Hitachi, Ltd.

Fujitsu Corporation

Hitachi Information & Telecommunication Engineering, Ltd.

K. K. Video Research

Junji Ogawa

Atsushi Kawamura

Hirotaka Tamura

Akira Yamamoto

Kohtaroh Gotoh

Shigetoshi Wakayama

Yoshihiro Takemae

Miyoshi Saito

Hideyuki Koseki

Yoshinori Ohira

Akifumi Suzuki

Hisakatsu Yamaguchi

Naoto Matsunami

Hiroaki Akutsu

Masao Nakano

Koji Sonoda

Tomio Nakano

Shigeo Homma

Yusuke Nonaka

Kouichi Kanda

Takashi Horii

Hisakatsu Araki

Masao Taguchi

Atsushi Hatakeyama

Takaaki Suzuki

Tomohiro Yoshihara

Ryosuke Tatsumi

Hirohiko Mochizuki

Yukinori Kodama

Makoto Yanagisawa

Go Uehara

Hideaki Kawai

Masaaki Iwasaki

Nagamasa Mizushima

Shunji Kawamura

Yuko Matsui

Yasuhiro Fujii

Takeo Tatematsu

Miho Imazaki

Tsz-Shing Cheung

Norihisa Tsuge

Kenichi Tsukiji

Yoshiaki Eguchi

Nobuhiro Maki

Masayasu Asano

Manabu Kitamura

Junichi Hara

Takao Sato

Kenta Ninose

Takashi Tsunehiro

Shintaro Ito

Yoichi Mizuno

Tsukasa Shibayama

Atsushi Ishikawa

Akira Nishimoto

Hiroto Ebara

Takuji Ogawa

Kiyoshi Miyasaka

Shugo Ogawa

Yoshihiro Oikawa

Kazuya Kobayashi

Masatsugu Oshimi

Norihisa Tsuge, Deceased

Hideo Saito

Yutaka Uematsu

Shoji Kodama

Hiroshi Hirayama

Satoru Watanabe

Kenta Shiga

Yasuhiro Ikeda

Yukio Ogawa

Norio Shimozono

Sadahiro Sugimoto

Yasuo Watanabe

Shinji Kimura

Kenichi Kawasaki

Masato Takita

Eiji Yoshida

Satoshi Kazama

Yoshihiro Yoshii

Kimiaki Sato

Akihiro Mannen

Yutaka Nakagawa

Kazuei Hironaka

Kohei Tatara

Yuji Ito

Shinya Kuwamura

Akihiro Inamura

Takahiko Iwasaki

Norio Simozono

Tadayuki Aoyama

Masaaki Noguchi

Yukihiro Yoshino

Shungo Okabe

Yohei Hazama

Yusuke Masuda

Takahide Yoshioka

Sachie Tsuge

Itaru Tsuge

Koshi Hoshino

A first controller manages first mapping information for accessing data stored in a storage area, management of which is assigned to the first controller, and second mapping information for accessing data stored in a predetermined storage area, management of which is assigned to a second controller. The second controller, when having executed garbage collection on the predetermined storage area, changes mapping information to post-migration mapping information for accessing data after being migrated by the garbage collection. The first controller acquires the post-migration mapping information from the second controller, and updates the second mapping information using the post-migration mapping information when information in the second mapping information and is to be used for accessing the data in the predetermined storage area has been updated accompanying the garbage collection when the first controller accesses the data in the predetermined storage area after the garbage collection by using the second mapping information.

Storage system and data management method

In a complex system including; one or more storage systems including a cache and a storage controller; and one or more storage boxes including a storage medium, the storage box generates redundant data from write data received from a server, and writes the write data and the redundant data to the storage medium. The storage box transmits the write data to the storage system when it is difficult to generate the redundant data or it is difficult to write the write data and the redundant data to the storage medium. The storage system stores the received write data in the cache.

Complex system and data transfer method

One or a plurality of physical storage devices that provide a physical storage area are connected to first and second computers. The computer updates metadata indicating the address correspondence relationship between the logical address of the volume and the physical address of the physical storage area in the write processing performed based on a write request designating the volume. The first computer copies the metadata to the second computer while receiving the write request. When the address correspondence relationship indicated by the copied metadata portion is changed during copying of the metadata, the first computer updates the metadata portion and copies the metadata portion to the second computer.

Distributed storage system and storage control method

A storage system including a storage controller for compressing a data from a host and a plurality of nonvolatile memory drives for writing the compressed data. The storage controller provides the host with a first logical address space as a logical storage area and includes a plurality of first physical address spaces corresponding to the first logical address space and manages storage areas of the plurality of nonvolatile memory drives. Each of the plurality of nonvolatile memory drives includes a second physical address space that manages a physical storage area of the nonvolatile memory and a second logical address space that corresponds to the second physical address space and to each of the plurality of first physical address spaces. The second logical address spaces and the first logical address space are managed with a common size and a common management size, and leading addresses are aligned with the management size.

Storage system and compression method of storing compressed data from storage controller physical address space to logical and physical address space of nonvolatile memory

A higher-level system that inputs and outputs data to/from a storage area including one or more logical areas respectively provided from one or more NVM drives manages the storage area, and manages a plurality of chunks that are a plurality of areas forming the storage area, each of the chunks being a unit of data input/output and being an non-overwritable area. Each of the plurality of chunks has the same chunk size, and each of the plurality of chunks includes a part of each of one or more logical areas. Each of the plurality of chunks includes, for each of the one or more NVM drives, all or part of one or more logical blocks that are one or more ranges corresponding to one or more physical blocks, respectively, but does not include at least a part of a logical block that is entirely or partially included in another chunk.

