Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 11:21:09 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 11:20:53 -0400 Received: from f99.law14.hotmail.com ([64.4.21.99]:36100 "EHLO hotmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 17 Apr 2001 11:20:37 -0400 X-Originating-IP: [213.64.0.142] From: "John Nilsson" To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Could hd-drivers and buffer algorithm be hardware? Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 17:20:31 +0200 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 17 Apr 2001 15:20:31.0769 (UTC) FILETIME=[F11A6090:01C0C751] Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org The idea is as follows. Design a hardisk controller that would take care of all harddrive and block device managment and provide a virtual storage area to the OS. This way all the kernel would have to worry about is a virtual harddrive and how to fech and write data from and to it. Buffering, and read/write optimization would be taken care of by the controller. The controller would have a proccessing unit, its own memory, and a chip to compress/decompress data. The compression chip would filer all read and written data so that the actual amount of data that is read and written to disk is compressed, this way increasing disk space, and speed up disk read/writes. The memory is a SDRAM DIMM that could be upgraded for more memmory, needed if you would want to add more physical disks or just make room for mor disk cache/ buffers. The chip would take care of diskdriver issues, raid, buffering, and diskplacement optimization. For instance it could make a note of what files is usually read together and frequently, placing them close to eachother and on the outer tracks of the hardrives if they are big, or more generally in the middle of the used drivespace to optimize head movements... >From the kernel side you would have a singel gigantic ultra fast hardrive, and the disk drivers would be loaded inte the chip bios on installation time. Further the buffering algorithms would also be loade inito the chip bios on installation time to decrease the mainCPU time of kernel code. I'm just a curious computer nerd, but tell me is it a good id?a? /John Nilsson _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/