Patents by Inventor Andrew M. Kowles

Andrew M. Kowles has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20190073306
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a method is operable in an over-provisioned storage device comprising a cache region and a main storage region. The method includes compressing incoming data, generating a compression parameter for the compressed data, and storing at least a portion of the compressed data in chunks in the main storage region of the storage device. The method also includes predicting when to store other chunks of the compressed data in the cache region based on the compression parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2017
    Publication date: March 7, 2019
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Patent number: 10180791
    Abstract: A method for data steering in tiered storage is described. In one embodiment, the method includes ranking a plurality of storage areas of a storage device according to at least one property of the plurality of storage areas. In some embodiments, the plurality of storage areas include at least a first storage area and a second storage area. The method includes obtaining a sample of data at the storage device, passing the sample of data through one or more compression codecs, and analyzing a result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs. In some embodiments, the result includes a score of compression savings associated with the sample of data. The method includes storing the data in one of the plurality of storage areas based at least in part on the analyzing the result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2019
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Patent number: 10037277
    Abstract: A data storage device includes one or more storage media that include multiple physical storage locations. The device also includes at least one cache memory having a logical space that includes a plurality of separately managed logical block address (LBA) ranges. Additionally, a controller is included in the device. The controller is configured to receive data extents addressed by a first LBA and a logical block count. The controller is also configured to identify at least one separately managed LBA range of the plurality of separately managed LBA ranges in the at least one cache memory based on LBAs associated with at least some of the received data extents. The controller stores the at least some of the received data extents in substantially monotonically increasing LBA order in at least one physical storage location, of the at least one cache memory, assigned to the identified at least one LBA range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 31, 2018
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Timothy R. Feldman, Andrew M. Kowles, Mark Allen Gaertner, Brian T. Edgar
  • Publication number: 20170371557
    Abstract: A method for data steering in tiered storage is described. In one embodiment, the method includes ranking a plurality of storage areas of a storage device according to at least one property of the plurality of storage areas. In some embodiments, the plurality of storage areas include at least a first storage area and a second storage area. The method includes obtaining a sample of data at the storage device, passing the sample of data through one or more compression codecs, and analyzing a result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs. In some embodiments, the result includes a score of compression savings associated with the sample of data. The method includes storing the data in one of the plurality of storage areas based at least in part on the analyzing the result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 21, 2017
    Publication date: December 28, 2017
    Applicant: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Patent number: 9766816
    Abstract: A method for data steering in tiered storage is described. In one embodiment, the method includes ranking a plurality of storage areas of a storage device according to at least one property of the plurality of storage areas. In some embodiments, the plurality of storage areas include at least a first storage area and a second storage area. The method includes obtaining a sample of data at the storage device, passing the sample of data through one or more compression codecs, and analyzing a result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs. In some embodiments, the result includes a score of compression savings associated with the sample of data. The method includes storing the data in one of the plurality of storage areas based at least in part on the analyzing the result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2017
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Publication number: 20170206161
    Abstract: A data storage device includes one or more storage media that include multiple physical storage locations. The device also includes at least one cache memory having a logical space that includes a plurality of separately managed logical block address (LBA) ranges. Additionally, a controller is included in the device. The controller is configured to receive data extents addressed by a first LBA and a logical block count. The controller is also configured to identify at least one separately managed LBA range of the plurality of separately managed LBA ranges in the at least one cache memory based on LBAs associated with at least some of the received data extents. The controller stores the at least some of the received data extents in substantially monotonically increasing LBA order in at least one physical storage location, of the at least one cache memory, assigned to the identified at least one LBA range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 3, 2017
    Publication date: July 20, 2017
    Inventors: Timothy R. Feldman, Andrew M. Kowles, Mark Allen Gaertner, Brian T. Edgar
  • Patent number: 9612956
