Apparatus and Methods Using Invalidity Indicators for Buffered Memory

Abstract

A computing system includes a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device and a processing unit configured to selectively invalidate data stored in the buffer memory and to control transfer of data from the buffer memory to the external storage device responsive to the selective invalidation. In some embodiments, for example, the processing unit may be configured to manage write state information of the temporarily stored data and to update the write state information according to information related to the temporarily stored data. The processing unit may be configured to control the buffer memory and the external storage according to the write state information so that at least a part of the temporarily stored data is not written in the external storage.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. application Ser. No. 11/230,994, filed Sep. 20, 2005, which claims priority to Korean Application No. 2004-109826, filed Dec. 21, 2004, the disclosures of both of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to computing systems and methods and, more particularly, to computing systems including a storage system with buffer memory.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a generic computing system. The computing system includes a host 10, e.g., a host computer system, and storage 20. The host 10 includes a central processing unit (not shown) and a main memory (not shown). The storage 20 is connected to the host 10 using a standardized interface, such as a small computer system interconnect (SCSI) interface, an enhanced small device interface (ESDI), or an intelligent drive electronic (IDE) interface. The storage 20 includes a storage medium 22, such as a hard disk or a floppy disk, a buffer memory 24 and a controller 26. The controller 26 is connected to the storage medium 22 and the buffer memory using conventional interfaces. The buffer memory 24 includes memory, such as a static random access memory SRAM or a dynamic random access memory DRAM. The buffer memory 24 is used for improving a write performance of the storage 20.

FIG. 2 is a view showing exemplary file processing for the computing system shown in FIG. 1. When an application program is executed at a high level, such as at the host 10, the application program generates files and the generated files are managed by a file system such as a file allocation table (FAT) file system. If the application program writes data in the generated files, the written data is transmitted to lower level, such as the storage 20, under control of the central processing unit. The transmitted data is temporally stored in the buffer memory of the storage 20. When the host 10 requests a file, data of the requested file is directly transferred from the storage 20 to the main memory of the host 10 or the data of the requested file is transferred to the main memory of the host 10 through the buffer memory 24. Data transferred through the buffer memory 24 may be temporally stored in the buffer memory 24.

Because the capacity of the buffer memory 24 usually is small in comparison to the capacity of the storage medium 22, it typically is not possible to store all of data transferred from the storage medium 22 to the main memory in the buffer memory 24. Therefore, the data stored in the buffer memory 24 is intermittently transferred to the storage medium 22 under control of the controller 26. The transfer of data from the buffer memory 24 to the storage medium 22 typically is automatically performed without intervention of the host 10. For example, the data temporally stored in the buffer memory 24 may be automatically transferred to the storage medium 22 if the buffer memory 24 lacks room for storing new data when the host 10 requests to perform a write operation, or if the storage 20 is in an idle state wherein no requests are received from the host 10 within a predetermined time period.

The above-mentioned computing system may have disadvantages. When data of a file processed by an application program of the host 10 is deleted, the data is treated as the deleted file by the file system at the host 10. Even if the data is considered deleted at the level of the host 10, the data may actually still be stored in the buffer memory 24. The data stored in the buffer memory 24 may then be automatically transferred to the storage medium 22 without intervention of the host 10 when the buffer memory 24. Although the data stored in the buffer memory becomes invalid because of the deletion at the high level, the invalid data may be unnecessarily written in the storage medium 22 because the controller 26 typically cannot determine the validity of data stored in the buffer memory 24. Accordingly, write performance of the storage 20 may be degraded, and a lifetime of the storage 20 may be shortened due to the unnecessary write operations. In addition, power may be wasted by unnecessary write operations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In some embodiments of the present invention, a computing system includes a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device and a processing unit configured to selectively invalidate data stored in the buffer memory and to control transfer of data from the buffer memory to the external storage device responsive to the selective invalidation. In some embodiments, for example, the processing unit may be configured to manage write state information for the temporarily stored data to provide selective invalidation. The processing unit may be configured to control the buffer memory and the external storage according to the write state information so that at least a part of the temporarily stored data is not written in the external storage. The write state information may indicate whether the temporarily stored data is valid. The processor may be configured to store the write state information in a table in a memory of the computing system. A system memory of the computing system may be configured to store a device driver configured to manage the buffer memory. The buffer memory may be configured as a read cache memory and/or a write cache memory.

In further embodiments of the present invention, a computing system includes a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device, a system memory configured to provide a device driver configured to manage the buffer memory, and a processing unit configured to control the buffer memory responsive to the device driver and to manage write state information of data stored in the buffer memory. The write state information may indicate whether the temporarily stored data is valid. The processing unit may be configured to prevent writing of invalid data from the buffer memory to the external storage device.