System including non-volatile memory drive

An upper system of an NVM device transmits, to the NVM device, a write command that designates a logical address, the write command being associated with an expiration date corresponding to a data expiration date correlated with write target data. The NVM device correlates an expiration date correlated with the write command with a logical address specified from the write command. The NVM device writes pieces of data of which the remaining time which is the time to an expiration date belongs to the same remaining time range to the same physical storage area among the plurality of physical storage areas. The NVM device erases data from a physical storage area when the expiration dates of all pieces of data in the physical storage area have expired.

Storage system having non-volatile memory device

An information processing apparatus includes a memory and a processor and accesses a first storage device and a second storage device wherein an access speed of the second storage device is higher than an access speed of the first storage device. The memory stores information relating to a request in a request from the information processing apparatus to the second storage device. The processor, which is connected to the memory, determines a load on the second storage device based on the information relating to the request.

Apparatus and method for routing access based on device load

A flash memory module includes a flash memory and a controller. The controller acquires information indicating reliability of monitoring target data of the flash memory, specifies a first cell, which is a cell having a threshold voltage level lower than a threshold voltage level of a corresponding cell in expected value data obtained by correcting an error bit of the monitoring target data, among cells in which error bits have occurred of the monitoring target data when it is determined that the reliability indicated by the acquired information is lower than a predetermined condition, and transmits rewrite correction target cell data, which is data corresponding to data of the first cell in the expected value data, to the flash memory. The flash memory injects an electron into the first cell based on a threshold voltage indicated by the rewrite correction target cell data.

Flash memory module, storage system, and method of controlling flash memory

A storage system according to one aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of storage devices using flash memory as a storage medium. The flash memory used for the storage device may include flash memory configured to operate each cell as a cell capable of storing n-bit information or a cell capable of storing m-bit information (where n&#x3c;m). The storage system may periodically acquire a number of remaining erasures from the storage device and predict the lifetime of the storage device by using the acquired number of remaining erasures and the storage device operation time. If the predicted lifetime is less than a predetermined value (service life) a predetermined number of cells may be changed to cells capable of storing n-bit information.

Storage system

To increase the number of selectable chips without adding a signal line to a general purpose memory controller. A semiconductor storage device includes a memory controller, a plurality of memory chips, a selection unit which is connected to the memory controller and is connected with the plurality of memory chips to be able to select any one of the plurality of memory chips, and a switch unit which is connected to the memory controller and the selection unit. The memory controller and the selection unit are connected by a signal line for transmitting a first signal outputted from the memory controller and configured to select the memory chips. The memory controller and the switch unit are connected by a signal line for transmitting a second signal outputted from the memory controller and configured to select the memory chips.

Semiconductor storage device having a memory controller, a selection unit and a switch unit connected to each other

A storage device provides a logical space based on a storage medium that is configured by a plurality of logical areas to the higher-level apparatus, and a base data range exists in the storage medium for each logical area. The storage device reads the base data from the base data range that is corresponded to a write destination logical area to which the write destination logical address belongs, and creates difference data that is an exclusive OR of first data that is the base data and second data that is any one of data based on write data and the write data. The storage device creates compressed difference data by compressing the difference data, writes the compressed difference data to the storage medium, and associates a difference data range that is a range in which the compressed difference data has been written with the write destination logical area.

Storage device, apparatus having storage device, and storage control method

A storage apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a controller to determine whether or not to compress data at a time when a non-volatile memory device receives the data from a host apparatus. A storage controller transmits a specified logical address range, an update frequency level of the specified logical address range, and specified data to a device controller. The update frequency level may indicate whether data is Hot or Cold. On the basis of the update frequency level of the specified logical address range, the device controller determines whether to compress the specified data. When a determination is made to compress the specified data, the device controller compresses the specified data to generate compressed data, and writes the compressed data into a non-volatile memory which may be a flash memory device. A degradation rank of physical blocks in the flash memory may include at least Young and Old. Reclamation processing including selecting a migration destination on the basis of the updated frequency level may also be performed. When a determination is made not to compress the specified data, the device controller writes the specified data into the non-volatile memory.

Storage apparatus and non-volatile memory device including a controller to selectively compress data based on an update frequency level

This nonvolatile memory device has a blockwise-erase nonvolatile memory including a plurality of physical areas, and also has a memory controller which transmits one of a plurality of types of commands to the nonvolatile memory. After an erase command to erase one of the physical areas has been transmitted, but before a response to that erase command is received, the memory controller determines whether to suspend the ongoing erasure of the physical area, on the basis of whether there is a command to be transmitted and/or on the basis of the degree of deterioration of the physical area being erased. If the determination is affirmative, the memory controller transmits a command to the nonvolatile memory to suspend the erasure.

Nonvolatile memory device, and storage apparatus having nonvolatile memory device

A second virtual volume having a plurality of second virtual areas is a clone of a first virtual volume having a plurality of first virtual areas. A first real area is allocated from a pool of real areas and based on storage devices to the first virtual volume. A storage controller allocates a second real area to the second virtual area before a write occurs in the second virtual area corresponding to the first virtual area to which the first real area is allocated. A physical area is allocated to a logical area corresponding to the first real area in each storage device, and data based on user data stored in the first real area is stored in the physical area. Each storage device allocates the physical area allocated to the logical area corresponding to the first real area to a logical area corresponding to the second real area.

Storage system and storage control method

Growing community of inventors

Sagamihara, Japan

Junji Ogawa