Increased storage capacity for solid state disks using data compression

A method of increasing the storage capacity of a solid state disk (SSD) device through data compression, the SSD coupled to a host computer system and comprising a non-volatile storage module (NVSM) and a volatile memory (VM), said method comprising:

• associating the SSD with a predetermined compression ratio of n to 1, where n is a value greater than 1;
• monitoring the available virtual capacity of the VM based on the current compression ratio and the amount of data currently stored therein;
• reporting on a periodic basis the available virtual capacity of the VM and the current compression ratio;
• diverting storage operations from the VM of the SSD to an alternate storage device whenever the currently available virtual capacity falls below a first predetermined threshold;
• and
• resuming storage operations to the VM of the SSD when the currently available virtual capacity rises above a second predetermined threshold.

An apparatus for increasing the storage capacity of a solid state disk (SSD) device through data compression, the SSD coupled to a host computer system and comprising a non-volatile storage module (NVSM) and a volatile memory (VM), said apparatus comprising:

• means for associating the SSD with a predetermined compression ratio of n to 1, where n is a value greater than 1;
• means for reporting an initial virtual storage capacity to the host computer system that is n times the physical storage capacity of the VM;
• means for establishing an overflow buffer in the NVSM;
• means for monitoring the available virtual capacity of the VM based on the current compression ratio and the amount of data currently stored therein;
• means for storing data to the overflow buffer whenever the available virtual capacity falls below that necessary to successfully process a pending storage operation requested by the host computer system;
• and
• means for populating data stored in the overflow buffer to the VM when the amount of available virtual capacity of the VM can accommodate the data