ASYNCHRONOUS DATA STORE OPERATIONS

• US 20180322055A1
• Filed: 05/02/2017
• Published: 11/08/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: IYENGAR, Arun
• Granted Patent: US 10,540,282 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0813 with a network or matrix configuration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/084 with a shared 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 12/0893 Caches characterised by their organisation or structure
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1024 Latency reduction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/163 Server or database system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/263 Network storage, e.g. SAN or NAS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/313 In storage device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/465 Structured object, e.g. database record

Abstract

A processing system server and methods with the server to provide data values. The server maintains a cache of objects. The server executes an asynchronous computation to determine the value of an object. In response to a request for the object before the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object from the cache. In response to a request for the object after the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object determined by the asynchronous computation.

Claims

1. In a processing system comprised of a server, a method for the server to provide data values comprising:

the server maintaining a cache of objects;

the server executing an asynchronous computation to determine the value of an object;

in response to a request for the object occurring before the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object from the cache of objects; and

in response to a request for the object occurring after the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object determined by the asynchronous computation.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the asynchronous computation comprises at least one future.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the asynchronous computation comprises at least one process or thread.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to the asynchronous computation determining the value of the object, updating the cache with the value of the object determined by the asynchronous computation.

5. The method of claim 1 in which said step of the server executing an asynchronous computation occurs in response to a request for the object.

6. The method of claim 1 in which said step of the server executing an asynchronous computation occurs periodically.

7. The method of claim 1 in which said step of the server executing an asynchronous computation occurs after a time interval has elapsed.

8. The method of claim 1 in which said step of the server executing an asynchronous computation occurs with a frequency correlated with how frequently the object changes.

9. The method of claim 1 in which said step of the server executing an asynchronous computation occurs with a frequency correlated with how important it is to have a current value of the object.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising at least one additional server wherein the asynchronous computation determines the value of the object by querying the at least one additional server.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising

the server storing an object o2 in the cache of objects;

the server executing an asynchronous computation c2 to store object o2 on the at least one additional server; and

in response to receiving a request for object o2 before asynchronous computation c2 has finished executing, satisfying the request from the cache of objects.

12. The method of claim 10 in which said at least one additional server comprises a plurality of servers and the asynchronous computation receives different values from at least two servers of the plurality of servers.

13. The method of claim 12 in which the asynchronous computation determines the value of the object from a value which is returned most frequently by the at least one additional server.

14. The method of claim 12 in which said different values have time stamps associated with them, and in which the asynchronous computation determines the value of the object based on the time stamps.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising

the server executing an asynchronous computation c2 to store an object o2 on the at least one additional server.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

in response to asynchronous computation c2 storing object o2 on the at least one additional server, updating the cache of objects with the value of object o2.

17. The method of claim 15 in which asynchronous computation c2 includes an error handling method further comprising:

in response to asynchronous computation c2 failing to store object o2, using the error handling method to retry storing object o2 on the at least one additional server.

18. A processing system comprising:

a server;

persistent memory;

a network interface device for communicating with one or more networks; and

at least one processor, communicatively coupled with the server, the persistent memory, and the network interface device, the at least one processor, responsive to executing computer instructions, for performing operations comprising;

the server maintaining a cache of objects in the persistent memory;

the server executing an asynchronous computation to determine the value of an object;

in response to a request for the object occurring before the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object from the cache of objects; and

in response to a request for the object occurring after the asynchronous computation has determined the value of the object, returning a value of the object determined by the asynchronous computation.

19. The processing system of claim 18, in which the asynchronous computation comprises at least one future.

20. The processing system of claim 18, in which the asynchronous computation comprises at least one process or thread.

21. The processing system of claim 18, in which the at least one processor, responsive to executing computer instructions, for performing operations comprising:

in response to the asynchronous computation determining the value of the object, updating the cache of objects with the value of the object determined by the asynchronous computation.

22. The processing system of claim 18, in which the server executing the asynchronous computation occurs in response to a request for the object.

23. The processing system of claim 18, in which the server executing the asynchronous computation occurs periodically.

24. The processing system of claim 18, in which the server executing the asynchronous computation occurs after a time interval has elapsed.

25. The processing system of claim 18, in which the server executing the asynchronous computation occurs with a frequency correlated with how frequently the object changes.