Memory subsystem with disk meshing, controller meshing, and efficient

Abstract

In a data processing system, source block addresses are linearly mapped to virtual linear target disks equal in size to actual physical disks comprised by the long-term storage. Blocks of the virtual linear target disks are then assigned to disk-meshed disks equal in size to the actual physical disks whereby each block within a set of adjacently addressed linear target disk blocks is assigned to a separate disk-meshed disk. Controller meshing may be performed by assigning each disk-meshed disk to a controller-meshed disk which will comprise the actual physical disk, whereby respective sets of blocks within respective disk-meshed disks, all having the same disk controller, are assigned to equal-sized controller-meshed disks located on different disk controllers. Additional mechanisms that may be provided in the data processing system include efficient cache buffer lookup linked lists, and a mechanism for accelerating processing performed by an ancillary processing mechanism by ignoring a delay time.