METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR STORING DATA

摘要

An SSD controller operates as an interface device conversant in a host protocol and a storage protocol supporting respective host and storage interfaces for providing a host with a view of an entire storage system. The host has visibility of the storage protocol that presents the storage system as a logical device, and accesses the storage device through the host protocol which is adapted for accessing high speed devices such as solid state drives (SSDs). The storage protocol supports a variety of possible dissimilar devices, allowing the host effective access to a combination of SSD and traditional storage as defined by the storage system. In this manner, a host protocol such as NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), well suited to SSDs, permits efficient access to storage systems, such as a storage array, thus the entire storage system (array or network) is presented to an upstream host as an NVMe storage device.

主权项

1. An interface device, comprising:
a host interface responsive to requests issued by a host, the host interface presenting a storage device for access by the host; a storage interface coupled to a plurality of dissimilar storage elements, the plurality of storage elements conversant in a storage protocol common to each of the plurality of storage elements; and a mapper connected between the host interface to the storage interface and configured to map requests received on the host interface to a specific storage element connected to the storage interface, the mapped request indicative of the specific storage element based on the storage protocol, the specific storage element independent of the presented storage device.