Abstract: A method and device for writing blocks from a client to a storage device. First and second caches are provided between the client and the storage device. An I/O management process accepts a write request from the client. If the write request is a write-back request, the I/O management process stores the blocks in the first cache, and transferring the blocks from the first cache to the second cache. If, on the other hand, the write request is not a write-back request, a write-through request is performed in which blocks are stored in the first cache, stored in the storage device, but not stored in the second cache. When the blocks are flushed from the first cache to store the blocks on the storage device, the dirty map of the cache header corresponding to the blocks is cleared from the second cache.

Abstract: A computer disk cache management method and apparatus which employs a least-recently-used with aging method to determine a best candidate for replacement as a result of a cache miss. A hash function takes as its input a block number and outputs a hash index into a hash table of pointers. Each pointer in the hash table points to a doubly-linked list of headers, with each header having a bit map wherein the bits contained in the map identify whether a particular block of data is contained within the cache. An ordered binary tree (heap) identifies candidates for replacement such that the best candidate for replacement is located at the root of the heap. After every access to a cache line, the heap is locally reorganized based upon a frequency of use and an age of the cache line, such that the least-frequently-used and/or oldest cache line is at the root of the heap.