In some method embodiments of the present invention, data temporarily stored in a buffer memory is identified as invalid. Data is selectively transferred from the buffer memory to an external storage device based on the selective identification of data. For example, if the temporarily stored data is invalidated, the temporarily stored data may not be written in the external storage. Selectively identifying may include updating write state information for the temporarily stored data.

In additional embodiments of the present invention, a computing system includes a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device and a processing unit configured to selectively control data transfer from the buffer memory according to invalidation information related to data stored in the buffer memory.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional computer system;

FIG. 2 illustrates conventional file processing operations of the computing system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system including a storage system in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams showing a mapping table of a storage system in accordance with further embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary operations for managing data stored in a storage system of a computing system in accordance with additional embodiments of the present invention;

FIGS. 6A-6C are mapping diagrams illustrating exemplary write operations based on invalidity information for data stored in a buffer memory in a storage system of a computing system in accordance with still further embodiments of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system according to further embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Specific exemplary embodiments of the invention now will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements. It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected” or “coupled” to another element, it can be directly connected or coupled to the other element or intervening elements may be present. Furthermore, “connected” or “coupled” as used herein may include wirelessly connected or coupled.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless expressly stated otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “includes,” “including” and/or “including,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present specification and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.

It will be understood that although the terms first and second are used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another element. Thus, a first item could be termed a second item, and similarly, a second item may be termed a first item without departing from the teachings of the present invention. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. The symbol “/” may also used as a shorthand notation for “and/or”.

In the present invention, an “unwrite,” “erase” or “delete” command, request or information represents a command or other information input to a storage system to invalidate data stored in a buffer memory and prevent its transfer from the buffer memory to a storage medium. A transfer of data from a buffer memory to a storage medium may be referred to as a “transcribe” or “flushing” operation.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system 1000 in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. The computing system 1000 includes a host system 100 and a storage system 200. The storage system 200 may include, for example, a storage device coupled to the host system 100 using a standardized interface, such as a SCSI, ESDI, and/or IDE interface. It will be appreciated that other types of interfaces, including nonstandard interfaces, may be used to couple the host system 100 and the storage system 200. The storage system 200 may include memory integrated with the host system 100.

The host system 100 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 110 and a memory 120. The memory 120 may include a main memory of the host system 100. An application program 121 and a file system 122 are embodied in the memory 120. The file system 122 may include one or more file systems having a file allocation table (FAT) or other file system.

The host system 100 outputs an unwrite command to the storage system 200 when all or some of the data of a file processed by the application program 121 is to be deleted. The host system 100 may, for example, transmit the unwrite command accompanied by information relating to an address and/or size of the data to be deleted to the storage system 200.

A FAT file system, such as that shown in FIG. 2, may include a master boot record (MBR), a partition boot record (PBR), first and second file allocation tables (primary FAT, copy FAT) and a root directory. The data stored or to be stored in the storage system 200 can, for example, be identified using two items of information, such as a file name including the data and a path of a directory tree for reaching a place where the file is stored. Each entry of a directory stores information, such as a length of file (e.g., 32 bytes long), a file name, an extension name, a file property byte, a last modification date and time, a file size and a connection of a start-up cluster.

A predetermined character may be used as a first character of a file name to indicate a deleted file. For example, a hexadecimal number byte code E5h may be assigned to the first character of the file name for a deleted file to serve as a tag for indicating that the file is deleted. When a file is deleted, the CPU 110 may assign a predetermined character as the first character of the file name of the deleted file and also output an unwrite command and/or other invalidity information corresponding to the deleted file to the storage system 200.

Still referring to FIG. 3, the storage system 200 includes a storage medium 220, a buffer memory 240 and a controller 260. The storage system 200 prevents writing of data stored in the buffer memory 220 to the storage medium 260 when the data of a file is considered deleted at a higher level of the storage system 200 and an invalidity indicator has been input to the storage system 200. The invalidity indicator may include the unwrite command, along with information about an address and a size of the deleted data.

The storage medium 220 may store all types of data, such as text, images, music and programs. The storage medium 220 may be a nonvolatile memory, such as a magnetic disk and/or a flash memory. However, it will be understood that the storage medium 220 is not limited to nonvolatile memory.

The buffer memory 240 is used to buffer data transfer between the host system 100 and storage medium 220. The buffer memory 240 may include high speed volatile memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and/or static random access memory (SRAM), and/or nonvolatile memory, such as magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM), parameter random access memory (PRAM), ferroelectric random access memory (FRAM), NAND flash memory and/or NOR flash memory.

