Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090112949 | COMPRESSED STORAGE MANAGEMENT - In accordance with one or more aspects, compressed storage management in a system includes determining which of multiple data units stored in an uncompressed portion of the storage resource are to be compressed and stored in a compressed portion of the storage resource. The management can further include returning one or more regions of the compressed portion for use in the uncompressed portion in response to storage resource pressure in the system, as well as compacting regions in the compressed portion to fill empty gaps in the compressed portion. | 04-30-2009 |
20090144495 | USING EXTERNAL MEMORY DEVICES TO IMPROVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 06-04-2009 |
20090150611 | MANAGEMENT OF EXTERNAL MEMORY FUNCTIONING AS VIRTUAL CACHE - A method and apparatus for managing the caching of data on an auxiliary memory of a computer. Pages of data may be cached on an auxiliary memory, such as a flash memory, at a virtual level using an identifier that does not involve a physical address of the pages on a memory. Pages may be cached on auxiliary memory that may be removable from the computer, e.g., by unplugging the memory from the computer. Page data may be encrypted and/or compressed on the auxiliary memory. An authentication indicator may be used to verify the accuracy of cached data in the case of an interrupted connection to the auxiliary memory, e.g., as a result of computer power down, hibernation, removal of the memory from the computer, etc. | 06-11-2009 |
20090198883 | DATA COPY MANAGEMENT FOR FASTER READS - Multiple copy sets of data are maintained on one or more storage devices. Each copy set includes at least some of the same data units as other sets. Different sets optionally have data units stored in different orders on the storage device(s). A particular one of the sets of data is selected as the set to be accessed in response to detecting a particular scenario. | 08-06-2009 |
20100070701 | MANAGING CACHE DATA AND METADATA - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for ensuring that the contents of a non-volatile memory device may be relied upon as accurately reflecting data stored on disk storage across a power transition such as a reboot. For example, some embodiments of the invention provide techniques for determining whether the cache contents and/or or disk contents are modified during a power transition, causing cache contents to no longer accurately reflect data stored in disk storage. Further, some embodiments provide techniques for managing cache metadata during normal (“steady state”) operations and across power transitions, ensuring that cache metadata may be efficiently accessed and reliably saved and restored across power transitions. | 03-18-2010 |
20100070747 | MANAGING CACHE DATA AND METADATA - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for managing cache metadata providing a mapping between addresses on a storage medium (e.g., disk storage) and corresponding addresses on a cache device at data items are stored. In some embodiments, cache metadata may be stored in a hierarchical data structure comprising a plurality of hierarchy levels. Only a subset of the plurality of hierarchy levels may be loaded to memory, thereby reducing the memory “footprint” of cache metadata and expediting the process of restoring the cache metadata during startup operations. Startup may be further expedited by using cache metadata to perform operations associated with reboot. Thereafter, as requests to read data items on the storage medium are processed using cache metadata to identify addresses at which the data items are stored in cache, the identified addresses may be stored in memory. When the computer is later shut down, instead of having to transfer the entirety of the cache metadata from memory to storage, only the subset of the plurality of hierarchy levels and/or the identified addresses previously loaded to memory may be transferred (e.g., to the cache device), thereby expediting the shutdown of the computer. | 03-18-2010 |
20100217929 | Using External Memory Devices to Improve System Performance - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 08-26-2010 |
20110113432 | COMPRESSED STORAGE MANAGEMENT - Compressed storage management includes assigning a selection priority and a priority level to multiple data units stored in an uncompressed portion of a storage resource. The management can further include compressing data units and storing the compressed data units in a compressed portion of the storage resource. The data units in the compressed portion are stored in regions, which each store data units having the same selection priority or the same selection priority level. | 05-12-2011 |
20110276743 | USING EXTERNAL MEMORY DEVICES TO IMPROVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 11-10-2011 |
