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US 7,406,619 B2Granted
Cache synchronization in a RAID subsystem using serial attached SCSI and/or serial ATA
AssigneeAdaptec, Inc.
InventorWilliam E. Lynn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A RAID system includes a pair of RAID controllers adapted to operate in active-active mode, each controller including a cache memory and at least one SAS/SATA I/O chip connected to a plurality of hard disk drives. Each SAS/SATA I/O chip includes more SAS/SATA ports than required to carry data to the hard drives. The caches in the respective controllers are synchronized via the extra SAS/SATA ports in each controller.
Claims11
A RAID system comprising:
- a host input/output circuit;
- a plurality of hard disk drives;
- a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, each of said RAID controllers including a cache memory, and each of said RAID controllers electrically connected to said plurality of hard disk drives;
- in each of said RAID controllers, a processor electrically connected to said host input/output circuit and said cache memory;
- and
- a first serial attached SCSI (SAS) or serial ATA (SATA) (SAS/SATA) input/output (I/O) circuit associated with said first RAID controller, and a second SAS/SATA I/O circuit associated with said second RAID controller;
- wherein said first SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a first SAS/SATA I/O chip having a first SAS/SATA I/O port and a second SAS/SATA I/O chip having a second SAS/SATA I/O port, and said second SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a third SAS/SATA I/O chip having a third SAS/SATA I/O port and a fourth SAS/SATA I/O chip having a fourth SAS/SATA I/O port, and wherein said first SAS/SATA I/O port is connected to said third SAS/SATA I/O port and said second SAS/SATA I/O port is connected to said fourth SAS/SATA I/O port;
- wherein said plurality of disk drives includes a first plurality of hard disk drives and a second plurality of disk drives, each of said first SAS/SATA I/O chip and said third SAS/SATA I/O chip is connected to said first plurality of disk drives, and each of said second I/O chip and said fourth I/O chip is connected to said second plurality of hard disk drives.
5 more elements
A RAID system comprising:
- a plurality of hard disk drives;
- a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, each of said RAID controllers including a cache memory, and each of said RAID controllers electrically connected to said plurality of hard disk drives;
- a first serial attached SCSI (SAS) or serial ATA (SATA) (SAS/SATA) input/output (I/O) circuit associated with said first RAID controller and a second SAS/SATA I/O circuit associated with said second RAID controller;
- and
- said first SAS/SATA I/O circuit directly electrically connected to said second SAS/SATA I/O circuit;
- wherein said first SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a first plurality of SAS/SATA ports and said second SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a second plurality of SAS/SATA ports, and wherein each said SAS/SATA port in said first plurality of SAS/SATA ports is connected to one of said SAS/SATA ports in said second plurality of SAS/SATA ports,
- wherein said first SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a first SAS/SATA I/O chip having a first SAS/SATA I/O port and a second SAS/SATA I/O chip having a second SAS/SATA I/O port, and said second SAS/SATA I/O circuit includes a third SAS/SATA I/O chip having a third SAS/SATA I/O port and a fourth SAS/SATA I/O chip having a fourth SAS/SATA I/O port, and
- wherein said first SAS/SATA I/O port is connected to said third SAS/SATA I/O port and said second SAS/SATA I/O port is connected to said fourth SAS/SATA I/O port, and wherein said plurality of disk drives includes a first plurality of hard disk drives and a second plurality of disk drives, each of said first SAS/SATA I/O chip and said third SAS/SATA I/O chip is connected to said first plurality of disk drives, and each of said second I/O chip and said fourth I/O chip is connected to said second plurality of hard disk drives.
5 more elements
A method of cache synchronization between a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller, said method comprising:
- providing a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller;
- connecting said first RAID controller to each of a plurality of hard drives and connecting said second RAID controller to each of said plurality of hard drives;
- providing a first SAS/SATA port in said first RAID controller and a second SAS/SATA port in said second RAID controller;
- and
- cache synchronizing said two controllers via direct electrical connection between said first and second SAS/SATA ports.
2 more elements
A method of controlling data flow to a plurality of hard drives, said method comprising:
- providing a first RAID controller and a second RAID controller;
- connecting said first RAID controller to each of said plurality of hard drives and connecting said second RAID controller to each of said plurality of hard drives;
- providing at least three SAS/SATA ports in each of said RAID controllers;
- directing data flow to said hard drives via at least two of said SAS/SATA ports in each of said RAID controllers;
- and
- cache synchronizing said first and second RAID controllers via a direct electrical connection between at least one of said SAS/SATA ports in each of said RAID controllers.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.