Abstract: A data storage system includes a plurality of servers, a plurality of external interface providers each deployed on one of the servers, and a plurality of data storage controllers each deployed on one of the servers. Each of the providers is configured to receive a data access request, to identify one of the controllers that can satisfy the request, and to forward the request to the identified controller. The system further includes a plurality of data storage modules independent of the servers. The providers, controllers and modules are in communication with each other. Each of the controllers exclusively manages a portion of data content in at least one of the modules, and satisfies data access requests received from the providers by accessing the portion of data content in the at least one module.

Abstract: A data storage system includes a plurality of servers, a plurality of external interface providers each deployed on one of the servers, and a plurality of data storage controllers each deployed on one of the servers. Each of the providers is configured to receive a data access request, to identify one of the controllers that can satisfy the request, and to forward the request to the identified controller. The system further includes a plurality of data storage modules independent of the servers. The providers, controllers and modules are in communication with each other. Each of the controllers exclusively manages a portion of data content in at least one of the modules, and satisfies data access requests received from the providers by accessing the portion of data content in the at least one module.

Abstract: In a disk-based data storage system, a controller configured to control a reference count regeneration operation, the controller includes a control register, an address register, a status register, a boundary register, and an embedded memory. The control register may be configured to set up and initiate program instructions that are executed by at least one processor. The address register may be configured as a cache address pointer and correspond to at least one of a sort output list pointer, a virtual track table input list pointer, a reference list pointer, a track number table pointer, and a reference count mis-compare list pointer. The status register may be configured to indicate status of a routine. The routine includes at least one of a radix sort, a reference list count, a combine counts, and a merger of the reference list count into the TNT to generate an updated TNT.

Abstract: In a data storage system in which there can be multiple references to a single instance of an object, a method for regenerating the number of references to each object instance. The method includes radix sorting the references to the objects to generate a reference list, counting the references to each unique object and merging the counts with the object descriptions, placing the count of the number of references to each object into the respective object description. The sorting, counting and merging techniques used by this method generate sequential memory access patterns that enable efficient use of low-cost memory and block-oriented memory access interconnect fabric protocols. Furthermore, multiple instances of the sorting, counting and merging processes can be used in parallel to reduce the time required to regenerate the reference counts for a large number of objects.