SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CACHING A STORAGE MEDIUM

摘要

A standalone storage cache is responsive to a host independent of drivers or caching logic on the host. The standalone storage cache (standalone cache) interfaces between the host and corresponding storage device, and appears to each as the same I/O interface. I/O requests are sent by the host, and received/acknowledges by the standalone cache as if it were the native storage device. Similarly, the native storage device receives the I/O requests and fetches or stores the corresponding data. Caching logic in the standalone cache determines occupancy in the cache, and identifies when a request can be fulfilled by the cache rather than incurring an I/O to the storage device. No driver or other control need be resident on the host, due to independence of the standalone cache. Since the caching logic is inherent in the standalone cache, existing hosts may benefit from caching without host modification or storage volume upgrade.

主权项

1. A standalone cache device comprising:
a host interface for connection to a host computing device; a storage volume interface comprising a protocol and a storage volume; a cache memory for storing a recent history of stored items for subsequent access; and cache logic for receiving requests from the host interface and determining if the request can be satisfied using the cache memory, the cache logic independent from the host such that the host interface appears to the host as an interface to the storage volume.