US5603003A — High speed file access control method and compute…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 177 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system through individual disconnect reconnect units, a method of conducting a read cycle, the method comprising the steps of: issuing a plurality of read instructions respectively for a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; operating the disconnect reconnect units to serially connect the storage subsystems for receiving respective read instructions; in response to receipt of the read instructions in the storage subsystems, respectively, operating the disconnect reconnect units for disconnecting the respective storage subsystems; after disconnecting each of the storage subsystems, accessing data corresponding to the read instructions in the corresponding ones of the storage subsystems; reconnecting the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus through the corresponding disconnect reconnect unit and thereafter transferring the data corresponding to the read instruction from the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus; and controlling all of said steps so that said accessing data step for each storage subsystem is conducted in parallel with other operations of the storage subsystems.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 177 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system through individual disconnect reconnect units, a method of conducting a read cycle, the method comprising the steps of: issuing a plurality of read instructions respectively for a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; operating the disconnect reconnect units to serially connect the storage subsystems for receiving respective read instructions; in response to receipt of the read instructions in the storage subsystems, respectively, operating the disconnect reconnect units for disconnecting the respective storage subsystems; after disconnecting each of the storage subsystems, accessing data corresponding to the read instructions in the corresponding ones of the storage subsystems; reconnecting the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus through the corresponding disconnect reconnect unit and thereafter transferring the data corresponding to the read instruction from the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus; and controlling all of said steps so that said accessing data step for each storage subsystem is conducted in parallel with other operations of the storage subsystems.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said step of accessing data is conducted, at least in part, with the storage subsystems by transferring data from disk storage media to an internal cache of said storage subsystems.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 35 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said step of issuing issues the read instructions serially in a fixed order and said step of transferring is conducted in a different fixed order of the storage subsystems.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 42 words

The method of claim 1, further including steps of: receiving a read request for a data file; and dividing the read request for the data file into the plurality of read instructions for data subfiles that would together constitute the data file.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 55 words

The method of claim 4, wherein said step of receiving receives the read request as a request to a single logical storage for a logical data file; and said step of dividing divides the read request into the read instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to specific storage portions of the storage subsystems.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 61 words

The method of claim 5, further including: receiving the data subfiles from the storage subsystems over the bus and rearranging a received order to correspond to order of said issuing of the read instructions for assembling the data file; and transferring the data file to a requester as the data file from the single logical storage according to the read request.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 67 words

The method of claim 4, wherein said step of dividing divides the read request into a plurality of read instructions greater in number than the greatest number of read instructions processed in a single read cycle; repeating the read cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the read instructions comprising the read request; and conducting adjacent read cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 112 words

The method of claim 7, wherein said step of receiving receives the read request in the form of a request to a single logical storage for a logical data file; said step of dividing divides the read request into the read instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to specific storage areas of the storage subsystems; receiving the data subfiles transferred from the storage subsystems over the bus and rearranging a received order to correspond to order of said issuing of the read instructions for assembling the data file; and transferring the data file to a requester as the data file from the single logical storage according to the read request.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 73 words

The method of claim 1, further including: repeating all of said steps for another read request; and in response to a length of a data file of the another read request with respect to the length of the data file of the first mentioned read request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which read instructions are issued in each read cycle for the another read request relative to the first-mentioned read request.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 1, further including: conducting seek and latency with respect to reading magnetic disk media within each storage subsystem during a time period that the corresponding storage subsystem is disconnected from the bus.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 99 words

The method of claim 10, further including: issuing to the bus a reconnect request from each storage subsystem when the storage subsystem has completed the seek and latency so that elapsed time between disconnect and reconnect requests is independently established by each storage subsystem; and sending control over the bus by the computer system for operating the individual disconnect reconnect units to reconnect respective storage subsystems in an order of receipt of reconnect requests so that the data subfiles are received by the computer system in a same or a different order of said issuing of the read instructions.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 37 words

The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system rearranges an order of the data subfiles from an order of receipt to an order of said issuing of the read instructions to make up the data file.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 17 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said accessing includes seek and latency with respect to a disk.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said accessing includes transfer of data from a disk media to internal cache memory of said storage subsystems.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 42 words

The method of claim 14, further including steps of: receiving a read request for a data file; and dividing the read request for the data file into the plurality of read instructions for data subfiles that would together constitute the data file.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 15, further including: conducting seek and latency with respect to reading magnetic disk media within each storage subsystem during a time period that the corresponding storage subsystem is disconnected from the bus.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 55 words

The method of claim 16, wherein said step of receiving receives the read request as a request to a single logical storage for a logical data file; and said step of dividing divides the read request into the read instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to specific storage areas of the storage subsystems.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 99 words

