Direct Data Migration Between Unequal-Performance Storage Media
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Solution Overview
Problem
In hierarchical storage systems, data migration between storage media with different performance levels results in high delays and resource overheads due to CPU processing requirements such as decoding, protocol conversion, and encoding, which occupy cache and computing resources.
Innovation Solution
A data management apparatus with a management unit that manages data transmission channels between storage media and a data migration unit that directly migrates data between these media, eliminating the need for CPU processing like protocol conversion, thereby reducing delays and resource overheads.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data migration is performed through CPU processing with protocol conversion and encoding, then data can be transferred between storage media, but migration delay increases and resource overheads increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the data migration function from the CPU and implements it through a dedicated data migration mechanism between storage media. This separation removes the burden of protocol conversion and encoding from the CPU, enabling direct data transfer that reduces migration delay while maintaining data transfer capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary data migration channel that directly connects storage media, bypassing the CPU for the actual data transfer. This intermediary pathway enables efficient data movement between storage media with different performance characteristics without requiring CPU intervention for each transfer operation.
2Reliability
If data migration is performed through CPU processing with protocol conversion and encoding, then data can be transferred between storage media, but resource overheads increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the data migration function from the CPU and implements it through a dedicated data migration mechanism between storage media. This separation removes the burden of protocol conversion and encoding from the CPU, reducing resource overheads while maintaining data transfer capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage media are equipped with self-service capabilities for data migration, allowing them to perform protocol conversion and data transfer autonomously without CPU intervention. This self-service approach reduces the computational resources required and simplifies the overall system architecture.
3Speed
If independent data flows and control flows are set for different storage media, then CPU can quickly access different storage media, but data migration requires extensive processing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data transfer path into independent channels: one path for CPU access to storage media and another dedicated path for data migration between storage media. This segmentation allows CPU access operations to proceed at high speed while data migration operations utilize the dedicated channel, preventing migration processing from bottlenecking CPU operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary data migration channel that directly connects storage media, bypassing the CPU for the actual data transfer. This intermediary pathway enables efficient data movement between storage media with different performance characteristics without requiring CPU intervention for each transfer operation.
Data Source
AI summary
A data management apparatus, a data management method, and a data storage device are provided. The data management apparatus includes a management unit and a data migration unit. The management unit manages data transmission channels between two types of storage media with different transmission performance. Then, the data migration unit migrates data between the two types of storage media through the managed data transmission channels. In this way, the data management apparatus can directly migrate data between storage media with different transmission performance, and a CPU in a system does not need to perform processing such as instruction conversion and protocol conversion, so that a delay of performing the foregoing processing by the CPU can be shortened. In addition, because the CPU does not need to perform data migration, resource overheads of the CPU can be reduced.