20090144497 | Redundant Storage of Data on an Array of Storage Devices - A disk array control apparatus controls writing of data onto an array of N storage devices such as disk drives, where N is an integer of 3 or greater. Each storage device writes data with a granularity of a sector having a predetermined sector size. The apparatus writes data with a granularity of a transfer unit having a transfer size which is T times the sector size, where T is a plural integer greater than (N−1). The apparatus is allows writing to an array of storage devices for which (N−1) is not a factor of T. In particular, the apparatus divides each transfer unit of data into plural stripes each consisting of a respective plural number of sectors of data having the sector size, the stripes each consisting of at most (N−1) sectors and at least one of the stripes consisting of less than (N−1) sectors, and calculates, in respect of each stripe, a parity sector of parity data. The sectors of data and the parity sector representing the parity of each stripe are written onto different storage devices. | 06-04-2009 |