The buffer memory 240 serves as a write buffer. For example, the buffer memory 240 may temporarily store data to be written in the storage medium 220 responsive to a request of the host system 100. The write buffer function of the buffer memory 240 can be selectively used. Occasionally, in a “write bypass” operation, data transferred from the host system may be directly transferred to the storage medium 220 without being stored in the buffer memory 240. The buffer memory 240 may also work as a read buffer. For example, the buffer memory 240 may temporarily store data read from the storage medium 220. Although FIG. 3 shows only one buffer memory, two or more buffer memories can be provided. In such embodiments, each buffer memory may be used exclusively as a write buffer or read buffer, or may serve as a write and read buffer.

The controller 260 controls the storage medium 220 and the buffer memory 240. When a read command is input from the host system 100, the controller 260 controls the storage medium 220 to cause transfer of data stored in the storage medium 220 directly to the host system 100 or to cause transfer of data stored in the storage medium 220 to the host system 100 via the buffer memory 240. When a write command is input from the host system 100, the controller 240 temporarily stores data related to the write command in the buffer memory 240. All or part of the data stored in the buffer memory 240 is transferred to the storage medium 220 when the buffer memory 240 lacks room for storing additional data or when the storage system 200 is idle. The storage system 200 may be considered idle when no requests have been received from the host system 100 within a predetermined time.

The controller 260 holds address mapping information for the storage medium 220 and the buffer memory 240 and a mapping table 261 for storing write state information representing validity/invalidity of stored data. The write state information is updated by invalidity information (e.g., an indicator) provided from an external device. The controller 260 controls the storage medium 220 and the buffer memory 240 to write all or part of data stored in the buffer memory 240 to the storage medium 220 based on the write state information in the mapping table 261. In some embodiments of the present invention, the storage medium 220 and the buffer memory 240 may be embodied using a flash memory.

As described above, the storage system 200 of the illustrated embodiments of the present invention determines whether or not to transfer all or part of data stored in the buffer memory 240 to the storage medium 220 by referring to the write state information. That is, the storage system 200 of the present invention receives the unwrite or other information representing that data stored in the buffer memory is invalid data from an external source device, such as the host system 100. In response to the unwrite or other invalidity indicator, the storage system 200 prevents writing of invalid data to the storage medium 220 from the buffer memory 240. In other words, the storage system 200 assigns a tag representing invalidity of data stored in the buffer memory 240 and selectively transfers data stored in the buffer memory 240 to the storage medium 220 based on the assigned tag. Accordingly, a write performance of the storage system 200 may be improved, which can reduce shortening of the lifetime of the storage system 200 caused by unnecessary write operations. Furthermore, power consumed by unnecessary write operations may be reduced.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams showing exemplary mapping tables which may be used by the controller 260 of FIG. 3 according to some embodiments of the present invention. In FIGS. 4A and 4B, “BBN” represents a block number of the buffer memory 240, “DCN” represents a cluster number of the storage medium 220, and “WSI” represents the write state information indicating whether the data stored in the buffer memory 240 is a valid or invalid. In the illustrated embodiments, it is assumed that the block size of the buffer memory 240 is identical to a size of a cluster having a plurality of sectors. However, the storage medium 220 need not be limited to this assumption. For example, an allocation unit of the storage medium 220 can correspond to a sector of a magnetic disc, or a page, sector or block of flash memory. In the FIGS. 4A and 4B, invalid data is indicated by an “X” and valid data is indicated by a “V”.

In FIG. 4A, it is also assumed that data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 corresponding to three files is stored in the buffer memory 240 as valid data. The data sets FILE1, FILE2 FILE3 may not be stored in the storage medium 220 yet. The stored file data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 are transferred to the storage medium 220 when the buffer memory 140 lacks room for storing new data or when the storage medium 220 becomes idle, as described above. The controller 260 updates the write state information of the file data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 stored in the buffer memory 240 according to invalidity information transferred from the host system 100. For example, the file data set FILE2 is deleted in the host system 100 and the host system 100 transmits invalidity information for the file data set FILE2 to the controller 260, the invalidity information indicating that the file data set FILE2 has been deleted at the host system 100. When the controller 260 receives the invalidity information for the file data set FILE2, the controller 260 changes the write state information WSI of the file data set FILE2 to “X” to indicate that the file data set FILE2 is invalid.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating exemplary operations for managing data stored in a storage system in a computing system in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. As mentioned above, a storage system 200 shown in FIG. 2 includes the storage medium 220 for storing data and the buffer memory 240 for temporally storing data to be written to the storage medium 220. As shown in FIG. 5, in a step S100, it is determined whether unwrite or other invalidity information is provided to the storage system 200. In a step S200, all or part of the corresponding data temporarily stored in the buffer memory 240 is marked invalid in response to the unwrite or other invalidity information. After invalidation, the invalid data is not written to the storage medium 220.

