Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110145474 | Efficient Use Of Flash Memory In Flash Drives - A data storage device having non-volatile solid state memory permits efficient access by permitting multiple pending commands from a host device. A controller in the data storage device stores information about each command from the host device, and determines which stored command, if any, is presently able to be performed based on the portion of the non-volatile memory and the type of access of the command. The data storage device provides reduced access delays, improves read/write throughput, and avoids the cost of additional memory in the data storage device, by allowing accesses to idle portions of memory to proceed, and by signaling the host device when the data storage device is able to accept data to be written to portions of the non-volatile memory already active due to a previous command. | 06-16-2011 |
20120159208 | SOFTWARE CONTROLLED POWER LIMITING IN USB TO SATA BRIDGE - A Universal Serial Bus (USB) to Serial ATA (SATA) bridge device and method for operating same in a USB connected mass storage subsystem supports software management of power consumption. The USB to SATA bridge estimates power consumption based on known power consumption characteristics of SATA disk drives when performing commands involved in accessing SATA drive, or takes measurements of power consumption during execution of commands to determine when responses to a USB host device are to be delayed. By selectively delaying responses to the USB host device issuing the commands, the USB to SATA bridge manages the rate at which the host issues commands to the USB mass storage subsystem and is thereby able to automatically limit power consumption of the USB mass storage subsystem to that that available over the USB link. | 06-21-2012 |
20120210027 | SPECULATIVE READ-AHEAD FOR IMPROVING SYSTEM THROUGHPUT - Devices, methods, and systems for a mass storage device attached to a host device use speculation about the host command likely to be received next from the host device based on a previously received command to improve throughput of accesses to the mass storage device. Host device commands are used to speculatively produce commands for the data storage devices of the mass storage device, such that host commands speculated as being likely next host commands can be started during idle time of the data storage devices, based upon the probability that the speculation will be correct some of the time, and otherwise wasted idle time of the data storage devices will be more efficiently used. Time taken by the host device to produce successive commands to the mass storage system is monitored, and future speculatively produced commands are parameterized so that they complete within the observed host time to produce new commands, making more efficient use of the data storage devices of the mass storage system. | 08-16-2012 |