International Business Machines Corporation

Daniel Frank Moertl

Adrian Cuenin Gerhard

Brian Eric Bakke

Robert Edward Galbraith

Rick A Weckwerth

Gowrisankar Radhakrishnan

Michael Joseph Carnevale

Joseph R Edwards

Charles Scott Graham

Adalberto Guillermo Yanes

Steven Mark Thurber

Timothy J Schimke

Paul Edward Movall

Bruce Marshall Walk

Gregory Michael Nordstrom

Damir Anthony Jamsek

Donald J Ziebarth

Shawn Michael Lambeth

Brian L Bowles

Murali N Iyer

Mark J Moran

Danny Marvin Neal

Robert E Galbraith, Ii

Andrew Kenneth Martin

Renato John Recio

Thomas R Sand

Claudia Andrea Salzberg

Thomas James Osten

Frederic Lawrence Huss

Charalampos Pozidis

Paul Gary Reuland

Gerald Mark Grabowski

Gene Steven Van Grinsven

Michael T Benhase

Andrew Dale Walls

Karl Allen Nielsen

Ian David Judd

Bruce Leroy Beukema

Scott Douglas Clark

Brent William Jacobs

Neil Clair Berglund

Steven Paul Norgaard

Jonathan Michael Allen

Steven Bradford Herndon

Jeremy T Ekman

Daniel Paul Wetzel

Matthew Szekely

John Douglas Stevens

Abby Harrison

Venkidesh K Iyer

Michael Kay Edwards

Nikolaos Papandreou

Thomas Mittelholzer

Charles John Camp

Gary Scott Delp

Paul Allen Ganfield

Patrick Kevin Egan

Patrick Allen Buckland

Jeffrey Douglas Brown

Michael Raymond Trombley

Lee Anton Sendelbach

Curtis Carl Wollbrink

Michael Joseph Corrigan

Ellen Marie Bauman

Scott Michael Willenborg

Milos Stanisavljevic

Wayne Melvin Barrett

Carl E Forhan

Steven Paul Jones

Kelvin Wong

Larry Wayne Loen

Michael John Palmer

Lee Dale Cleveland

Lyle Edwin Grosbach

Todd Jason Youngman

William E Hammer

Daniel Robert Lipps

Clark A Anderson

Daniel James Sucher

Brian Gerard Holthaus

Jessica M Gisi

Pat Allen Buckland

Scott Alan Bauman

David Lee Dosch

Paul B Kubista

Robert Neal Broberg, Iii

William Joseph Armstrong, Jr

Russell Paul VanDuine

Mussie T Negussie

Troy Evan Faber

Michael Frank Carnevale

Paul John Johnsen

Mark D Christianson

David E Becker

Douglas David Prigge

Kevin Dale Jones

Methods, computer program products, and/or systems are provided that perform the following operations: determining a pacing requirement for host requests based on one or more thresholds; setting a pacing delay level based on the one or more thresholds in response to the determination of the pacing requirement; and implementing a memory request flow for a host request based on the pacing requirement and the pacing delay level.

Host request pacing to balance resources and throughput

Embodiments include methods, systems and computer program products for managing a flash memory device. Aspects include monitoring a percentage of memory of the flash memory device that is in a ready to use state. Aspects also include operating the flash memory device in a first operating mode based on a determination that the percentage is greater than a first threshold value. Aspects further include operating the flash memory device in a second operating mode based on a determination that the percentage has fallen below the first threshold value. Aspects include operating the flash memory device in a third operating mode until the percentage exceeds the first threshold value based on a determination that the percentage has fallen below a second threshold value, which is lower than the first threshold value. The erasing of ready to erase memory block stripes is only performed during the third operating mode.

Flash memory garbage collection

A memory system and method for storing data in one or more storage chips includes: one or more memory cards each having a plurality of storage chips, and each chip having a plurality of dies having a plurality of memory cells; a memory controller comprising a translation module, the translation module further comprising: a logical to virtual translation table (LVT) having a plurality of entries, each entry in the LVT configured to map a logical address to a virtual block address (VBA), where the VBA corresponds to a group of the memory cells on the one or more memory cards, wherein each entry in the LVT further includes a write wear level count to track the number of writing operations to the VBA, and a read wear level count to track the number of read operations for the VBA mapped to that LVT entry.

Logical to virtual and virtual to physical translation in storage class memory

A method and system of managing memory, the method including receiving a request for storage space in the memory system; obtaining a timestamp for a new Logical Unit Number (LUN); allocating a range of logical blocks to the new LUN in accordance with its requested size, the range of logical blocks including a starting logical block and a number of blocks; assigning the timestamp to the new LUN as the LUN creation timestamp; and saving the LUN creation timestamp with other metadata identifying the new LUN and the allocated logical blocks. Methods and system for deleting LUNs and using a deletion timestamp are disclosed as is a process to format a LUN.

