Storage Accelerator Dynamic Memory Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current storage systems face performance bottlenecks and increased costs due to memory bandwidth limitations and the need for large capacity caches, which can be exacerbated by the limited number of memory channels in CPUs, leading to higher power consumption and installation challenges.
Innovation Solution
The storage system employs multiple storage drives and controllers with accelerators that have internal data memories and control memories, where read I/O requests are processed by storing control information in the internal control memory and data from storage drives is temporarily stored in internal data memories before being transferred to the host device, allowing for sequential data transfer without the need for large external memory.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the CPU allocates a cache data area in the memory to store all data read from storage media, then the read I/O performance is improved, but the memory bandwidth becomes a bottleneck and the memory capacity requirement increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the storage system into multiple independent storage drives instead of using a single large memory cache. Each storage drive operates independently to provide data, segmenting the memory capacity requirement into distributed storage units that can be accessed in parallel, thereby maintaining read performance without requiring large centralized memory capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a hierarchical storage structure where the controller contains internal data memories that are nested within the controller unit, which itself is nested within the broader storage system. This nested architecture allows the controller to maintain smaller internal caches while leveraging multiple external storage drives, reducing the overall memory capacity requirement while preserving read performance.
2Quantity of substance
If the number of memories installed in the controller is increased to expand bandwidth and capacity, then the memory bandwidth and capacity are improved, but the power consumption and installation area increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the memory function from the controller by implementing external storage drives that provide data storage and retrieval capabilities. This extraction allows the controller to maintain minimal internal memory for control operations while offloading data storage to external devices, thereby reducing power consumption and installation area requirements while maintaining or improving memory bandwidth through parallel access to multiple external drives.
3Quantity of substance
If the number of memories installed in the controller is increased to expand bandwidth and capacity, then the memory bandwidth and capacity are improved, but the installation area increases making mounting difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a two-dimensional memory expansion approach (adding more memory chips on the controller board) to a three-dimensional system architecture by introducing external storage drives that connect through I/O interfaces. This dimensional change allows the system to achieve large memory capacity without increasing the controller's physical footprint, as the storage capacity extends to external devices rather than being confined to the controller board area.
Data Source
AI summary
The storage system has one or more storage drives, and one or more controllers for receiving processing requests from a superior device, wherein each of the one or more controllers has a processor for executing the processing request and an accelerator, and the accelerator has multiple internal data memories and an internal control memory, wherein if the processing request is a read I/O request, it stores a control information regarding the request to the internal control memory, and reads data being the target of the relevant request from at least one storage drive out of the multiple storage drives, which is temporarily stored in the one or more said internal data memories, and transferred sequentially in order from the internal data memory already storing data to the superior device.