Data type and topological data categorization and ordering for a mass storage system

In a mass storage system including a mass storage space for storing data items of a plurality of data types, each data item containing data of a corresponding data type and each data type being defined by the characteristics of the information represented by the data, and wherein the storage space is topologically organized as a plurality of basic units of storage space wherein each basic unit of storage space contains storage space for a predetermined number of data blocks of predetermined sizes, a topological data formatter for storing the data in the storage space, comprising:

• a write data buffer corresponding to each data type;
• an initial data classifier for
• data type categorizing of each data item to be written into the storage space as a member of a data type, including
• performing an initial categorization of each data item to identify whether a data item is a member of a structured data type having defined data characteristics or a general data type having variable data characteristics, and
• writing each data item that is a member of a structured data types into a corresponding type buffer, and
• a topological data classifier for
• topological categorizing of each data item that is a member of a general data type and identifying whether each data item that is
• a member of a general data type is a full-basic unit data type wherein the data of the data items form one or more data block groups conforming to the basic unit of storage space or
• a partial-basic unit data type wherein the data of the data items form one or more data block groups differing from the basic unit of storage space,
• writing each data item that is a full-basic unit data type into a full-basic type buffer, and
• writing each data item that is a partial-basic unit data type into a partial-basic type buffer, wherein
• upon performing a write of the data items to the mass storage,
• the initial data classifier reads each data item from the corresponding type buffer and,
• for each data item of a structured data type, orders the data of the data items into one or more data block groups wherein each data block group corresponds to a basic unit of storage and writes the one or more data block groups of each structured data type into a corresponding data type area of the storage space, and
• for each data item of the full-basic unit type and of the partial-basic unit type, the topological data classifier re-executes the topological classification of each data item as a full-basic unit data type or as a partial-basic unit data type,
• orders the data of each data item of a full-basic unit data type and the data of each data item of a partial-basic unit data type into one or more corresponding full-basic unit data block groups or one or more corresponding partial-basic unit data block groups, and
• writes the full-basic unit data block groups and the partial-basic unit data block groups into corresponding data type areas of the storage space.

A topological data formatter for writing data blocks of data items of a plurality of data types into a storage space of a mass storage system topologically organized as basic units of storage space, comprising:

• a write data buffer for each data type,
• an initial data classifier for
• initially categorizing each data item as a structured data type having defined data characteristics or a general data type having variable data characteristics and
• writing each structured data type data item into a corresponding type buffer, and
• ordering the structured data type data items into data block groups corresponding to a basic storage units and writing the data block groups into corresponding areas of storage space, and
• a topological data classifier for
• topologically categorizing each general data type data item as a full-basic unit data type forming data blocks or as a partial-basic unit data type and
• writing each general data type data item into a corresponding full-basic type buffer or partial-basic type buffer, and
• re-executing the topological classification of buffered full-basic and partial-basic unit data type data items,
• ordering the data items into full-basic or partial-basic unit data block groups, and
• writing the data block groups into corresponding areas of storage space.

A method for topologically formatting and writing data blocks of data items of a plurality of data types into a storage space of a mass storage system topologically organized as basic units of storage space, comprising the steps of:

• categorizing each data item as a structured data type having defined data characteristics or a general data type having variable data characteristics and
• writing each structured data type data item into a corresponding type buffer,
• topologically categorizing each general data type data item as a full-basic unit data type forming data blocks or as a partial-basic unit data type and
• writing each general data type data item into a corresponding full-basic type or partial-basic type buffer,
• re-executing the topological classification of buffered full-basic and partial-basic unit data type data items,
• ordering the buffered data items into data block groups, and
• writing the data block groups into areas of storage space corresponding to the data types of the data items.