Logical memory allocation and provisioning using timestamps

In an approach to NV SCM data flow with mismatched block sizes, responsive to receiving a command from a host on a memory controller for a storage class memory, whether the command is a write command is determined. Responsive to determining that the command is the write command, the command is inserted into a first buffer. Responsive to the command exiting the first buffer, whether the command generates a cache hit from the internal cache is determined. Responsive to determining that the command generates the cache hit, the write data is written into the internal cache. Responsive to determining that the command does not generate the cache hit, whether an oldest page in the internal cache is dirty is determined. Responsive to determining that the oldest page in the internal cache is dirty, a modified oldest page is written to the internal cache and a second buffer.

Non-volatile storage class memory data flow with mismatched block sizes

A method and system for collecting diagnostic data from a storage class memory chip is disclosed. The method includes performing a scrub process on at least a portion of the storage class memory by: removing the portion of the storage class memory from use, wherein the portion comprises a plurality of memory locations, executing a first write operation to write a first pattern on each of the plurality of memory locations, executing a first read operation to obtain a first set of data written on each of the plurality of memory locations, analyzing the first set of data written on each of the plurality of memory locations to determine the number of stuck-at faults in the portion, and updating one or more counters in an error rate table (ERT) to indicate the number of stuck-at faults.

Scrub management in storage class memory

A memory system and method for storing data in one or more storage chips is disclosed. The memory system includes one or more storage dies included in each storage chip and a controller. Each of the plurality of storage dies further comprises one or more media replacement unit (MRU) groups. The controller includes a translation module, the translation module further comprising: a chip select table (CST) configured to identify one or more valid storage chips during translation for performing a read/write operation, and a media repair table (MRT) corresponding to each of storage chips, each MRT configured to identify one or more storage dies during translation for performing a read/write operation.

Virtual to physical translation and media repair in storage class memory

Techniques for persisting a logical address-to-virtual address table in a solid state storage device are presented. An example method includes receiving a request to write data to a logical block address (LBA) in a memory component of the solid state storage device. The data is written to a location identified by a virtual block address (VBA) in the solid state storage device. The VBA is stored in a rotating dump table in a reserved logical unit of the solid state storage device. A mapping between the LBA and the VBA is stored in a rotating journal table located in the reserved logical unit. The rotating journal table is buffered such that a number of journal entries are stored in a buffer until a threshold number of journal entries are committed to the rotating journal table. A pointer to a current address in the rotating journal is stored in the buffer.

Persistent logical to virtual table

Disclosed are embodiments for supporting dynamic tier remapping of data stored in a hybrid storage system. One embodiment includes a storage controller and firmware, where the firmware maintains a plurality of mapping elements, where each mapping element includes a plurality of group identifiers, where each group identifier is configured to indicate a mapping of a logical block addresses, and where the storage controller performs: receiving a read command including a logical block address; parsing the logical block address to determine a mapping element and a group identifier; determining, for a particular mapping element of the plurality of elements, whether the particular mapping element is locked, wherein the particular mapping element corresponds to the mapping element of the logical block address; and dependent upon the particular mapping element, queuing the read command for firmware processing or remapping the logical block address.

Dynamic tier remapping of data stored in a hybrid storage system

A method for operating a storage system RAID storage devices includes receiving a first data block to write to the storage system. The method further includes compressing the first data block to generate a second data block, the second data block including the first data block in compressed form and a data value indicating that the second data block is compressed. The method further includes storing the second data block in memory. The method additionally includes retrieving the second data block from memory and executing RAID operations to write the data block to the RAID storage devices, the set of operations including: generating, based on the second data block, redundant data for performing at least one of an error detection and an error correction operation on the second data block; writing the second data block to the RAID storage devices; writing the redundant data block to the RAID storage devices.

Raid system performance enhancement using compressed data

Operating a RAID array with unequal stripes, the RAID array comprising N number of drives, where each RAID stripe includes P number of parity drives and N-P number of data drives, including buffering, by a RAID controller, write operations received from a host, each write operation specifying data to be written to the RAID array; distributing, by the RAID controller, the data to be written amongst N-P write groups, including: dividing the data into chunks of a sub-stripe size, wherein the sub-stripe size is less than a parity stripe size; and assigning the chunks, in round-robin order, to the N-P write groups; calculating parity from the N-P write groups; and writing the N-P write groups and the calculated parity as a first RAID stripe to the RAID array.

Operating a RAID array with unequal stripes

A storage subsystem records a copy of a data object on a plurality of storage devices. The storage subsystem receives a read request to read a data object. Under certain utilization conditions of the storage subsystem, a resource utilization condition satisfies a split-read criterion. In response to the resource utilization condition satisfying the split-read criterion, the storage subsystem reads at least a portion of the data object from each of the storage devices having a copy of the data object.

Dynamic optimization of raid read operations

Caching data in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage system including receiving an operation instruction targeting a location in an attached memory of the RAID storage system, wherein the attached memory temporarily stores data for storage on RAID storage devices, and wherein the operation instruction is one selected from a group consisting of a read instruction and a write instruction; redirecting, based on a content of the operation instruction, the operation instruction from the attached memory to the embedded memory on the RAID storage system; and servicing the operation instruction by accessing a portion of the embedded memory corresponding to the location in the attached memory of the RAID storage system.

Caching data in a redundant array of independent disks (RAID) storage system

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Daniel Frank Moertl