Method and apparatus for detection and management of data streams
First Claim
1. A method for supporting data stream detection and processing in a computing system, the method comprising the steps of:
- detecting data streams in the data traffic between a mass storage device and a processor device;
launching newly detected data streams by allocating memory storage for the detected data streams;
managing memory storage to maintain at least a predefined time interval'"'"'s worth of data in memory storage for each launched data stream; and
releasing the memory storage for the launched data streams when the launched data streams terminate.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for the detection and support of data streams is disclosed. The system determines whether new commands comprise a data stream. If a new data stream is detected, the system next determines whether adequate resources are available to launch the new data stream. If the system determines that the data stream can be launched, system resources, particularly cache memory space, are assigned to the data stream to provide the data stream with the necessary amount of data throughput needed to support the data stream efficiently. The data stream'"'"'s throughput is the amount of data that the stream requires per unit time. The system monitors all supported data streams to determine when a particular data stream has terminated, at which time resources dedicated to the data stream are released and become available to support other data streams. The cache for each supported data stream is maintained at as full a level as possible, with the cache for the “least full” data stream given priority for refresh. Allocating resources by throughput allows for more efficient resource utilization.
68 Citations
61 Claims
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1. A method for supporting data stream detection and processing in a computing system, the method comprising the steps of:
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detecting data streams in the data traffic between a mass storage device and a processor device; launching newly detected data streams by allocating memory storage for the detected data streams; managing memory storage to maintain at least a predefined time interval'"'"'s worth of data in memory storage for each launched data stream; and releasing the memory storage for the launched data streams when the launched data streams terminate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system for detecting and processing data streams, the system comprising:
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a data stream detector; a data stream manager that determines whether a data stream detected by the data stream detector can be launched and allocates an amount of cache memory to each data stream it determines can be launched, the amount of cache memory determined by the throughput of the detected and launched data stream; and a data stream terminator. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A data stream processing method comprising the steps of:
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detecting at least a first data stream in the data exchanged with a first mass storage device; launching and supporting the at least first detected data stream, and further comprising determining the throughput of the at least first data stream and allocating cache memory to the at least first data stream based on the throughput so determined; and detecting that the at least first data stream has ended and terminating support to the at least first data stream. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. In a data processing system having at least a first microprocessor for requesting and processing data streams, at least a first mass storage device for storing data streams, at least a first cache memory for temporarily storing data retrieved from the mass storage device before transmitting the retrieved data for processing, a data stream controller coupled to the at least first mass storage device, the at least first microprocessor and the at least first cache memory, the data stream controller comprising:
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a data stream detector for monitoring the data traffic to and from the at least first mass storage device and for detecting the presence of data streams in the data traffic; and cache memory controller for launching, supporting and terminating the data streams detected by the detector, wherein the cache memory controller allocates cache memory to each launched and supported data stream based on the data throughput of each data stream. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A system for detecting and processing data streams, the system comprising:
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a data stream detector; a data stream manager that does not launch a data stream detected by the data stream detector until the system can launch and support the newly detected data stream without affecting the support of previously launched and non-terminated data streams; and a data stream terminator. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
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34. A system for detecting and processing data streams, the system comprising:
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a data stream detector; a data stream manager; and a data stream terminator that determines the end of a data stream when a supported data stream'"'"'s throughput drops below a predefined minimum throughput. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. A data stream processing method comprising the steps of:
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detecting at least a first data stream in the data exchanged with a first mass storage device; launching and supporting the at least first detected data stream; and detecting that the at least first data stream has ended and terminating support to the at least first data stream; wherein the steps of detecting, launching and supporting further comprise the step of launching a newly detected data stream only if the newly detected data stream can be launched without affecting the support of earlier launched and supported data streams. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. A data stream processing method comprising the steps of:
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detecting at least a first data stream in the data exchanged with a first mass storage device; launching and supporting the at least first detected data stream; and detecting that the at least first data stream has ended and terminating support to the at least first data stream, and further comprising monitoring the at least first data stream for a period of time that is based on the throughput of the data stream, so that the terminating a data stream occurs on a variable time interval based on the throughput of each supported data stream. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49)
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50. In a data processing system having at least a first microprocessor for requesting and processing data streams, at least a first mass storage device for storing data streams, at least a first cache memory for temporarily storing data retrieved from the mass storage device before transmitting the retrieved data for processing, a data stream controller coupled to the at least first mass storage device, the at least first microprocessor and the at least first cache memory, the data stream controller comprising:
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a data stream detector for monitoring the data traffic to and from the at least first mass storage device and for detecting the presence of data streams in the data traffic; and cache memory controller for launching, supporting and terminating the data streams detected by the detector, wherein the cache memory controller does not launch a newly detected data stream if the launch will impact earlier launched and supported data streams negatively. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. In a data processing system having at least a first microprocessor for requesting and processing data streams, at least a first mass storage device for storing data streams, at least a first cache memory for temporarily storing data retrieved from the mass storage device before transmitting the retrieved data for processing, a data stream controller coupled to the at least first mass storage device, the at least first microprocessor and the at least first cache memory, the data stream controller comprising:
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a data stream detector for monitoring the data traffic to and from the at least first mass storage device and for detecting the presence of data streams in the data traffic; and cache memory controller for launching, supporting and terminating the data streams detected by the detector, wherein the cache memory controller continually checks to determine if each supported data stream'"'"'s throughput has dropped below a predefined minimum, the cache memory controller terminating support to each data stream whose throughput falls below the predefined minimum. - View Dependent Claims (57, 58, 59, 60, 61)
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Specification