Hardware Compression Accelerator for Storage Controllers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional storage compression systems in mobile communication devices suffer from performance issues, latency, and lack of control, with software-based systems experiencing processing delays and storage-device-driven systems offering no control to the host system.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a hardware-accelerated storage compression system where a hardware compression accelerator in the storage controller compresses and decompresses data blocks, generating modified logical block addresses to link uncompressed and compressed data blocks, thereby reducing processing overhead and improving data throughput and power efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If software-based compression systems are used, then data compression is achieved, but processing delays and performance issues occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces software-based compression with a hardware compression accelerator that performs compression operations in parallel with data transfer. This hardware accelerator is integrated into the storage controller, allowing compression to occur without blocking the data path, thereby eliminating processing delays while maintaining compression effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The hardware compression accelerator performs compression on data blocks before they are written to storage, and decompresses data blocks before they are read to the host. This preliminary action ensures that compression and decompression are completed in advance, preventing any processing delays during actual data access operations.
2Loss of substance
If storage device-based compression systems are used, then data compression is achieved, but control over the compression process is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The hardware compression accelerator acts as an intermediary between the host system and the storage device. It is controlled by the host system through the storage controller, allowing the host to manage compression parameters and policies while the hardware accelerator executes the actual compression operations. This maintains control with the host system while leveraging hardware acceleration.
3Productivity
If hardware compression accelerator is used, then processing overhead is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hardware compression accelerator is integrated into the storage controller as a unified device. This merging of compression functionality with the storage controller eliminates the need for separate compression hardware or software layers, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining the productivity benefits of hardware-accelerated compression.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects disclosed in the detailed description include hardware accelerated storage compression. In one aspect, prior to writing an uncompressed data block to the storage device, a hardware compression accelerator provided in a storage controller compresses the uncompressed data blocks individually into a compressed data block and allocates the compressed data block to a storage data block in the storage device. The hardware compression accelerator then generates a modified logical block address (LBA) to link the uncompressed data block to the compressed data blocks. In another aspect, the hardware compression accelerator locates a compressed data block based on a corresponding modified LBA and decompresses the compressed data block into an uncompressed data block. By performing hardware accelerated storage compression in the storage controller, it is possible to reduce processing overhead associated with traditional software-based compression systems and improve compression control over traditional storage device driven compression systems.