Data storage apparatus and method
First Claim
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1. A mass data storage apparatus for storing mass storage data for a plurality of application programs running on data processing devices, said mass storage apparatus comprising:
- a set of physical mass storage devices, each physical mass storage device comprising a physical memory space divided into physical storage units; and
array controller means connected to said set for operatively interconnecting said set to form a composite memory space comprising the combined physical storage units of said physical mass storage devices, said array controller means includingmeans for configuring groups of said physical storage units within defined boundaries in said composite memory space into a plurality of redundancy groups to provide in each redundancy group a predetermined arrangement of physical data storage units for storing mass storage data received from said application programs and physical redundant information storage units for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data,means for assigning sequential logical addresses to selected ones of the physical data storage units within each redundancy group to arrange said selected units in a logically contiguous data group having a configuration independent of said redundancy group in which said data group is formed,means for correlating the sequential logical addresses of each data group to logical addresses in one of a plurality of logical mass storage units addressable by said application programs,means responsive to I/O service requests from said application programs addressing logical address spans in said logical mass storage units for mapping said spans to sequences of logical addresses within said data groups to which said spans have been correlated by said correlating means, and for mapping said sequences to physical data storage units to which said sequences have been assigned by said assigning means, andmeans responsive to receipt of mass storage data from said application programs for storing said received mass storage data in physical data storage units identified by said mapping means and for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data in physical redundant information storage units related to said identified physical data storage units by said redundancy group configuring means, whereby said composite memory space is organized at a first logical level as a plurality of redundancy groups, each of said redundancy groups including at a second logical level at least one independently configurable data group, each data group capable of operating as a separate logical mass data storage device.
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Abstract
A mass storage apparatus, made up of a plurality of physical storage devices, which is capable of providing both high bandwidth and high operation rate, as necessary, along with high reliability, is provided. The device set is divided into one or more redundancy groups. Each redundancy group is in turn divided into one or more data groups, each of which may span only a small number of the drives in the redundancy group, providing a high request rate, or which may span a large number of drives, providing high bandwidth.
66 Citations
42 Claims
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1. A mass data storage apparatus for storing mass storage data for a plurality of application programs running on data processing devices, said mass storage apparatus comprising:
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a set of physical mass storage devices, each physical mass storage device comprising a physical memory space divided into physical storage units; and array controller means connected to said set for operatively interconnecting said set to form a composite memory space comprising the combined physical storage units of said physical mass storage devices, said array controller means including means for configuring groups of said physical storage units within defined boundaries in said composite memory space into a plurality of redundancy groups to provide in each redundancy group a predetermined arrangement of physical data storage units for storing mass storage data received from said application programs and physical redundant information storage units for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data, means for assigning sequential logical addresses to selected ones of the physical data storage units within each redundancy group to arrange said selected units in a logically contiguous data group having a configuration independent of said redundancy group in which said data group is formed, means for correlating the sequential logical addresses of each data group to logical addresses in one of a plurality of logical mass storage units addressable by said application programs, means responsive to I/O service requests from said application programs addressing logical address spans in said logical mass storage units for mapping said spans to sequences of logical addresses within said data groups to which said spans have been correlated by said correlating means, and for mapping said sequences to physical data storage units to which said sequences have been assigned by said assigning means, and means responsive to receipt of mass storage data from said application programs for storing said received mass storage data in physical data storage units identified by said mapping means and for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data in physical redundant information storage units related to said identified physical data storage units by said redundancy group configuring means, whereby said composite memory space is organized at a first logical level as a plurality of redundancy groups, each of said redundancy groups including at a second logical level at least one independently configurable data group, each data group capable of operating as a separate logical mass data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A mass data storage apparatus for storing mass storage data for a plurality of application programs running on data processing devices, said mass storage apparatus comprising:
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a set of physical mass storage devices, each physical mass storage device comprising a physical memory space divided into physical storage units; and array controller means connected to said set for operatively interconnecting said set to form a composite memory space comprising the combined physical storage units of said physical mass storage devices, said array controller means including means for configuring a group of said physical storage units within a defined boundary in said composite memory space into a redundancy group to provide within the redundancy group a predetermined arrangement of physical data storage units for storing mass storage data received from said application programs and physical redundant information storage units for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data, means for assigning sequential logical addresses in groups to selected ones of the physical data storage units within said redundancy group to arrange said units in a plurality of data groups having configurations independent of said redundancy group, means for correlating the sequential logical addresses of said data groups to logical addresses in respective ones of a plurality of logical mass storage units addressable by said application programs, means responsive to I/O service requests from said application programs addressing spans of logical addresses in said logical mass storage units for mapping said spans to sequences of logical addresses within said data groups with which said spans have been correlated by said correlating means, and for mapping said sequences to physical data storage units to which said sequences have been assigned by said assigning means, and means responsive to receipt of mass storage data from said application programs for storing said received mass storage data in physical data storage units identified by said mapping means and for storing redundant information associated with said received mass storage data in physical redundant information storage units related to said identified physical data storage units by said redundancy group configuring means, whereby said composite memory space is organized at a first logical level as at least one redundancy group, each of said at least one redundancy device group including at a second logical level a plurality of independently configurable data groups, each data group capable of operating as a separate logical mass data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification