Storage manager

Claim 2

A data storage system comprising, in combination: system storage means, said system storage means including a first storage for storing system data, coupled to a high-speed storage against which said system data is processed, said highspeed storage being faster and of smaller capacity than said first storage; an input for receiving requests to access data entities in said high-speed storage in terms of logical address names; and control means coupling said input to said system storage means, said control means including randomizing translation means for translating said symbolic address names into physical addresses with which to address said high-speed storage.

Claim 3

The combination of claim 1 wherein said translation means includes: posting means divided into addressable entities, for posting at least a portion of the physical address corresponding to the symbolic address name of each data entity which is currently resident in each high-speed storage; randomizing means coupled to said posting means and to saId input for generating from at least part of each incoming symbolic address name an address for accessing said posting means at an addressable entity wherein said at least a portion of the physical address corresponding to the incoming symbolic address name is probabilistically expected to be posted; interrogation means connected to said posting means and coupled to said input for interrogating said posting means to determine whether said data entity designated by said incoming symbolic address name is resident in said high-speed storage; and gating means connected to said posting means and responsive to a successful determination by said interrogation means for gating said at least a portion of said physical address out of said posting means for use in accessing said high-speed storage.

Claim 4

The combination of claim 2 wherein said interrogation means comprises a plurality of comparators for interrogating individual ones of said addressable entities of said posting means.

Claim 5

The combination of claim 3 wherein said posting means includes a plurality of overflow indicators, associated with said addressable entities of said posting means, for indicating that said at least a portion of the physical address has overflowed the addressable entity where it was probabilistically expected to be posted.

Claim 6

The combination of claim 4 wherein said posting means further includes a plurality of overflow addresses, associated with said addressable entities of said posting means, for indicating the addressable entity to which said at least a portion of the physical address has overflowed.

Claim 7

The combination of claim 5 including gating means coupled to said posting means, responsive to an unsuccessful determination by said interrogation means and to an associated overflow indicator, for causing said posting means to be interrogated by said interrogation means at an associated overflow address.

Claim 8

The combination of claim 2 wherein said translation means further includes a comparison subsystem coupled to said input and to said posting means for providing at least a portion of said physical address with which to access said high-speed storage, in response to an incoming request if the data entity to which said request refers has recently been accessed from said high-speed storage.

Claim 9

The combination of claim 7 wherein said comparison subsystem comprises: a plurality of register pairs, the first register in each said plurality of register pairs containing at least a portion of a symbolic address name which recently resulted in a successful interrogation of said posting means and the second register in each said plurality of register pairs containing the resulting said at least a portion of the physical address corresponding to said symbolic address name; a plurality of comparison means connected to said input and to said first register in each of said plurality of register pairs, for comparing said incoming symbolic address name with the contents of said first register; and gating means connected to each of said second registers and to said comparison means, for gating said at least a portion of the physical address for use in accessing said high-speed storage, in response to a successful comparison by one of said plurality of comparison means.

Claim 10

The combination of claim 2 further including an interstorage transfer mechanism coupled to said posting means and to said storage means, and responsive to an unsuccessful determination by said interrogation means for transferring data between said first storage means and said high-speed storage.

Claim 11

The combination of claim 9 wherein said interstorage transfer mechanism includes: directing means, coupled to said posting means for detecting a free or a specified occupied one of said physical addresses in said high-speed storage; page turn control means coupled to said directing means, for setting up control information to be used in controlling the transfer of data between said first storage and Said high-speed storage; and storage control means coupled to said page turn control means, for controlling the transfer of data between said first storage and said free or specified occupied one of said physical addresses in said high-speed storage.

Claim 12

A data storage system for supplying data at an output in response to a request for that data at an input wherein said request includes an address interpreted as logically specifying the desired data, said address having a high order address portion and a low order address portion, said high order address portion specifying the address of a desired block of data and said low order address portion specifying the desired unit of data within said specified block, comprising in combination: a first data storage means divided into a plurality of addressable data block storage areas; a high-speed storage means, coupled to said first data storage means, faster and of smaller capacity than said first data storage means, and divided into a plurality of data block storage areas; posting means divided into addressable entities, for posting information relative to the block address of each block presently stored in said high-speed storage means; address generation means connected to said input for generating from said requests addresses of said addressable entities of said posting means; selection means connected to said address generation means and to said posting means, responsive to said generated addresses for accessing said posted information from said addressable entities in said posting means; comparison means connected to said input and to said posting means for comparing said high order address portion of each request to said accessed posted information; gating means connected to said comparison means and to said posting means, responsive to a successful comparison for selecting a portion of said posted information relative to the block address corresponding to said request, to access from said high-speed storage said data specified by said record address portion of said request.

Claim 13

A data storage system for supplying data at an output in response to a request for that data at an input wherein said request includes an address interpreted as logically specifying the desired data, said address having a high order address portion and a low order address portion, said high order address portion specifying the address of a desired block of data and said low order address portion specifying the desired unit of data within said specified block, comprising in combination: a first data storage means divided into a plurality of addressable data block storage areas; a high-speed storage means, coupled to said first data storage means, faster and of smaller capacity than said first data storage means, and divided into a plurality of data block storage areas; posting means divided into addressable entities, for posting information relative to the block address of each block presently stored in said high-speed storage means; address generation means connected to said input for generating from said requests addresses of said addressable entities of said posting means; selection means connected to said address generation means and to said posting means, responsive to said generated addresses for accessing said posted information from said addressable entities in said posting means; comparison means connected to said input and to said posting means for comparing said high order address portion of each request to said accessed posted information; gating means connected to said comparison means and to said posting means, responsive to a successful comparison for selecting a portion of said posted information relative to the block address corresponding to said request, to access from said high-speed storage said data specified by said record address portion of said request.

Claim 14

The combination of claim 11 further including: signalling means coupled to said posting means and responsive to a nonsuccessful comparison, for supplying a predetermined signal at said output, said signal requesting that said data request be resubmitted at a later time; directing means coupled to said posting means and responsive to a nonsuccessful comparison for monitoring said high-speed storage to detect a free or specified occupied one of said block data storage areas; data transmission means coupled to said directing means and to said first storage and said high-speed storage for reading or writing said desired block of data into or from said free or specified occupied one of said block data storage areas of said high-speed storage detected by said directing means, said reading means including control information generation means and means for controlling said first storage means.

Claim 15

The data storage system of claim 11 including comparison subsystem means connected to said input and coupled to said posting means for providing a high-speed storage address containing the data indicated by said request when said high order address portion of said request is known to be immediately accessible in said high-speed storage means.

Claim 16

The combination of claim 11 wherein said posted information in said plurality of addressable entities comprises first information fields indicative of said high order portions of said request addresses of said blocks presently stored in said high-speed storage and second information fields, each respectively associated with one of said first information fields, said second information fields containing information indicating at least a portion of the address of one of said data storage areas of said high-speed storage means.

Claim 17

The combination of claim 11 wherein said plurality of addressable entities each further contain storage means for storing contRol information indicating the occupancy status of said first and second information fields.

Claim 18

The combination of claim 11 wherein said posting means further includes a plurality of control registers for receiving said control information, the contents of said control registers being storable in a specified area of said high-speed storage means.

Claim 19

The combination of claim 12 wherein said directing means comprises cycling means responsive to a nonsuccessful comparison; storage areas including status information fields indicative of the occupancy status of each of said plurality of addressable block data storage areas in said high-speed storage means; selection means connected to said storage areas; ring counter means driven by said cycling means and connected to said selection means for causing said selection means to sequentially select individual ones of said status information fields; scanning means responsive to said selected status information fields to detect a free or a specified occupied one of said storage areas; and control register means for indicating whether data is read from or written into said detected data storage areas.

Claim 20

The combination of claim 12 wherein said control information generation means comprises first address generation means for generating addresses used to address said control information stored in said specified area of said high-speed storage means; a plurality of storage registers for receiving said control information; means for scanning at least one of said plurality of storage registers to provide a signal indicating that service is required for one of said detected storage areas; second address generation means responsive to said indicating signal to generate from said control information an address in said first data storage means from or to which data is to be transmitted; and data bussing means for storing said control information in said specified area of said high-speed storage.

Claim 21

The combination of claim 12 wherein said means for controlling said first data storage means comprises buffer storage means; address generation means for addressing said control information and said generated address of said first data storage means stored in said specific area of said high-speed storage; and logic means for controlling the transmission of data to or from the block data storage area of said first data storage means, indicated by said last named generated address; and data bussing means for transmitting said control information for storage back into said specified area of said high-speed storage means.