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:
Jul. 06, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1997
Knut Grimsrud, Aloha, OR (US);
Rick Coulson, Portland, OR (US);
Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A computer system is equipped with an operating system having a tracer driver for generating trace data including disk locations accessed for disk accesses made by various components of the operating system during system startup/boot time. The tracer driver is loaded at an initial phase of system start-up. The computer system is further equipped with a companion disk block relocation driver for generating, if possible, an alternative disk block allocation for a current disk block allocation that will yield improved overall access time for a sequence of disk accesses. In some embodiments, the disk block relocation driver includes logic for tracing the sequence of disk accesses to determine the current disk block allocation, logic for generating the alternative disk block allocation, if possible, using the trace results, and logic for effectuating the alternate disk block allocation, if generated. In one particular embodiment, the logic for generating the alternative disk block allocation employs a random search approach, while in another embodiment, the logic for generating the alternative disk block allocation employs a heuristic approach.