    Abstract: A data storage device includes one or more storage media that include multiple physical storage locations. The device also includes at least one cache memory having a logical space that includes a plurality of separately managed logical block address (LBA) ranges. Additionally, a controller is included in the device. The controller is configured to receive data extents addressed by a first LBA and a logical block count. The controller is also configured to identify at least one separately managed LBA range of the plurality of separately managed LBA ranges in the at least one cache memory based on LBAs associated with at least some of the received data extents. The controller stores the at least some of the received data extents in substantially monotonically increasing LBA order in at least one physical storage location, of the at least one cache memory, assigned to the identified at least one LBA range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2017
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Timothy R. Feldman, Andrew M. Kowles, Mark Allen Gaertner, Brian T. Edgar
  • Publication number: 20170090775
    Abstract: A method for data steering in tiered storage is described. In one embodiment, the method includes ranking storage areas of a storage device according to latency of access. In some embodiments, the storage areas include at least a first storage area and a second storage area. The method includes identifying first data at the storage device, passing a portion of the first data through a compression algorithm, and analyzing a result of passing the portion of the first data through the compression algorithm. In some cases, the result includes a score of compression savings associated with the portion of the first data. If the result satisfies a threshold associated with the first storage area, the first data is stored in the first storage area. If the result satisfies a threshold associated with the second storage area, the first data is stored in the second storage area.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2015
    Publication date: March 30, 2017
    Applicant: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Publication number: 20170090776
    Abstract: A method for data steering in tiered storage is described. In one embodiment, the method includes ranking a plurality of storage areas of a storage device according to at least one property of the plurality of storage areas. In some embodiments, the plurality of storage areas include at least a first storage area and a second storage area. The method includes obtaining a sample of data at the storage device, passing the sample of data through one or more compression codecs, and analyzing a result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs. In some embodiments, the result includes a score of compression savings associated with the sample of data. The method includes storing the data in one of the plurality of storage areas based at least in part on the analyzing the result of passing the sample of data through the one or more compression codecs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2015
    Publication date: March 30, 2017
    Applicant: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Patent number: 9443553
    Abstract: A system or a device having a storage area with a plurality of circumferential tracks around a central axis, the tracks for storing data therein. The system or device includes at least two media scratch pads in the storage area, located at different radii from the central axis. In some implementations, the storage area has multiple discs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: September 13, 2016
    Assignee: SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Publication number: 20150310892
    Abstract: A system or a device having a storage area with a plurality of circumferential tracks around a central axis, the tracks for storing data therein. The system or device includes at least two media scratch pads in the storage area, located at different radii from the central axis. In some implementations, the storage area has multiple discs.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 28, 2014
    Publication date: October 29, 2015
    Applicant: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventor: Andrew M. Kowles
  • Publication number: 20150301747
    Abstract: Implementations disclosed herein provide for increasing storage drive performance by reserving a region of user-writeable storage space on a storage medium for overprovisioning uses, including performance-enhancing functions. Until a capacity condition of the storage drive is satisfied, write operations targeting the reserved region are written to another equal-sized region that does not contain user data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2014
    Publication date: October 22, 2015
    Applicant: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventors: Daniel J. Sokolov, Bang C. Nguyen, Andrew M. Kowles, Cameron S. McGary, Adam J. Weikal, Brian T. Edgar
  • Publication number: 20150106568
    Abstract: A data storage device includes one or more storage media that include multiple physical storage locations. The device also includes at least one cache memory having a logical space that includes a plurality of separately managed logical block address (LBA) ranges. Additionally, a controller is included in the device. The controller is configured to receive data extents addressed by a first LBA and a logical block count. The controller is also configured to identify at least one separately managed LBA range of the plurality of separately managed LBA ranges in the at least one cache memory based on LBAs associated with at least some of the received data extents. The controller stores the at least some of the received data extents in substantially monotonically increasing LBA order in at least one physical storage location, of the at least one cache memory, assigned to the identified at least one LBA range.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 18, 2014
    Publication date: April 16, 2015
    Inventors: Timothy R. Feldman, Andrew M. Kowles, Mark Allen Gaertner, Brian T. Edgar