The method of claim 17, further including: issuing to the bus a reconnect request from each storage subsystem when the storage subsystem has completed the seek and latency so that elapsed time between disconnect and reconnect requests is independently established by each storage subsystem; and sending control over the bus by the computer system for operating the individual disconnect reconnect units to reconnect respective storage subsystems in an order of receipt of reconnect requests so that the data subfiles are received by the computer system in a same or a different order of said issuing of the read instructions.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 159 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising a plurality of storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system, a method of conducting one of a read cycle and a write cycle, the method comprising the steps of: receiving one of a write and a read request as a request to a single logical storage with respect to a data file; dividing the request to a single logical storage into a plurality of instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to the storage subsystems with respect to a plurality of data subfiles; issuing the plurality of instructions respectively to a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; accessing a data corresponding to one of the instructions in each of the corresponding storage subsystems; transferring the data corresponding to the instruction from the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus; and combining the data to provide the data file in response to the request.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 159 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising a plurality of storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system, a method of conducting one of a read cycle and a write cycle, the method comprising the steps of: receiving one of a write and a read request as a request to a single logical storage with respect to a data file; dividing the request to a single logical storage into a plurality of instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to the storage subsystems with respect to a plurality of data subfiles; issuing the plurality of instructions respectively to a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; accessing a data corresponding to one of the instructions in each of the corresponding storage subsystems; transferring the data corresponding to the instruction from the corresponding storage subsystem to the bus; and combining the data to provide the data file in response to the request.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 35 words

The method of claim 19, wherein said steps are conducted with the storage subsystems as disk storage subsystems having disk media as main memory and an internal cache of the storage subsystems as auxiliary memory.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 34 words

The method of claim 19, wherein said step of issuing issues the instructions serially in a fixed order and said steps of transferring are conducted in a different fixed order of the storage subsystems.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 12 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the bus is an SCSI bus.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 52 words

The method of claim 19, further including: receiving the data from the storage subsystems and rearranging a received order to correspond to an order of said issuing of the instructions, for assembling the data file; and transferring the data file to a requester as the data file according to the read request.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 64 words

The method of claim 19, wherein said step of dividing divides the request to a single logical storage into a plurality of instructions greater in number than a greatest number of instructions processed in a single cycle; repeating the cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the instructions comprising the request; and conducting adjacent cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 57 words

The method of claim 19, further including repeating all of said steps for another request and in response to the length of the data file of the another request with respect to a length of the data file of the first mentioned request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which instructions are issued in each cycle.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the computer system rearranges an order of the data subfiles from an order of receipt to an order of said issuing of the instructions to make up the data file.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 64 words

The method of claim 19, wherein said accessing is conducted between disk media and an internal cache of the storage subsystems; receiving the subfiles from the storage subsystems and rearranging a received order to correspond to an order of said issuing of instructions for assembling the data file; and transferring the data file to a requester as the data file according to the request.

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 59 words

The method of claim 27, wherein said step of dividing divides the request into a plurality of instructions greater in number than a greatest number of instructions processed in a single cycle; repeating the cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the instructions comprising the request; and conducting adjacent cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 31

Dependent Claim 58 words

The method of claim 27, further including repeating all of said steps for another request and in response to a length of the data file of the another request with respect to the length of the data file of the first mentioned request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which read instructions are issued in each cycle.

Claim 32

Dependent Claim 59 words

The method of claim 29, wherein said step of dividing divides the request into a plurality of instructions greater in number than a greatest number of instructions processed in a single cycle; repeating the cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the instructions comprising the request; and conducting adjacent cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 33

Dependent Claim 151 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system through individual disconnect reconnect units, a method of conducting a write cycle, the method comprising the steps of: issuing a plurality of write instructions respectively for a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; operating the disconnect reconnect units to serially connect the storage subsystems for receiving respective write instructions; in response to receipt of the write instructions in the storage subsystems, respectively, operating the disconnect reconnect units for disconnecting the respective storage subsystems; after disconnecting each storage subsystem, writing data corresponding to ones of the write instruction in the corresponding storage subsystem, and thereafter sending a write end message to the bus; and controlling all of said steps so that said writing step for each storage subsystem is conducted in parallel with other operations of the storage subsystems.

Claim 34

Dependent Claim 151 words

In a method of operating a storage array system comprising storage subsystems connected on a bus to a computer system through individual disconnect reconnect units, a method of conducting a write cycle, the method comprising the steps of: issuing a plurality of write instructions respectively for a plurality of the storage subsystems, serially over the bus; operating the disconnect reconnect units to serially connect the storage subsystems for receiving respective write instructions; in response to receipt of the write instructions in the storage subsystems, respectively, operating the disconnect reconnect units for disconnecting the respective storage subsystems; after disconnecting each storage subsystem, writing data corresponding to ones of the write instruction in the corresponding storage subsystem, and thereafter sending a write end message to the bus; and controlling all of said steps so that said writing step for each storage subsystem is conducted in parallel with other operations of the storage subsystems.

Claim 35

Dependent Claim 21 words

The method of claim 31, wherein said writing is conducted between disk media and an internal cache of the storage subsystems.

