Georgia, Massachusetts Inventors Develop Data Storage System Volume Matrix

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 9 -- Vincent H.Westin of Marietta, Ga., and David L. Black of Acton, Mass., have developed a data storage operations method.

According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A volume matrix is established including host devices on a host computer and virtual devices and logical devices on a data storage system. Each host device/virtual device (H/V) pair has a user-visible primary address range to serve as a primary H/V pair on a primary path for a logical device, and selected H/V pairs also have one or more user-hidden secondary address ranges to serve as secondary H/V pairs on secondary paths for other logical devices."

An abstract of the invention, released by the Patent Office, said: "The host computer directs storage requests to either the primary path or a secondary path to a target logical device based on expected performance criteria, and if a secondary path is used then the address is translated to the correct secondary address range. The data storage system performs the storage request on the target logical device after determining whether the request was received on the primary path or a secondary path, in which case the storage address is further translated to an address range of the target logical device. The secondary address ranges create secondary paths to reduce queuing-related delays without requiring inefficient duplication of system resources."

The inventors were issued U.S. Patent No. 7,363,418 on April 22.

The patent has been assigned to EMC Corp., Hopkinton, Mass.

The original application was filed on Sept. 28, 2005, and is available at: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=7,363,418.PN.&OS=PN/7,363,418&RS=PN/7,363,418.

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