Parity spreading to enhance storage access

A method of protecting data stored on a plurality of memory devices comprising:

• dividing addressable memory on each of said memory devices into blocks of memory such that each memory has the same number of blocks, the blocks on each memory having the same address range comprising a stripe;
• storing parity information for each stripe of memory blocks in a distributed manner across the memory devices to enhance the overall access rate of the memory devices;
• and
• changing the parity information for each stripe as a function of a change to a block in its corresponding stripe without reading all the blocks in the stripe.

A data protection mechanism for a computer system having multiple independently accessible storage devices which store records of data, the data protection mechanism comprising:

• generator means for generating parity records as a function of sets of data records, said data records in a set corresponding to one parity record, each of said data and parity records being stored on different storage devices;
• storage management means for managing the storage of data records and parity records onto the storage devices;
• and
• version generator means for providing independent version numbers to data records in a set and corresponding version numbers to the parity record covering such set of data records.