Solid state drive data storage system and method

• US 8,468,292 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2009
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell International LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Compellent Technologies Incorporated (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Aszmann, Lawrence E., Klemm, Michael J., Pittelko, Michael H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rojas, Midys
• Application Number:
  US12/501,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010488A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,436 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 711/154, 711/E12.008, 711/E12.001
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7202 Allocation control and policies
• 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 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a data storage system and method that includes at least two solid state devices that can be classified in at least two different efficiency levels, wherein data progression is used to allocate data to the most cost-appropriate device according to the nature of the data.

Claims

1. A data storage system comprising a plurality of solid state devices classified in at least two different efficiency levels, the plurality of solid state devices comprising a read/write optimized device and a read optimized device, wherein data progression is used to allocate read/write data to the read/write optimized device and read-only data to the read optimized device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one read/write optimized device is a single-level cell device and the read optimized devices is a multi-level cell device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the multi-level cell device and the single-level cell device are NOR or NAND devices.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein read/write data is separately bundled for execution and read-only data is separately bundled for execution.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of solid state devices can be reconfigured between a read/write optimized device and a read optimized device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of solid state devices includes at least one single-level cell device, and at least one multi-level cell device.

7. The system of claim 6, further including at least one hard disk drive.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein data progression is used to automatically move data between read/write optimized solid state drives and read optimized solid state drives.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein read/write data is separately bundled for execution and read optimized data is separately bundled for execution.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein data progression is further used to move infrequently accessed data to a less costly storage device, and to move frequently accessed data to a faster storage device.

11. The system of claim 1, further including at least one hard disk drive, and wherein data progression is further used to allocate data between the solid state devices and the hard disk drive based on at least one of the nature of the data and the access frequency of the data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein read/write data is allocated to the read/write optimized device and read-only data first to the read optimized device and subsequently to the hard disk drive.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the solid state devices comprise RAM-based memory or flash-based memory or both.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the read/write optimized device comprises a larger percentage of spare sectors and a smaller percentage of logical block address space than the read optimized device.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the read-only data is accessible only for reading.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the read-only data comprises historical snapshot data.

14. A method for efficiently storing data in a data storage system comprising at least two solid state devices of different efficiency levels wherein a solid state device with a higher efficiency is also read/write optimized and a solid state device with a lower efficiency is read optimized and the system comprising a hard disk drive, the method comprising allocating data between the at least two solid state devices and the hard disk drive based, at least in part, on at least one of the nature of the data and the access frequency of the data, wherein the optimization of the solid state devices is maintained.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein data is stored to a solid state device of a first efficiency level, and as data is used less frequently, the data is moved to the solid state device of a second efficiency level.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the data is subsequently moved from the solid state device of the second efficiency level to the hard disk drive.

17. A data storage system comprising:

at least two solid state devices of different efficiency levels wherein a solid state device with a higher efficiency is also read/write optimized and a solid state device with a lower efficiency is read optimized; and

a hard disk drive,

wherein data is allocated between the at least two solid state devices and the hard disk drive based, at least in part, on at least one of the nature of the data and the access frequency of the data and the optimization of the solid state devices is maintained.