Apparatus, system, and method for auto-commit memory

• US 8,527,693 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 09/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fusion-IO Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Flynn, David, Nellans, David, Strasser, John, Peterson, James G., Wipfel, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Gu, Shawn X
• Application Number:
  US13/324,942
• Publication Number:
  US 20120151118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 630 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/30 Means for acting in the event of power-supply failure or interruption, e.g. power-supply fluctuations for resetting only G06F1/24
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1008 in individual solid state devices G06F11/1004 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1666 where the redundant component is memory or memory area
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2015 Redundant power supplies power supply failure G06F1/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0802 Addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means, e.g. caches
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/7207 management of metadata or control data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 Data buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0679 Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP]

Abstract

An auto-commit memory is capable of implementing a pre-configured, triggered commit action in response to a failure condition, such as a loss of power, invalid shutdown, fault, or the like. A computing device may access the auto-commit memory using memory access semantics (using a memory mapping mechanism or the like), bypassing system calls typically required in virtual memory operations. Since the auto-commit memory is pre-configured to commit data stored thereon in the event of a failure, users of the auto-commit memory may view these memory semantic operations as being instantly committed. Operations to commit the data are taken out of the write-commit path.

Claims

1. A method for instant-commit, memory semantic operations within a volatile memory address space of a computing device, the method comprising:

mapping a memory address range of a host to a volatile auto-commit buffer within an isolation zone of a non-volatile storage device comprising a storage controller configured to store data of the auto-commit buffer on non-volatile storage media of the non-volatile storage device independent of a host computing device;

arming the auto-commit buffer to store data on the non-volatile storage media in association with a logical identifier in response to a trigger event, the logical identifier associated with a user of the auto-commit buffer; and

servicing memory operations from the user in the mapped memory address range.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory address range of the host is mapped to a bus address range corresponding to the volatile auto-commit buffer within the isolation zone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein arming the auto-commit buffer comprises storing the logical identifier in the auto-commit buffer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing instantly committed, memory semantic operations on the auto-commit buffer in response to mapping the memory address range of the host to the volatile auto-commit buffer within the isolation zone.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the host comprises a guest operating system of a virtual machine, the method further comprising providing instantly committed, memory semantic access to the auto-commit buffer through a mapped memory address range of the guest operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing contents of the auto-commit buffer on the non-volatile storage media in response to the trigger event, wherein the trigger event comprises one of a power failure, a host hardware failure, and a host software fault.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reserving space in a write buffer of the non-volatile storage device, wherein the write buffer is within the isolation zone and comprises sufficient capacity to store contents of the auto-commit buffer on the non-volatile storage device independent of the host computing device; and

storing the contents of the auto-commit buffer on the non-volatile storage media through the write buffer in response to the trigger event.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining two or more pending non-volatile media write operations configured to store data of the auto-commit buffer on respective storage locations on the non-volatile storage media; and

executing the two or more pending non-volatile media write operations in response to the trigger event to store data of the auto-commit buffer.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a priority of the data of the auto-commit buffer relative to other data pending storage on the non-volatile storage device, wherein the priority determines an order in which the data of the auto-commit buffer is stored relative to the other data pending storage, in response to the triggering event.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the priority determines that the data of the auto-commit buffer is stored on the non-volatile storage device before data of non-acknowledged storage operations and after acknowledged storage operations.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the priority determines that the data of the auto-commit buffer is stored on the non-volatile storage device before data of acknowledged storage operations.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising in response to the trigger event, storing contents of the auto-commit buffer on the non-volatile storage media in a log-based format, the log-based format comprising data packets having the logical identifier and a sequence identifier that preserves an ordered sequence of storage operations on the non-volatile storage media.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the logical identifier in response to one of renaming a memory mapped file, moving a memory mapped file, a notification from an operating system, an mprotect operation, an mmap operation, and a segment fault.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the host to bypass a memory cache such that memory operations are serviced directly by the volatile auto-commit buffer, wherein mapping the memory address range of the host to the volatile auto-commit buffer comprises configuring the host to service memory operations directly on the volatile auto-commit buffer.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising arming the auto-commit buffer concurrently with mapping the memory address range to the volatile auto-commit buffer.

16. An apparatus for instant-commit, memory semantic operations within a volatile memory address space of a computing device, comprising:

an isolation zone comprising;

a volatile auto-commit buffer mapped to a memory address range of a host,

a commit module configured to store data of the volatile auto-commit buffer to a non-volatile storage medium of a non-volatile storage device together with a logical identifier associated with a user of the auto-commit buffer in response to a trigger event, and

a secondary power supply configured to power the volatile auto-commit buffer, commit module, and non-volatile storage device independent of the host.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the non-volatile storage device comprises a non-volatile storage controller configured to store the data of the volatile auto-commit buffer on the non-volatile storage medium independent of the host.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the non-volatile storage controller comprises a write data pipeline configured to store contents of the auto-commit buffer in a packet format comprising the logical identifier associated with the user and in association with a sequence identifier that preserves an ordered sequence of storage operations on the non-volatile storage medium.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the volatile auto-commit buffer is communicatively coupled to the host by a bus, and wherein the memory address range of the host is mapped to an address of the bus.

20. A system for instant-commit, memory semantic operations within a volatile memory address space of a computing device, comprising:

an auto-commit memory, comprising;

a volatile auto-commit buffer mapped into a memory address range of a host,

a non-volatile storage device comprising non-volatile storage media, and a commit module configured to store data of the volatile auto-commit buffer to a non-volatile storage medium of the non-volatile storage device together with a logical identifier associated with a user of the auto-commit buffer in response to a trigger event, and

a secondary power supply configured to power the volatile auto-commit buffer, commit module, and non-volatile storage device independent of the host.