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

performing, by the computing device, one or more additional computational operations based on the set of results.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the set of results indicates a set of locations in a non-volatile memory of the data storage device where the set of results are stored.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting that the data storage device has been coupled to the computing device;

requesting capability data from the data storage device, wherein the capability data indicates a set of types of operations that the data storage device is capable of performing; and

receiving the capability data from the data storage device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein determining whether the data storage device is capable of performing the set of computational operations comprises:

determining whether the set of computational operations is indicated in the capability data.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining whether the computing device has sufficient resources to allow the data storage device to perform the set of computational operations, wherein offloading the set of computational operations to the data storage device is further in response to determining that the computing device has sufficient resource.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein performing the set of computational operations on the computing device is further in response to determining that the computing device does not have sufficient resources to allow the data storage device to perform the set of computational operations.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether the computing device has sufficient resources comprises:

determining whether the computing device is capable of providing power to the data storage device to perform the set of computational operations.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether the computing device has sufficient resources comprises:

determining whether the computing device or the data storage device is capable satisfying one or more thermal constraints.

18. The method of claim 7, wherein the data storage device comprises a memory card.

19. The method of claim 7, wherein:

the data storage device lacks an internal power source; and

the data storage device receives power to operate the data storage device from the computing device.

20. An apparatus, comprising:

a processing device configured to;

determine whether a data storage device coupled to a computing device is capable of performing a set of computational operations, wherein the data storage device is hot swappable;

offload the set of computational operations to the data storage device in response to determining that the data storage device is capable of performing the set of computational operations; and

perform the set of computational operations on the computing device in response to determining the data storage device is not capable of performing the set of computational operations.