Mass storage system and method of using hard disk, solid-state media, PCIe edge connector, and raid controller
Methods and systems for mass storage of data over two or more tiers of mass storage media that include nonvolatile solid-state memory devices, hard disk devices, and optionally volatile memory devices or nonvolatile MRAM in an SDRAM configuration. The mass storage media interface with a host through one or more PCIe lanes on a single printed circuit board.
1. A mass storage system for use in a host system, the mass storage system comprising:
a printed circuit board having a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) edge connector adapted to interface with a PCIe expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, the edge connector being adapted to supply power to the mass storage system and enable data exchange between the mass storage system and a PCIe expansion slot;
at least one volatile memory module having volatile memory components;
at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components;
at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter; and
at least a first Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device;
wherein the mass storage system is configured so that the volatile memory module is a cache for the solid-state mass storage device, the solid-state mass storage device permanently stores data with an access frequency above a threshold, the hard disk mass storage device stores data with an access frequency below the threshold
wherein upon loss of power to the mass storage system, the mass storage system is adapted to recover energy from the rotatable platter of the hard disk mass storage device to perform a memory dump from the volatile memory module to the solid-state mass storage device.
2. The mass storage system of claim 1 , wherein if the read access frequency of data stored on the hard disk mass storage device increases above the threshold, a copy of the data is written to the solid- state mass storage device.
3. The mass storage system of claim 1 , wherein the solid-state mass storage device has an over-provisioning pool of at least the capacity of the volatile memory module.
4. The mass storage system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one solid-state mass storage device and the at least one hard disk mass storage device are removably attached to the printed circuit board with docking connectors.
5. The mass storage system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device is integrated into the printed circuit board.
6. The mass storage system of claim 1 , further comprising at least a second RAID controller, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with different PCIe lanes via the edge connector.
7. The mass storage system of claim 1 , further comprising at least a second RAID controller and a PCIe switch, wherein the first and second RAID controllers interface with the edge connector through the PCIe switch.
8. The mass storage system of claim 7 , wherein the first RAID controller controls a plurality of the hard disk drives in an array using striping with distributed parity and the second RAID controller controls at least two arrays of the nonvolatile solid-state memory components in striping mode.
9. The mass storage system of claim 8 , wherein parity calculations for the hard disk drives are carried out in hardware by the first RAID controller.
10. The mass storage system of claim 1 , wherein the nonvolatile solid-state memory components are chosen from the group consisting of NAND flash, phase change memory, magnetic RAM, and magneto-resistive RAM.
11. A method of using hierarchical storage management on a mass storage system in a host system, the method comprising:
providing a mass storage system comprising a printed circuit board, an edge connector adapted to interface with a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) expansion slot through multiple PCIe lanes, at least one solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and at least a first controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components, at least one hard disk mass storage device having at least one hard disk drive with a rotatable platter, at least a first Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) controller on the printed circuit board that interfaces with the hard disk mass storage device, and at least one memory module having memory components associated with the solid-state mass storage device;
determining a frequency of access for a file stored on the hard disk mass storage device and copying the file to the solid-state mass storage device if the access frequency is above a threshold; and
updating the access path for the file to point to the solid-state mass storage device
wherein upon loss of power to the mass storage system, the mass storage system recovers energy from the rotatable platter of the hard disk mass storage device to perform a memory dump from the memory module to the solid-state mass storage device.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the memory module is a volatile memory module, the memory components of the memory module are volatile memory components, and the solid-state mass storage device has an over-provisioning pool of at least the capacity of the volatile memory module.
13. The method of claim 11 , further comprising removably installing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device on and removing the solid-state mass storage device and the hard disk mass storage device from the printed circuit board using docking connectors.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the mass storage system comprises a second solid-state mass storage device having nonvolatile solid-state memory components and a second controller that interfaces with the nonvolatile solid-state memory components thereof, the memory module is a 64-bit wide DRAM memory module configured to have separate address and command lines to an upper 32-bit block and a lower 32-bit block, the upper 32 bits serve as cache for the first solid-state mass storage device, and the lower 32 bits serve as cache for the second solid-state mass storage device.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the memory module is a nonvolatile memory module and the memory components of the nonvolatile memory module are nonvolatile MRAM components with an SDRAM interface.