JP2004506256A5 - - Google Patents

Claims (22)

With the motherboard,
A chipset coupled to the motherboard;
A disk storage device coupled to the chipset;
A non-volatile memory stacked on the chipset for caching data stored in the disk storage device;
A computer comprising: A device driver instruction for storing data in the disk storage device and reading data from the disk storage device, wherein the device driver instruction manages a cache of data in the nonvolatile memory; The computer according to claim 1, further comprising: The device driver instruction includes an instruction for determining whether the data exists in a non-volatile memory by checking a cache directory table stored in the non-volatile memory. The computer according to 2. The computer according to claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile memory is block-oriented. The chipset includes disk cache interface logic for controlling access to the non-volatile memory;
5. The computer of claim 4, wherein the disk cache interface logic checks an error correction code associated with block data read from the non-volatile memory. In a method for obtaining data associated with a location in disk memory,
Determining whether data associated with a location in the disk memory is cached in non-volatile memory by a device driver for the disk memory, the non-volatile memory being loaded onto a chipset The chipset is coupled to the disk memory; and
If data is cached in the non-volatile memory, reading the data associated with the location from the non-volatile memory;
A method comprising: The method of claim 6, further comprising reading the data associated with the location from the disk memory if the data is not cached in the non-volatile memory. The method of claim 6, wherein the determining includes checking a cache directory table stored in the non-volatile memory. Reading data from the non-volatile memory includes sending instructions to cache interface logic located in the chipset, the instructions reading data from the non-volatile memory to random access memory ( 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the direct instruction is to RAM. The non-volatile memory is block-oriented, wherein reading data from the non-volatile memory further includes checking an error correction code associated with each block read from the non-volatile memory. The method according to claim 9. 8. The step of reading data associated with the location from the disk memory stores the data in a random access memory (RAM) and stores the data in the non-volatile memory. The method described. In a computer readable medium storing instructions to be executed by a processor in a computer system, the instructions are stored in an operating system for the processor to write data to a disk storage device or read data from a disk drive. Including device driver instructions for processing requests from the system, wherein the device driver instructions are stored in a non-volatile memory on which data to be written to the disk drive is loaded on a chipset of the computer system Including instructions for determining whether to be cached, and wherein the device driver includes instructions for determining whether data read from the disk drive is cached in the non-volatile memory. Medium. The device driver includes instructions for writing data to the non-volatile memory based on a determination of whether the data should be cached in the non-volatile memory, and the device driver includes the data being non-volatile 13. The medium of claim 12, comprising instructions for reading data from the non-volatile memory based on determining whether it is cached in memory. The medium of claim 13, wherein the instruction to read data from the non-volatile memory reads data from the non-volatile memory in a disk cache and checks an error correction code for reading each disk block. The medium of claim 12, wherein the determination of whether data to be read from the disk drive is cached in non-volatile memory is based on a cache directory table stored in the non-volatile memory. Determining whether data to be written to the disk drive should be cached in the non-volatile memory and determining whether data to be read from the disk drive is cached in the non-volatile memory; The medium of claim 12, wherein instructions in the device driver are invisible to an operating system that sends a request to the device driver. A chipset with logic to interface with the processor and logic to interface with the disk drive;
A non-volatile cache that is loaded onto the chipset and caches data for the disk drive;
A system consisting of The chipset analyzes a request for data from the disk drive sent from the processor to the chipset and from the non-volatile cache to the processor if the data is cached in the non-volatile cache. The system of claim 17, further comprising cache management logic that provides the requested data. The system of claim 17, wherein the non-volatile cache is block-oriented. The system of claim 19, wherein the chipset includes logic to check an error correction code for each data block read from the non-volatile memory. The system of claim 19, wherein the non-volatile cache stores a cache directory table that indicates whether a data block exists in the non-volatile cache. The chipset includes an input / output control hub chip and a memory control hub chip, wherein the non-volatile cache is stacked on top of the input / output control hub chip. 17. The system according to 17.

Images