The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 07, 1996
Lewis Lee Nunnelley, San Jose, CA (US);
Larry Lynn Williams, Los Altos, CA (US);
Leighton Christopher Wood, Jr, Morgan Hill, CA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A data storage and retrieval system is provided which has extremely high capacity. The system includes a large array of small disk files, and three storage managers for controlling the allocation of data to the array, access to data, and the power status of disk files within the array. The allocation manager chooses the disk files upon which incoming data is written based on the current state of the disk files (active or inactive), the available capacity, and the type of protection desired (i.e. unprotected, RAID, mirrored, etc.). The access manager interprets incoming read requests to determine the location of the stored data. The power manager sequences disk files between active and inactive to provide the storage requested by the access and allocation managers. The power manager also maintains the disk array in conformance with thermal and power constraints to avoid excessive power consumption or thermal overload while keeping active the optimal subset of the disk array based on the storage requests pending at any point in time.