Inexpensive Solid-State Storage Through Write Throttling

摘要

Many of the benefits of solid-state-based storage devices can be obtained, while minimizing the costs associated therewith, by write-throttling solid-state storage media in accordance with empirically derived capabilities. Untested solid-state storage media can be obtained inexpensively due to the lack of waste that is otherwise been inherent in the testing and subsequent discarding of solid-state storage media whose capabilities do not meet stringent manufacturer standards. The untested solid-state storage media is initialized through a testing procedure that empirically identifies capabilities of individual solid-state blocks, or groupings of blocks, within such solid-state storage media. Such empirically obtained capability information is then utilized to throttle the speed at which data is written to the solid-state storage media. Additionally, it can enable binning of individual solid-state blocks, or individual groupings of blocks, into bins that can comprise different performance thresholds.

主权项

1. One or more computer-readable media comprising computer-executable instructions for storing data on solid-state storage media, the computer-executable instructions directed to steps comprising:
testing the solid-state storage media to identify capabilities of individual portions of the solid-state storage media; generating a first set of entries in a write policy table allowing data storage on a first set of individual portions of the solid-state storage media whose capabilities the testing revealed to be greater than a predefined threshold; including, for each entry of the first set of entries, a write speed that is informed by a capability, of a corresponding portion of the solid-state storage media, to accept data for storage, as revealed by the testing; generating a second set of entries in a write policy table preventing data storage on a second set of individual portions of the solid-state storage media whose capabilities the testing revealed to be less than the predefined threshold; receiving the data for storage on the solid-state storage media; selecting at least some portions of the solid-state storage media, from among the first set of individual portions of the solid-state storage media, on which to store the received data; and throttling a speed with which the received data is written to the selected portions of the solid-state storage media in accordance with the write speed, corresponding to each of the selected portions, obtained from the write policy table.