20110314202 | MANAGING CACHE DATA AND METADATA - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for managing cache metadata providing a mapping between addresses on a storage medium (e.g., disk storage) and corresponding addresses on a cache device at data items are stored. In some embodiments, cache metadata may be stored in a hierarchical data structure comprising a plurality of hierarchy levels. When a reboot of the computer is initiated, only a subset of the plurality of hierarchy levels may be loaded to memory, thereby expediting the process of restoring the cache metadata and thus startup operations. Startup may be further expedited by using cache metadata to perform operations associated with reboot. Thereafter, as requests to read data items on the storage medium are processed using cache metadata to identify addresses at which the data items are stored in cache, the identified addresses may be stored in memory. When the computer is later shut down, instead of having to transfer the entirety of the cache metadata from memory to storage, only the subset of the plurality of hierarchy levels and/or the identified addresses previously loaded to memory may be transferred (e.g., to the cache device), thereby expediting the shutdown of the computer. | 12-22-2011 |
20120166719 | DATA COPY MANAGEMENT FOR FASTER READS - Multiple copy sets of data are maintained on one or more storage devices. Each copy set includes at least some of the same data units as other sets. Different sets optionally have data units stored in different orders on the storage device(s). A particular one of the sets of data is selected as the set to be accessed in response to detecting a particular scenario. | 06-28-2012 |
20120173824 | MANAGING CACHE DATA AND METADATA - Embodiments of the invention provide techniques for managing cache metadata providing a mapping between addresses on a storage medium (e.g., disk storage) and corresponding addresses on a cache device at which data items are stored. In some embodiments, cache metadata may be stored in a hierarchical data structure comprising a plurality of hierarchy levels. When a reboot of the computer is initiated, only a subset of the plurality of hierarchy levels may be loaded to memory, thereby expediting the process of restoring the cache metadata and thus startup operations. Startup may be further expedited by using cache metadata to perform operations associated with reboot. | 07-05-2012 |
20120185776 | ANALYZING RESOURCE CONSUMPTION OF SOFTWARE EXECUTING DURING A USAGE SCENARIO - Described herein are various principles for assisting in the identification of a configuration of computing device and reconfiguration of the computing device. More particularly, some of the principles relate to identifying one or more software processes configured to be executed during operation of the computing device in a usage scenario. Following operation of the computing device in the usage scenario, amounts of one or more resources consumed by each of the software processes throughout the usage scenario may also be identified. In some embodiments, once the software processes and amounts of the resource(s) consumed by the software processes have been identified, the processes and the amounts can be displayed to a user and the user may then reconfigure the computing device, such as by preventing some software processes from executing during the usage scenario or by delaying an execution of some software processes. | 07-19-2012 |
20130311734 | DATA COPY MANAGEMENT FOR FASTER READS - Multiple copy sets of data are maintained on one or more storage devices. Each copy set includes at least some of the same data units as other sets. Different sets optionally have data units stored in different orders on the storage device(s). A particular one of the sets of data is selected as the set to be accessed in response to detecting a particular scenario. | 11-21-2013 |
20140075126 | MANAGEMENT OF EXTERNAL MEMORY FUNCTIONING AS VIRTUAL CACHE - A method and apparatus for managing the caching of data on an auxiliary memory of a computer. Pages of data may be cached on an auxiliary memory, such as a flash memory, at a virtual level using an identifier that does not involve a physical address of the pages on a memory. Pages may be cached on auxiliary memory that may be removable from the computer, e.g., by unplugging the memory from the computer. Page data may be encrypted and/or compressed on the auxiliary memory. An authentication indicator may be used to verify the accuracy of cached data in the case of an interrupted connection to the auxiliary memory, e.g., as a result of computer power down, hibernation, removal of the memory from the computer, etc. | 03-13-2014 |
20140282426 | DIVIDE AND CONQUER APPROACH TO SCENARIO TIMELINE ACTIVITY ATTRIBUTION - In one embodiment, a system analyzer may iteratively sub-partition the trace timeline | 09-18-2014 |
20150058545 | USING EXTERNAL MEMORY DEVICES TO IMPROVE SYSTEM PERFORMANCE - The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device. | 02-26-2015 |