US 2013/0097376 A1Published application

Methods and apparatus for improved raid parity computation in a storage controller

AssigneeLSI Corporation

InventorsRandy K. Hall, Dennis E. Gates, Randolph W. Sterns, John R. Kloeppner, Mohamad H. El-Batal

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Abstract

Methods and apparatus for improved calculation of redundancy information in RAID storage controllers. Features and aspects hereof provide for a firmware/software element (FPE) for generating redundancy information in combination with a custom logic circuit (HPE) designed to generate redundancy information. A scheduler element operable on a processor of a storage controller along with the FPE determines which of the FPE and HPE is best suited to rapidly complete a new redundancy computation operation and activates or queues the new operation for performance by the selected component.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage controller comprising:

a programmable processor programmed to process I/O requests from attached systems;
a firmware redundancy computation element operable on the programmable processor of the storage controller, the firmware redundancy computation element operable to generate redundancy information from data applied to the firmware redundancy computation element;
a redundancy computation circuit coupled with the programmable processor and operable to generate redundancy information from data applied to the redundancy computation circuit;
and
a scheduler element operable on the programmable processor, the scheduler element operable to selectively utilize either the firmware redundancy computation element or the redundancy computation circuit for generating redundancy information in the storage controller based on present operating conditions of the storage controller, wherein the redundancy information is used by the controller in processing RAID storage management relating to the I/O requests.

2 more elements

A method operable in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage controller for generating redundancy information, the storage controller having a firmware redundancy computation element operable on a programmable processor of the controller and the storage controller having a redundancy computation circuit coupled with the programmable processor, the method comprising:

generating a request to perform a redundancy computation operation based on identified data, the request comprising information identifying the computation to be performed;
selecting a selected redundancy computation component from either the firmware redundancy computation element or the redundancy computation circuit to perform the redundancy computation operation based on present operating status of the storage controller;
performing the redundancy computation operation using the selected redundancy computation component to generate redundancy information;
and
using the generated redundancy information for RAID storage management functions of the storage controller.

2 more elements

A non-transitory computer readable medium tangibly embodying programmed instructions which, when executed by a processor of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) storage controller, perform a method for generating redundancy information, the storage controller having a firmware redundancy computation element operable on a programmable processor of the controller and the storage controller having a redundancy computation circuit coupled with the programmable processor, the method comprising:

generating a request to perform a redundancy computation operation based on identified data, the request comprising information identifying the computation to be performed;
selecting a selected redundancy computation component from either the firmware redundancy computation element or the redundancy computation circuit to perform the redundancy computation operation based on present operating status of the storage controller;
performing the redundancy computation operation using the selected redundancy computation component to generate redundancy information;
and
using the generated redundancy information for RAID storage management functions of the storage controller.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/271,397Filed 12 Oct 2011
Published: 18 Apr 2013
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06F 11/1076
Adding special bits or symbols to the coded information, e.g. parity check, casting out 9's or 11's: parity data used in redundant arrays of…
G06F 3/061
Specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect: improving I/O performance
G06F 3/0658
Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices: controller…
G06F 3/0689
Plurality of storage devices: disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD