U.S. patent application number 11/760821 was filed with the patent office on 2008-01-17 for system and method to reduce disk access time during predictable loading sequences.
Invention is credited to Richard Alan Dayan, James Franklin JR. Macon.
Application Number | 20080016273 11/760821 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34920209 |
Filed Date | 2008-01-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20080016273 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Dayan; Richard Alan ; et
al. |
January 17, 2008 |
System And Method To Reduce Disk Access Time During Predictable
Loading Sequences
Abstract
A method, software, and system for loading data from disk
include comparing a current sequence of disk I/O requests to data
indicative of a previous disk I/O request sequence. Responsive to
detecting a match between the current disk I/O sequence and the
previous disk I/O sequence, a copy of data blocks accessed during
the I/O sequence is stored in a contiguous portion of the disk.
Responsive to a subsequent request to data in the disk sequence,
the request is mapped to and serviced from the sequential portion
of the disk. In one embodiment, the disk sequence represents a boot
sequence of the system.
Inventors: |
Dayan; Richard Alan;
(Raleigh, NC) ; Macon; James Franklin JR.;
(Raleigh, NC) |
Correspondence
Address: |
IBM CORPORATION
PO BOX 12195
DEPT YXSA, BLDG 002
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK
NC
27709
US
|
Family ID: |
34920209 |
Appl. No.: |
11/760821 |
Filed: |
June 11, 2007 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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10798091 |
Mar 11, 2004 |
|
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11760821 |
Jun 11, 2007 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
711/112 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 12/0866 20130101;
G06F 12/0862 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
711/112 |
International
Class: |
G06F 12/00 20060101
G06F012/00 |
Claims
1. A method of loading data from disk in a data processing system,
comprising: comparing a current sequence of disk requests to data
indicative of a previous sequence of disk requests; responsive to
detecting a match between the current sequence and the previous
sequence, storing a copy of data blocks accessed during the current
sequence in a contiguous portion of the disk; and responsive to a
subsequent request for data in the disk sequence, mapping the
request to the sequential portion of the disk and servicing the
request from data in the sequential portion.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising recording a sequence
of disk accesses, wherein recording the sequence includes recording
the disk address of each block accessed and the length of each
block.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing a copy of data blocks
accessed during the I/O sequence comprises storing the data blocks
sequentially in the order that the data blocks were accessed
chronologically.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, responsive to
retrieving data from the contiguous portion, prefetching additional
data from the contiguous portion of the disk and caching the
additional data in a buffer.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising, responsive to an I/O
request, determining whether the data requested resides in the
buffer and, if so, retrieving the data from the buffering without
accessing the hard disk.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequence of disk requests
includes the sequence of disk requests following a power-on
event.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the contiguous portion of the
disk to which the data is copied is on a different partition of the
disk than a disk partition on which the original data is
stored.
8. A computer program product, comprising a sequence of computer
executable instructions stored on a computer medium, for booting a
data processing system, the program product comprising: program
code means for recording a sequence of accesses to disk storage
during a system boot sequence; program code means for copying data
blocks accessed during the boot sequence into a contiguous block of
the fixed disk; and program code means for routing, during a
subsequent boot sequence, the sequence of disk accesses to a
sequence of accesses to data in the contiguous block wherein the
data retrieved from disk during the subsequent boot sequence is
retrieved from the contiguous block.
9. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising
recording a sequence of disk accesses, wherein recording the
sequence includes recording the disk address of each block accessed
and the length of each block.
10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the program
code means for copying data blocks accessed during the boot
sequence includes copying data blocks accessed during the boot
sequence to the contiguous portion in the order that the blocks
were accessed chronologically.
11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the contiguous
portion of the disk to which the data is copied is on a different
partition of the disk than the original data.
12. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising
code means for prefetching data during the subsequent boot sequence
and storing the prefetched data into a buffer wherein at least some
of the disk requests of the subsequent boot sequence are serviced
by the buffer without retrieving data from the disk.
13. The computer program product of claim 8, further comprising
code means for updating, in response to a modification of data in
the boot sequence, of updating the data in both the original data
block and the copied data block.
14. A data processing system, comprising: a processor coupled to a
system memory; a disk controller coupled to the processor and
memory, and configured to control accesses to disk storage of the
system, wherein the disk controller is configured to: record data
indicative of a sequence of disk sectors accessed during operation
of the system; copy the sectors accessed during the sequence into a
contiguous block of the disk responsive to detecting the same disk
access sequence occurring; and responsive to a subsequent access to
a disk sector in the sequence of disk sectors, servicing the
request from the contiguous block.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the sequence of disk accesses
represents the sequence of disk accesses that occur following power
on.
16. The system of claim 14, further comprising recording a sequence
of disk accesses, wherein recording the sequence includes recording
the disk address of each block accessed and the length of each
block.
17. The system of claim 14, wherein the program code means for
copying data blocks accessed during the boot sequence includes
copying data blocks accessed during the boot sequence to the
contiguous portion in the order that the blocks were accessed
chronologically.
18. The system of claim 14, wherein the contiguous portion of the
disk to which the data is copied is on a different partition of the
disk than the original data.
19. The system of claim 14, further comprising code means for
prefetching data during the subsequent boot sequence and storing
the prefetched data into a buffer wherein at least some of the disk
requests of the subsequent boot sequence are serviced by the buffer
without retrieving data from the disk.
20. The system of claim 14, further comprising code means for
updating, in response to a modification of data in the boot
sequence, of updating the data in both the original data block and
the copied data block.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation application of and claims
priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/798,091, filed on
Mar. 11, 2004.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Field of the Present Invention
[0003] The present invention is related to the field of data
processing devices and specifically to data processing devices that
employ fixed disk storage.
[0004] 2. History of Related Art
[0005] Microprocessor-based data processing systems are composed of
several subsystems or major components. Three of these subsystems
that have the most affect on system performance are the central
processing unit (CPU), the system memory, and the file subsystem.
Of these three, however, the fixed disk storage used by the file
subsystem has the most significant impact on system performance.
The predominance of the fixed disk unit's affect on system response
time is due to the presence of electromechanical elements in the
fixed disk unit. Whereas semiconductor processors and memory have
no moving parts and operate at speeds determined by the speed of
electrons moving through an impedance element, disk units are
characterized by mechanical latencies caused by rotation of the
media and/or movement of the head (i.e., seek times). Latencies
associated with disk accessed time can be reduced by using a disk
cache. Like its cache counterpart in the context of system memory
hierarchies, a disk cache is a relatively small, fast, and
expensive storage medium into which recently retrieved data from
the disk can be stored in anticipation of the data being required
in the near future. For disk sectors that are accessed frequently,
disk caches can yield significant performance benefits.
[0006] Unfortunately, a disk cache can only be useful after it is
populated with data. When a system is first powered on or reset,
the disk cache is empty. Thus, the great majority of data accesses
that occur following a restart can only be fulfilled from the fixed
disk. This problem might be acceptable if relatively few disk
accesses were needed following restart. In reality however, the
system restart of most data processing systems, including all
x86-based data processing systems that run a Windows.RTM. platform,
execute a large number of disk request following restart. These
disk request are needed to retrieve portions of increasingly
complex operating systems from disk and store them into memory.
Files on disks are typically allocated sequentially when they are
installed. When accessed (data files) or executed (program files),
it is relatively rare that an entire file is used. During a boot
sequence, for example, large portions of software such as the
operating system's help files are not accessed. In addition, during
boot sequencing, a reference to an entity in one file frequently
invokes another file that may reside on a portion of the disk
storage that is physically distant from the calling program. For at
least these reasons, the boot sequence is characterized by frequent
accesses to disk storage where there is substantially no
relationship between the data requested in each access. In contexts
other than system boot sequencing, it may be common to detect a
disk access sequence that is repetitive. In such cases, it would be
desirable if the repeated nature of the requests could be
recognized by creating an entirely sequential (contiguous) copy of
the requested data and a mapping from the original data sequence of
the relocated data sequence such that, during a subsequent access
to this data, the requested data would lie in a contiguous portion
of the disk.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Generally speaking, the present invention is concerned with
improving data processing system performance by reducing the amount
of time a system consumes accessing its fixed disk storage. The
invention is most applicable to sequences or patterns of fixed disk
access that occur repetitively and predictably. The data processing
system includes a fixed disk controller that is enabled to monitor
and record disk accesses (i.e., what tracks and sectors are
requested). When the disk controller detects a sequence that has
previously occurred one or more times, the disk controller is
configured to copy the various disk segments comprising the
sequence into sequential space in a dedicated portion of the disk.
If the data in the sequence is accessed later, the disk controller
reroutes the requests into the relocated portion of the disk, where
the data is stored sequentially. Because the data is stored
sequentially in the dedicated portion, the disk spends less time
moving the disk head among disk portions that are randomly spaced
on the disk. In addition, because the relocated data is sequential,
the disk controller can employ and greatly benefit from
pre-fetching data into a disk cache, either on the disk controller
or elsewhere. In one embodiment, the invention is applied to a
system boot sequence, where the disk access sequence is likely to
follow a pattern. In other embodiments, the invention is
implemented in conjunction with post-boot disk access sequences
such as the sequence that is followed when an application program
is loaded.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Other purposes and advantages of the invention will become
apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon
reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of selected elements of a data
processing system suitable for implementing the present
invention;
[0010] FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a method of recording,
detecting, and copying a predictable disk access sequence according
to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0011] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method of monitoring I/O
requests and servicing the request from relocated data according to
an embodiment of the present invention;
[0012] FIG. 4 is a conceptual representation of fixed disk storage
configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention;
and
[0013] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of selected elements of a disk
controller according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0014] While the invention is susceptible to various modifications
and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by
way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in
detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and
detailed description presented herein are not intended to limit the
invention to the particular embodiment disclosed, but on the
contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents,
and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present
invention as defined by the appended claims.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0015] Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a simplified block
diagram of a data processing system 100 suitable for use in
conjunction with one embodiment of the present invention. In the
depicted embodiment, system 100 includes one or more central
processing units (CPU's) 102-1 through 102-n (collectively or
generically referred to herein as CPU(s) 102). CPU(s) 102 share a
system bus 104 that provides access to a system memory 110 via a
bridge/memory controller 106. An I/O bridge 120 connected to memory
controller bridge 106 provides connections to a first I/O bus 130
and a second I/O bus 140. In the depicted embodiment, the system's
basic I/O system (BIOS) firmware is stored on a nonvolatile storage
device such as a flash memory device represented by reference
numeral 135. First I/O bus may be an conventional expansion bus
such as the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus or a variant
thereof. In other implementations, first I/O bus 130 is a low pin
count (LPC) bus.
[0016] The second I/O bus 140 is likely an industry standard
peripheral bus such as the Peripheral Components Interface (PCI)
bus. As depicted in FIG. 1, a controller 145 connected to second
I/O bus 140 is connected to fixed disk storage 150. Controller 145
may be implemented as a single disk controller or as a Redundant
Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) controller in an embodiment where
fixed disk storage 145 represent a RAID array. RAID is a well known
technique for providing redundancy in fixed disk storage.
[0017] When a data processing system such as system 100 is first
booted, system memory 110 and any CPU cache memory (not depicted)
contain no data because they are volatile storage elements that
lose their data content when a system is powered off or reset. To
transition from a state in which there is no program code stored in
its volatile storage, system 100 must execute code stored in
nonvolatile memory.
[0018] The code that is first executed following a power on or
system reset is commonly referred to as the boot code. The boot
code is primarily responsible for performing certain critical
functions including establishing the BIOS, performing a basic self
test (referred to as the power on self test (POST), and loading an
operating system that can then assume control of the system's
operation. Because the volatile storage elements are "empty"
following reset and because the firmware device 135 likely has
severely limited storage capacity, the bulk of the code that is
fetched during the boot sequence (such as the operating system code
that must be loaded into memory) is retrieved from fixed disk
storage 150. Retrieving data from fixed disk storage is notoriously
slow compared to retrieving data stored in other storage elements
such as system memory 110. Fixed disk 150 is characterized by
mechanical and electromechanical elements that must be operated to
retrieve data from the disk. Most significantly, the disks
read/write head must be positioned over the appropriate track and
sector of the appropriate disk before the data can be accessed. If
data from two physically disparate portions of the disk are
accessed in close chronological succession, performance will be
impacted negatively by the time required to rotate the disk from
the first portion of the disk to a second portion and move the read
heads.
[0019] In at least some applications of significance in terms of
the frequency of occurrence or in the amount of data that they
retrieve, the data access pattern associated with certain events
does not vary significantly from one execution to another. Among
these applications, perhaps the most recognizable is the boot
sequence itself. The boot sequence of many data processing systems
does not vary in any substantial way from one power on or reset
event to the next. In addition, the boot sequence is likely to
involve many accesses to fixed disk storage and there is no
necessary relationship between the data accessed during the boot
sequence and the data's position on the disk. Thus, the boot
sequence may invoke a sequence of disk access to data portions that
may be widely scattered over the physical disk thereby rendering
the boot sequence highly inefficient in terms of access time. The
present invention addresses this problem by recognizing and
recording a disk access sequence, such as the disk access sequence
that occurs during the boot sequence. When a sequence is determined
to be a sequence that has been repeated in the past (i.e., the
sequence has a signature), the disk controller copies or relocates
the data that was accessed during the sequence into sequential
storage on a dedicated portion of the fixed disk. This relocated
data is then used during subsequent occurrences of the disk access
sequence.
[0020] Portions of the invention may be implemented as a set or
sequence of computer executable instructions (software) that is
stored on a computer readable medium such as a magnetic disk or
tape, a CD ROM, a flash memory or other electrically alterable
medium. During times when the instructions are being executed by a
CPU, portions of the software may reside in system memory or a
cache memory of the CPU.
[0021] Referring now to FIG. 2, a flow diagram illustrating a
method 200 of monitoring disk accesses patterns or sequences for a
characteristic signature is depicted. In the depicted embodiment, a
disk access tracking is mode is enabled (block 202) as an initial
step in the data relocation process. In one embodiment, the
system's disk controller 145 is primarily responsible for tracking
disk accesses patterns. In such embodiments, disk controller 145
has a configurable "record" mode during which I/O accesses to fixed
disk 150 are recorded in storage (not depicted) on disk controller
145. Disk controller 145 preferably includes some random access
memory (RAM) storage capacity to store disk access sequences. When
disk controller 145 is in a record mode, each I/O request to fixed
disk storage 150 is recorded. The record information includes, at a
minimum, the head, track, and sector number of the data requested.
The disk access information is recorded in the same order as the
disk access requests themselves. In this way, disk controller 145
builds a sequential table of disk access data representing the
sequence of I/O requests that are made to fixed disk storage
150.
[0022] Recording of disk access requires some processing overhead
on the part of disk controller 145 and some storage capacity to
store the recorded sequences. In many applications, disk controller
processing bandwidth and disk controller storage are in short
supply. In such cases, it is desirable to implement disc controller
145 with a record switch that may be toggled under software control
so that disk I/O requests are not recorded all of the time, but
instead, only when desired by the user or administrator. As
indicated previously, a primary candidate for recording disk access
sequences is the sequence of disk accesses that occur immediately
following system power on or reset until the time when an operating
system is loaded and has control of the system. Because this code
sequence is the first code sequence to execute following reset, one
embodiment of the invention employs a disk controller 145 having a
record "switch" that is always on at power up. In this embodiment,
the disk controller is capable of recording from the as soon as the
system is powered on.
[0023] With disk access tracking enabled in block 202, the disk
controller then begins to record (block 206) the sequence of access
to fixed disk storage 150. Disk controller 145 may include or
allocate dedicated storage for storing disk access sequences.
Depending upon the amount of information stored with each disk
access request, the amount of storage required for this task varies
widely. In an embodiment designed to minimize the amount of storage
required to store a sequence of I/O accesses, a minimum of
information is stored for each disk access request. In this
context, a minimum of information would likely include the physical
address (head, track, sector, etc) of the first sector accessed
with the I/O request and the amount of data requested.
[0024] At some point, due to lack of storage, the performance
impact of recording, or some other concern, it may be desirable to
disable disk access recording. Disk controller 145 according to at
least one embodiment of the invention includes a switch (software
or otherwise) that disables I/O access recording. Knowing when to
stopping recording using the switch may be more difficult than
knowing when to start it. As mentioned above, starting the
recording is achieved by default following system boot or through
manipulation by the system administrator or other person. Knowing
when to disabled recording, however, is complicated by the fact
that an operating system, as such, never completes executing.
Operating system's in one sense are monitoring programs that remain
active as long as the system is active. Because the operating
system never really turns off, it is difficult to tell the system
in any way that is meaningful when to stop recording.
[0025] In the context of an initial boot sequence, turning off I/O
access recording is likely to occur when the operating system is
loaded. This point in time or sequence may be detected by, for
example, monitoring for the first user input that is received or
monitoring for a lapse of time exceeding a specified threshold that
passes without any user input or I/O access requests.
[0026] As illustrated in FIG. 2, disk controller 145, monitors for
a disk access signature (i.e., a sequence that it has recorded on a
previous occasion). Until at least one sequence of disk access is
stored disk controller 145, the controller cannot recognize another
sequence as a matching sequence. Thus, disk controller 145 must
record and store at least one sequence of I/O requests for
comparison with subsequent disk access sequences. In one
embodiment, the system boot sequence is the first sequence that is
recorded and stored for comparison with a subsequent sequence. When
checking for a matching sequence in block 208, disk controller 145
may place limits on the amount or quantity of code that must match
before the code sequence is recognized as a signature to prevent
very short sequences of disk accesses that match from being
interpreted as a signature.
[0027] If a disk access sequence is recognized (block 208) as
matching a signature that the disk controller has seen in the past,
the disc controller will disable (block 212) disk access recording
or tracking and initiate (block 216) a "relocation" process in
which the disk sectors that were accessed during the sequence
recognized as matching a signature are copied from their original
disk locations into dedicated portion of the fixed disk referred to
herein as the disk's signature partition.
[0028] Referring momentarily to FIG. 4, a conceptual representation
of an implementation of a fixed disk storage area according to one
embodiment of the present invention is depicted. In the depicted
embodiment, fixed disk storage 150 is allocated into different
partitions. At the root sector (track 0, sector 0), a master boot
record (MBR) program 410 uses a partition table 412 to determines
where the partitions are and to determine which partition is the
active partition. Partition table 412 defines the physical
partitioning of disk 150. In the illustrated implementation, a
first partition 421, which typically begins in track 0 and includes
all contiguous disk space up to the end of partition indicator 423
in Track 1. In a likely implementation, first partition 421 is
associated with a particular operating system. When the MBRP 410
executes and recognizes first partition 421 as the active
partition, it invokes a boot record on first partition 421 that
performs the process of loading into memory the operating system
that is resident on first partition 421. This loading process is
illustrated in FIG. 4 by a set of disk blocks 401-1 through 404-1.
As the boot record on first partition 421 executes, the disk
segments represented as 401-1 through 404-1 are loaded into memory
in a chronologically sequential manner. It is noted from FIG. 4
that the different blocks retrieved during the boot sequence may be
located on different tracks, distant sectors, and so forth. It will
be appreciated by those skilled in the operation of fixed disk
drives that the sequential retrieval of blocks 401-1 through 404-1
will includes a significant amount of delay as the disk read/write
elements are rotated and otherwise positioned over the respective
segments.
[0029] According to the present invention, however, the sequence of
accesses to disks 401-1 through 404-1 is monitored and recorded.
When the sequence is subsequently encountered (on the next system
boot for example), the system will recognize the sequence as
defining a signature and relocate the blocks in the signature to a
sequential area of the disk identified as signature partition 430.
Although the depicted embodiment elects to store the relocated data
into a different partition than the partition in which the original
data resides, other embodiments may use portions of first partition
421 to store any signature(s) associated with that partition.
[0030] Returning to FIG. 2, disk controller 145, after relocating
data from its original location to the signature partition 430 (or
other sequential area of the disk) maintains a mapping between the
original data's disk addresses and the relocated data's disk
addresses. By maintaining a mapping from the data original location
to its location within signature partition 430, the invention
enables subsequent accesses to the original data to be "routed" to
the sequential partition 430. In block 220 of FIG. 2, this routing
functionality is enabled after all (or at least a portion) of data
that was determined to be a part of the signature is relocated to
the signature partition 430.
[0031] The flow diagram of FIG. 2 illustrates the method of
detecting a signature and relocating the data to a sequential
segment of the fixed disk storage. After the routing functionality
of disk controller 145 is enabled, disk accesses are performed
according to the method 300 of the flow diagram of FIG. 3.
Specifically, disk controller 145 monitors (block 302) all disk I/O
requests once its router functionality is enabled. When an I/O
request is detected in block 304, the disk controller determines
(block 308) whether the requested disk sector is in the signature.
The disk controller can make this determination by comparing the
requested disk sector to those sectors defined in its routing
information.
[0032] If the requested segment is determined (block 312) by the
disk controller to be a disk sector that is stored in the signature
partition, the disk controller will invoke its router functionality
to retrieve the data from the sequential partition. One of the
advantages of storing data sequentially in the order that it is
accessed chronologically is that doing so greatly improves
opportunities for prefetching data. Prefetching refers to a
technique used to reduce delays by anticipating (guessing) what
data will next be needed from a disk and placing this data in the
disk controllers disk cache, which is typically just a RAM array.
The benefit to having the data arranged sequentially in signature
partition 430 is that prefetching data is likely to prefetch data
that will soon be used.
[0033] With prefetching enabled, the embodiment of method 300
depicted in FIG. 3 includes determining not only whether the
requested data is in the signature partition, but also determining
(block 316) whether the requested data is in a disk cache of disk
controller 145. If the data is in a disk cache, disk controller 145
retrieves the requested data from the disk cache thereby saving
significant access time. If the data is not currently in the disk
cache, the disk controller will fetch (block 324) the data from the
signature partition and cache the data in a disk cache (also
referred to as a buffer) of fixed disk 150.
[0034] Referring now to FIG. 5, selected elements of disk
controller 145 according to one embodiment of the present invention
are depicted to illustrate the routing functionality described
above. Disk controller 145 according to the depicted embodiment
includes a disk router 520 and a disk cache (buffer) 504. When disk
controller 145 receive an I/O request, such as the depicted request
for data block 401-1, it consults a mapping (not depicted) within
router 502 to determine if the requested block is part of the
signature partition. If the request is for a relocated data block
(i.e., a data block that has been copied into signature block 430),
router 502 determines if the data is currently stored in disk cache
or buffer 504. If the requested data "misses" in disk cache 504,
routers 502 will forward a request for the relocated data block
401-2. In the depicted embodiment, disk controller 145 will, in
addition to requesting relocated data block 401-2, which is
currently needed, but also request a prefetch of data block
following block 401-2 (i.e. 402-2 and so forth). By prefetching
data when block 401-2 was retrieved, the disk controller 145 tries
to improve the amount of time spent accessing those subsequent
blocks. Thus, if a request for data 401-2 follows the request for
data block 401-1, the router 502 will map the request into a
request for data block 401-2, which will be served from the disk
cache buffer 504 rather than from the disk directly thereby
reducing the access time. Even in cases where the requested data is
not found in buffer 504 due to its limited size, the request will
be serviced from the signature partition 430. Because the signature
data is stored sequentially in the signature partition, the data
can be accessed faster due to the close physical proximity of all
the data in the signature partition.
[0035] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the
benefit of this disclosure that the present invention contemplates
a method for arranging the fixed disk to improve the performance
during a sustained fixed disk access sequence. It is understood
that the form of the invention shown and described in the detailed
description and the drawings are to be taken merely as presently
preferred examples. It is intended that the following claims be
interpreted broadly to embrace all the variations of the preferred
embodiments disclosed.
* * * * *