Claim 36

Dependent Claim 42 words

The method of claim 32, further including steps of: receiving a write request for a data file; and dividing the write request for the data file into the plurality of write instructions for data subfiles that would together constitute the data file.

Claim 37

Dependent Claim 42 words

The method of claim 31, further including steps of: receiving a write request for a data file; and dividing the write request for the data file into the plurality of write instructions for data subfiles that would together constitute the data file.

Claim 38

Dependent Claim 52 words

The method of claim 34, wherein said step of receiving receives the write request as a request to a single logical storage for a single fixed data file; and said step of dividing divides the write request into the write instructions for a plurality of virtual storages corresponding to the storage subsystems.

Claim 39

Dependent Claim 67 words

The method of claim 34, wherein said step of dividing divides the write request into a plurality of write instructions greater in number than a greatest number of write instructions processed in a single write cycle; repeating the write cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the write instructions comprising the write request; and conducting adjacent write cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 40

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 31, further including repeating all of said steps for another write request and in response to a length of the data file of the another write request with respect to a length of the data file of the first mentioned write request, changing the number of storage subsystems to which write instructions are issued in each write cycle.

Claim 41

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 31, further including: conducting seek and latency with respect to writing magnetic disk media within each storage subsystem during a time period that the corresponding storage subsystem is disconnected from the bus.

Claim 42

Dependent Claim 58 words

The method of claim 38, further including: issuing to the bus a write end message from each storage subsystem when the storage subsystem has completed the seek and latency so that the time between disconnect and reconnect is independently established by each storage subsystem; and reconnecting respective storage subsystems in an order of receipt of write end messages.

Claim 43

Dependent Claim 17 words

The method of claim 31, wherein said writing includes seek and latency with respect to a disk.

Claim 44

Dependent Claim 71 words

The method of claim 35, wherein said step of dividing divides the request to a single logical storage into a plurality of write instructions greater in number than a greatest number of write instructions processed in a single write cycle; repeating the write cycle a plurality of times sufficient to process all of the write instructions comprising the write request; and conducting adjacent write cycles in time overlapping, partially parallel, operation.

Claim 45

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 41, further including repeating all of said steps for another write request and in response to a length of the data file of the another write request with respect to a length of the data file of the first mentioned write request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which write instructions are issued in each write cycle.

Claim 46

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 41, further including: conducting seek and latency with respect to writing magnetic disk media within each storage subsystem during a time period that the corresponding storage subsystem is disconnected from the bus.

Claim 47

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 35, further including repeating all of said steps for another write request and in response to a length of the data file of the another write request with respect to a length of the data file of the first mentioned write request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which write instructions are issued in each write cycle.

Claim 48

Dependent Claim 36 words

The method of claim 35, further including: conducting seek and latency with respect to writing magnetic disk media within each storage subsystem during a time period that the corresponding storage subsystem is disconnected from the bus.

Claim 49

Dependent Claim 62 words

The method of claim 45, further including repeating all of said steps for another write request and in response to a length of the data file of the another write request with respect to a length of the data file of the first mentioned write request, changing a number of storage subsystems to which write instructions are issued in each write cycle.

Claim 50

Dependent Claim 54 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the first mentioned request is a first write request; further including repeating all of said steps with respect to a second write request; and wherein said accessing for the first write request is conducted with respect to different storage subsystems than with respect to a second write request.

Claim 51

Dependent Claim 67 words

The method of claim 19, further including repeating all of said steps under control of the computer system with respect to a different bus, different storage subsystems and different disconnect reconnect units connected to the different bus, with respect to a second request from a requester that provided the first mentioned request, when the first mentioned request and second request refer to a common single storage subsystem.

Claim 52

Dependent Claim 106 words

The method of claim 19, further including thereafter providing extended storage by adding additional storage subsystems to the bus; thereafter conducting all of the steps, except said providing, for a read request with respect to data stored prior to said step of providing and without taking into consideration the additional storage subsystems; and repeating all of the steps, except said providing and conducting, with respect to a write request for storing data at least partially in the additional storage subsystems added by said step of providing, so that said step of providing is transparent to a requester issuing the one of the read and write requests.

Claim 53

Dependent Claim 99 words

The method of claim 19, further including: in response to a write request, setting a table with correspondence between a file descriptor in the write request and subfile descriptors of a virtual array of the storage subsystems; in response to a read request, accessing the table with a file descriptor of the read request and providing from the table corresponding subfile descriptors for the virtual array; and wherein said issuing issues read instructions respectively for the subfile descriptors, so that structure of the virtual array is transparent to a requester requesting the one of the read and write requests.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2000-02-11	2000-08-12	2001-02-11	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2004-02-11	2004-08-12	2005-02-11	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2008-02-11	2008-08-12	2009-02-11	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

High speed file access control method and computer system including a plurality of storage subsystems connected on a bus

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