Storage Memory Driver for General Purpose OS I/O Overhead
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
General purpose operating systems face performance deterioration in storage processing due to high overhead when starting processing processes, which is not effectively addressed by existing techniques.
Innovation Solution
A computer system with multiple servers connected via a communication line, where one server acts as a request source and another as a request destination, allowing the request source server to execute a storage program to transmit data read requests and the request destination server to execute a storage memory driver to read and transmit data without starting a new processing process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a general purpose OS is used with a series of processing steps (receiving interrupt request, notifying processing process, executing storage processing), then the system can utilize general purpose hardware and maintain flexibility, but the overhead of starting a new processing process deteriorates I/O processing performance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the storage processing functionality from the general purpose OS kernel and implements it as a user-space storage process. This separation allows the OS to handle I/O requests without the overhead of starting new kernel processing processes, while still utilizing general purpose hardware. The storage process runs independently in user space, eliminating the need for repeated process startup overhead.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a communication mechanism (such as shared memory or inter-process communication interfaces) as an intermediary between the OS kernel and the storage process. This intermediary allows efficient data exchange without requiring the kernel to directly manage storage processing, thus reducing overhead while maintaining system flexibility.
2Productivity
If dedicated LSI is used for storage device hardware, then storage processing performance can be optimized, but system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-service architecture where the storage process independently manages storage operations without requiring dedicated hardware controllers. The general purpose CPU executes storage programs and manages data access patterns, allowing the system to achieve optimized storage performance through software intelligence rather than expensive dedicated hardware.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of general purpose hardware by implementing intelligent data access patterns, caching strategies, and request scheduling algorithms in the storage process. This transforms ordinary hardware into high-performance storage system by optimizing how data is accessed and processed, eliminating the need for dedicated LSI while maintaining performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer system includes a plurality of servers connected to each other via a communication line, each server including a memory and a processor, an OS program and a storage program. The storage program is executed by the processor, and one of the plurality of servers acts as a request source server while one of the other servers acts as a request destination server. When the request source server reads data from the request destination server, the processor of the request source server executes the storage program to transmit a data read request to the request destination server. The processor of the request destination server then executes a storage memory driver incorporated in the OS program to read the requested data from an own memory and transmit the read data to the request source server. The request source server then executes the storage program to acquire the data.