Using external memory devices to improve system performance

摘要

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.

主权项

1. A system comprising:
a computing device; a manager implemented by the computing device and configured for determining that an external memory device that is external to the computing device is accessible to the manager, that a read request is directed to data of a sector of a plurality of sectors of a storage device of the computing device, and that the data is available from the external memory device, where the external memory device is separate from the storage device, and where the external memory device is configured for completing the read request faster than the storage device; the manager further configured for redirecting the read request from the storage device to the external memory device; and the manager further configured for prioritizing copying sector data from the storage device to the external memory device based on a criteria that includes frequencies of access of various of the plurality of sectors, where the prioritizing is based on the frequencies of the access.