Intelligent data storage and processing using fpga devices

Abstract

A data storage and retrieval device and method is disclosed. The device includes at least one magnetic storage medium configured to store target data and at least one re-configurable logic device comprising an FPGA coupled to the at least one magnetic storage medium and configured to read a continuous stream of target data therefrom, having been configured with a template or as otherwise desired to fit the type of search and data being searched. The re-configurable logic device is configured to receive at least one search inquiry in the form of a data key and to determine a match between the data key and the target data as it is being read from the at least one magnetic storage medium. This device and method can perform a variety of searches on the target data including without limitation exact and approximate match searches, sequence match searches, image match searches and data reduction searches. This device and method may be provided as part of a stand-alone computer system, embodied in a network attached storage device, or can otherwise be provided as part of a computer LAN or WAN. In addition to performing search and data reduction operations, this device may also be used to perform a variety of other processing operations including encryption, decryption, compression, decompression, and combinations thereof.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 473,077 entitled “Intelligent Data Storage and Processing”, filed May 23, 2003, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. [0002] This application is also a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 10 / 153,151 entitled “Associative Database Scanning and Information Retrieval Using FPGA Devices”, filed May 21, 2002, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 09 / 545,472 entitled “Associative Database Scanning and Information Retrieval”, filed Apr. 7, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,558, the entire disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0003] Indications are that the average database size and associated software support systems are growing at rates that are greater than the increase in processor performance (i.e., more than doubling roughly every 18 months). This is due to a nu...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0024] The present invention extends the novel groundbreaking technology disclosed in the parent applications Ser. Nos. 09/545,472 and 10/153,151 such that a programmable logic device (PLD) such as an FPGA performs any of a variety of additional processing operations including but not limited to operations such as encryption, decryption, compression, and decompression. Thus, the technology of the parent applications has been extended such that PLDs perform data manipulation operations. As used herein, the term “manipulating” or “manipulation” refers to the performance of a search operation, a reduction operation, or a classification operation on data in combination with any or all of a compression operation, a decompression operation, an encryption operation, and a decryption operation also performed on the data, or the performance of a compression operation or a decompression operation on data alone or in combination with any or all of a search operation, a reduction operation, a classification operation, an encryption operation, and a decryption operation also performed on the data. Not only can these manipulation operations be performed at very high speeds due to the inventive techniques disclosed herein, but these operations, when implemented on a PLD such as an FPGA as disclosed herein also enhance data security by protecting the unencrypted and/or decompressed data from being accessed or read by any viruses or malware that may be running in the software of the computer system and using the re-configurable logic to process stored data. Among the more powerful applications for the present invention is to perform high speed searches within encrypted data, which can be referred to as crypto-searching. With crypto-searching, the stream of encrypted data is processed to first decrypt the data stream and then perform a search operation within the decrypted data.

[0025] The value of data security to data owners cannot be underestimated and is ever-increasing in importance, and the ability to control who has access to what data and when lies at the heart of data security. Among its many u

Problems solved by technology

Oftentimes, however, the information being searched is of a type that is either hard to categorize or index or which falls into multiple categories.

As a result, the accuracy of a search for information is only as good as the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the index created therefor.

The bottleneck for indexing is the time taken to develop the reverse index needed to access web pages in reasonable time.

For example, while there are search engines available, designing a search which will yield a manageable result is becoming increasingly difficult due to the large number of “hits” generated by less than a very detailed set of search instructions.

With the next-generation Internet, ever-faster networks, and expansion of the Internet content, this bottleneck is becoming a critical concern.

Further, it is becomingly exceedingly difficult to index information on a timely basis.

As a result, maintaining and updating a reverse index has become an enormous and continuous task and the bottleneck it causes is becoming a major impediment to the speed and accuracy of existing search and retrieval systems.

Given the ever increasing amounts of information available, however, the ability to accurately and quickly search and retrieve desired information has become critical.

Thus, this device is taught as not being suitable for use with any linear or serial memory such as magnetic tape o

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