Disk drive memory
First Claim
1. A disk memory system (100) for storing data files for associated data processing devices comprising:
- a plurality of disk drives (130-0 to 130-M);
means (140) for assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into two or more parity groups, each parity group consisting of two or more disk drives, the size of the parity group being one of at least two different parity group sizes in said two or more parity groups;
means (101) responsive to the receipt of a data file from said associated data processing devices for selecting one of said parity groups to store said data file thereon;
means (161, 101, 111, 121, 141-*) for writing said received data file and parity data associated with said received data file in segments across said two or more disk drives in said selected parity group;
means (140) for reserving one or more of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said two or more parity groups.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The disk drive memory of the present invention uses a large plurality of small form factor disk drives to implement an inexpensive, high performance, high reliability disk drive memory that emulates the format and capability of large form factor disk drives. The plurality of disk drives are switchably interconnectable to form parity groups of N+1 parallel connected disk drives to store data thereon. The N+1 disk drives are used to store the N segments of each data word plus a parity segment. In addition, a pool of backup disk drives is maintained to automatically substitute a replacement disk drive for a disk drive in a parity group that fails during operation.
202 Citations
36 Claims
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1. A disk memory system (100) for storing data files for associated data processing devices comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives (130-0 to 130-M); means (140) for assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into two or more parity groups, each parity group consisting of two or more disk drives, the size of the parity group being one of at least two different parity group sizes in said two or more parity groups; means (101) responsive to the receipt of a data file from said associated data processing devices for selecting one of said parity groups to store said data file thereon; means (161, 101, 111, 121, 141-*) for writing said received data file and parity data associated with said received data file in segments across said two or more disk drives in said selected parity group; means (140) for reserving one or more of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said two or more parity groups. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of storing data files for data processing devices on an associated disk memory system that includes a plurality of disk drives comprising the steps of:
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assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into two or more parity groups, each parity group consisting of two or more disk drives, the size of the parity group being one of at least two different parity group sizes in said two or more parity groups; selecting, in response to the receipt of a data file from said processing devices, one of said parity groups to store said received data file thereon; writing said received data file and parity data associated with said received data file across said two or more disk drives of said selected parity group; reserving one or more of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, said backup disk drives shared in common by said parity groups. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A disk memory system (100) for storing data files for associated data processing devices comprising
a plurality of disk drives (130-0 to 130-M); -
means (140) for receiving one or more of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said parity groups; means (140) for assigning a subset of said disk drives into two or more parity groups, each parity group consisting of two or more disk drives, the size of the parity group being one of at least two different parity group sizes in said two or more parity groups; means (101) responsive to the receipt of one of said data files from said associated data processing devices for selecting one of said parity groups to store said received data file thereon; means (161, 101, 111, 121, 141-*) responsive to said selecting means for writing said received data file and parity data associated with said received data file across said two or more disk drives in said selected parity group. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of storing data files on a disk memory system that includes a plurality of disk drives, for an associated data processing devices comprising the steps of:
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reserving one or more of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said parity groups; assigning a subset of said disk drives into two or more parity groups, each said parity group consisting of two or more disk drives, the size of the parity group being one of at least two different parity group sizes in said two or more parity groups; selecting one of said parity groups in response to the receipt of a data file from said associated data processing devices for storing said received data file thereon; writing said received data file and parity data associated with said received data file across said two or more disk drives in said selected parity group. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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Specification