Distributed Persistent Storage for Self-Service Terminal Data Resilience
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Solution Overview
Problem
Self-service terminals like ATMs face challenges in maintaining persistent storage of essential data across re-boots and system re-installations, especially when non-volatile RAM is absent or unreliable, leading to data loss due to frequent hard disk replacements or erasures.
Innovation Solution
Implementing scattered storage across multiple peripheral devices using different technologies such as EEPROM, battery-backed NVRAM, and hard disks, with a storage manager to read and recreate data from available persistent storage elements, ensuring data integrity and resilience through redundancy and encryption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is stored on a single hard disk drive in the PC core, then storage capacity is sufficient, but data is lost when the hard disk is replaced or erased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the storage system into multiple independent persistent storage elements distributed across different peripheral devices. Each peripheral device contains its own persistent storage element, creating segmented storage locations that are geographically and logically separated from the PC core hard disk. This segmentation ensures that failure or replacement of the PC hard disk does not result in complete data loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent combines multiple persistent storage elements from different peripheral devices with the PC core storage to form a unified distributed storage system. The storage manager integrates these separate storage locations into a cohesive architecture where data can be stored, retrieved, and reconstructed from any available storage element, merging the capabilities of individual components into a resilient collective system.
2Reliability
If special persistent storage hardware is used in the PC core, then data persistence is reliable, but system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables peripheral devices to serve their own persistent storage needs and contribute their storage capabilities to the overall system. Each peripheral device with persistent storage capability becomes a self-service node that can store and retrieve data independently, eliminating the need for specialized persistent storage hardware in the PC core. The system leverages existing storage resources in peripheral devices rather than requiring additional dedicated storage components.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent makes existing peripheral devices multi-functional by enabling them to serve both their primary functions and as persistent storage nodes. Peripheral devices that already exist in the system (such as USB devices, memory cards, or other storage-capable peripherals) are repurposed to provide persistent storage functionality, eliminating the need for specialized storage hardware and reducing overall system cost while maintaining reliability.
3Speed
If data is stored in volatile memory, then access speed is fast, but data is lost during re-boot or system re-installation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by storing data in advance in persistent storage elements within peripheral devices before volatile memory data loss occurs. The system proactively writes data to durable storage locations in peripheral devices, ensuring that data is preserved before re-boot or system re-installation events. This preliminary storage action prevents data loss while maintaining the ability to quickly retrieve data from persistent storage when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus are described in which data, which is required by system software in a self-service terminal, is stored across a number of persistent storage elements. The persistent storage elements are located in peripheral devices within the self-service terminal. When the data is lost from volatile memory in the core computing device in the self-service terminal, the data is read back from one or more of the persistent storage elements.