DATA STORAGE DEVICE AND METHOD FOR REDUCING WRITE MISSES BY COMPLETING TRANSFER TO A DUAL-PORT CACHE BEFORE INITIATING A DISK WRITE OF THE DATA FROM THE CACHE

摘要

A DATA STORAGE DEVICE (20) AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF DATA STORAGE DEVICES EXAMINES A COMMAND QUEUE AND PERFORMS DATA TRANSFERS TO MEMORY WITHIN THE DEVICE BEFORE PRIOR COMMANDS HAVE COMPLETED.A PROCESS RUNNING IN THE IDLE LOOP OF THE CONTROLLER IN THE STORAGE DEVICE CHECKS THE QUEUE FOR WRITE REQUESTS AND IF A CACHE SPACE WITHIN A DUAL - PORT (14) CACHE TO HOLD THE TRANSFER DATA IS AVAILABLE, THE DATA TRANSFER PORTION OF THE TRANSFER IS COMPLETED,WHILE THE DEVICE IS STILL WAITING FOR COMPLETION OF PRIOR COMMANDS IN THE QUEUE,AND DATA TRANSFERS ARE COMPLETING FROM THE CACHE TO THE PHYSICAL MEDIA (26) FOR THE PRIOR COMMAND.(FIG 2)