SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY CONTROLLING CACHE MANAGEMENT.

摘要

A cache management system and method monitors and controls the contents of cache memory (12) coupled to at least one host (22a) and at least one data storage device (18a). A cache indexer (16) maintains a current index (25) of data elements which are stored in cache memory (12). A sequential data access indicator (30), responsive to the cache index (16) and to a user selectable sequential data access threshold, determines that a sequential data access is in progress for a given process and provides an indication of the same. The system and method allocate a micro-cache memory (12) to any process performing a sequential data access. In response to the indication of a sequential data access in progress and to a user selectable maximum number of data elements to be prefetched, a data retrieval requestor requests retrieval of up to the selected maximum number of data elements from a data storage device (18b). A user selectable number of sequential data elements determines when previously used micro-cache memory locations will be overwritten. A method of dynamically monitoring and adjusting cache management parameters is also disclosed.