Physically-addressable solid state disk (ssd) and a method of addressing the same

Abstract

A storage system includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) that has a physically-addressed solid state disk (SSD) and is addressable using physical addresses associated with user data that are provided by a host. The user data is to be stored in or retrieved from the physically-addressed SSD in blocks. Further, a non-volatile memory module is coupled to the CPU and includes flash tables used to manage blocks in the physically addressed SSD. The flash tables have tables that are used to map logical to physical blocks for identifying the location of the user data in the physically-addressed SSD. The flash tables are maintained in the non-volatile memory modules.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A storage system comprising:
 memory configured to store tables and having a bank of volatile RAM modules;   at least one physically-addressed solid state disk (SSD) addressable using physical addresses associated with user data, the user data to be stored in or retrieved from the at least one physically-addressed SSD in blocks, wherein the tables include at least one table used to map logical block addresses to physical block addresses, the physical block addresses identifying the location of user data in the at least one physically addressed SSD, the at least one physically-addressed SSD being configured to store a copy of the tables;   a non-volatile memory module, located externally to the at least one physically-addressed SSD and configured to store changes to the tables upon the tables being moved to the at least one physically-addressed SSD.   
     
     
         2 . The storage system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module having an available capacity associated therewith and upon the non-volatile memory module reaching a desired available capacity, the tables being moved to the memory. 
     
     
         3 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the at least one physically-addressed SSD includes a subsystem, wherein the subsystem is made of flash NAND memory. 
     
     
         4 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , further including a bank of memory controllers coupled to a bank of volatile RAM modules through a respective one of a bank of memory channels. 
     
     
         5 . The storage system of  claim 4 , wherein the bank of memory controllers is a part of a central processing unit (CPU) and wherein the CPU is operable to perform garbage collection on the at least one physically-addressed SSD. 
     
     
         6 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the at least one physically-addressed SSD is coupled through a bus to the CPU. 
     
     
         7 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the bus is a flash bus. 
     
     
         8 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 6 , wherein the bus is a PCIe bus. 
     
     
         9 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module includes magnetic random access memory (MRAM). 
     
     
         10 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module includes spin torque transfer magnetic random access memory (STTMRAM). 
     
     
         11 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module includes magnetic memory. 
     
     
         12 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module is coupled to a CPU through a non-volatile memory channel. 
     
     
         13 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module is coupled to a CPU through a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) memory channel. 
     
     
         14 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module is coupled to a CPU through a volatile memory channel. 
     
     
         15 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module is coupled to a CPU via a system bus. 
     
     
         16 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module includes a cache configured to store the user data. 
     
     
         17 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the non-volatile memory module is configured to store a journal configured to log the changes before the changes are committed to the non-volatile memory module. 
     
     
         18 . The storage system, as recited in  claim 1 , further including a PCIe controller and a bridge controller, wherein the bridge controller causes communication between the PCIe controller and the at least one physically-addressed SSD. 
     
     
         20 . The storage system, as recited in claim  19 , further including a flash bus coupled to the bridge controller and at least one physically-addressed SSD.