Techniques to perform power fail-safe caching without atomic metadata

• US 8,700,858 B2
• Filed: 05/16/2012
• Issued: 04/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Hynix NAND Product Solutions Corporation (SK Hynix Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Trika, Sanjeev N.
• Primary Examiner(s): BATAILLE, PIERRE MICHE
• Application Number:
  US13/473,419
• Publication Number:
  US 20120290774A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 711/135, 711/141, 711/118, 711/144, 711/145, 711/E12.003, 711/E12.042, 711/E12.052
• US Class Current: 711/135
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1441 Resetting or repowering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0804 with main memory updating G06F12/0806 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0815 Cache consistency protocols
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0866 for peripheral storage systems, e.g. disk cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0868 Data transfer between cache memory and other subsystems, e.g. storage devices or host systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0871 Allocation or management of cache space
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1032 Reliability improvement, data loss prevention, degraded operation etc
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/222 Non-volatile memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/601 Reconfiguration of cache memory
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A method and system to allow power fail-safe write-back or write-through caching of data in a persistent storage device into one or more cache lines of a caching device. No metadata associated with any of the cache lines is written atomically into the caching device when the data in the storage device is cached. As such, specialized cache hardware to allow atomic writing of metadata during the caching of data is not required.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a multicore processor computer that comprises a hard disk drive and flash memory;

the flash memory to store data that is not synchronized with the hard disk drive; and

the computer to execute an operating system that is to manage, based upon pinning information and most recently accessed addresses, both data eviction from the flash memory to the hard disk drive and data promotion from the hard disk drive to the flash memory.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the computer comprises cache that comprises the flash memory.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the data eviction and data promotion are based upon recent data usage.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the computer comprises a multicore processor, a controller, and a wireless interface; and

the controller is to permit the processor to communicate with the wireless interface, the hard disk drive, and the flash memory.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein:

the wireless interface is to operate in accordance with a Bluetooth wireless communication protocol.

6. A method comprising:

storing data in a flash memory, the data not being synchronized with a hard disk drive, the flash memory and the hard disk drive being comprised in a multicore processor computer; and

executing, by the computer, an operating system, the operating system managing, based upon pinning information and most recently accessed addresses, both data eviction from the flash memory to the hard disk drive and data promotion from the hard disk drive to the flash memory.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the computer comprises cache that comprises the flash memory.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the data eviction and data promotion are based upon recent data usage.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein:

the computer comprises a multicore processor, a controller, and a wireless interface; and

the controller is to permit the processor to communicate with the wireless interface, the hard disk drive, and the flash memory.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein:

the wireless interface is to operate in accordance with a Bluetooth wireless communication protocol.

11. Computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a machine, result in performance of operations comprising:

storing data in a flash memory, the data not being synchronized with a hard disk drive, the flash memory and the hard disk drive being comprised in a multicore processor computer; and

executing, by the computer, an operating system, the operating system managing based upon pinning information and most recently accessed addresses, both data eviction from the flash memory to the hard disk drive and data promotion from the hard disk drive to the flash memory.

12. The medium of claim 11, wherein:

the computer comprises cache that comprises the flash memory.

13. The medium of claim 11, wherein:

the data eviction and data promotion are based upon recent data usage.

14. The medium of claim 11, wherein:

the computer comprises a multicore processor, a controller, and a wireless interface; and

the controller is to permit the processor to communicate with the wireless interface, the hard disk drive, and the flash memory.

15. The medium of claim 14, wherein:

the wireless interface is to operate in accordance with a Bluetooth wireless communication protocol.