FIGS. 6A-6C are diagrams illustrating exemplary data management operations in accordance with further embodiments of the present invention. As described above with reference to FIG. 2, the controller 260 of the storage system 200 transfers data stored in the buffer memory 240 to the storage medium 220 by referring to the mapping table 261. Referring to FIG. 6A, it is assumed that there are three file data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 stored in the buffer memory 240 as valid data. The controller 260 of the storage system 200 determines which data stored the buffer memory 240 is invalid based on the write state information WSI in the mapping table 261 that corresponds to the stored file data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3. As shown in FIG. 6A, the controller 260 controls the buffer memory 240 and the storage medium 220 to transfer the file data sets FILE1, FILE2, FILE3 from the buffer memory 240 to corresponding locations in the storage medium 220, as all of the file data sets FILE1 to FILE3 are tagged as being valid by the mapping table 261.

If invalidity information including, for example, an unwrite command, address information for the invalid data file and size information for the invalid data file, is input to the controller 260 before the transfer of corresponding data to the storage medium 220, the controller 260 invalidates data related to the invalidity information. For example, as shown in FIG. 6B, if the invalid data corresponds to the file data set FILE2, the controller 260 updates the write state information WSI of the mapping table 261 related to the file data set FILE2 to indicate that the file data set FILE2 is invalid. The controller 260 may then determine which data stored in the buffer memory 240 is invalid based on the write state information WSI in the mapping table 261. As shown in FIG. 6B, the file data FILE1 and FILE3 are tagged as valid data and the file data FILE2 is tagged as invalid data in the mapping table 261. Accordingly, the controller 260 controls the buffer memory 240 and the storage medium 220 to transfer the file data sets FILE1 and FILE3 to corresponding locations of the storage medium 220, while foregoing transfer the file data FILE2 to a corresponding location of the storage medium 220. Space in the buffer memory 240 occupied by the invalid file data set FILE2 may be used for storing new data in a subsequent new write/read operation.

In another example shown in FIG. 6C, it is assumed that only one data file set FILE1 is stored in the buffer memory 240. If invalidity information is input to the controller 260 before transfer of the data file set FILE1 to the storage medium 220, the controller 260 invalidates the data file set FILE1. In particular, the controller 260 updates the write state information WSI of the mapping table 261 related to the file data set FILE1 to show that the file data set FILE1 is invalid. After the updating, the controller 260 may then determine whether the data stored in the buffer memory 240 is invalid by referring to the write state information WSI of the mapping table 261 related to the file data FILE1. As shown in FIG. 6C, the file data set FILE1 is not transferred to the storage medium 220 because of the “X” state of the write state information WSI. Accordingly, transfer of invalid data may be limited or prevented when the storage medium 220 is idle. The space of the buffer memory 240 occupied by the invalid data may be used to store new data in a subsequent write operation.

Although the invalid data is written in the storage medium 220, files related to the invalid data stored in the storage medium 220 are not influenced by the stored invalid data. Furthermore, the controller 260 may selectively transfer the invalid data to the storage medium 220. That is, although the data stored in the buffer memory 240 is invalidated by the unwrite command, the controller 260 may selectively transfer the invalid data to the storage medium 220.

The storage system 200 described above controls data transfer operations between the buffer memory 240 and the storage medium 220 by referring to the mapping table including the write state information representing whether the data stored in the buffer memory 240 is invalid or valid. As described above, the write state information of the data may be provided from a source external to the storage system 200. Also, the data may be new data read and modified by the external source. It will be appreciated that storage systems according to various embodiments of the present invention may be used not only in computing systems, but also in devices that store data on a hard disk or in a flash memory, such as a MP3 player or other portable electronic device. By reducing transfer of invalid from a buffer memory to a storage medium, write performance and/or lifetime of the storage system can be improved. In addition, power consumption associated with unnecessary write operations can be reduced.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a computing system according to further embodiments of the present invention, wherein some functions of the described above with reference to the storage system 200 FIG. 3 are integrated with the computing system. Referring to FIG. 7, a computing system 2000 according to further embodiments of the present invention includes a processing unit 2100, a system memory 2200, and a buffer memory 2300. The processing unit 2100 may include a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, and the like. The processing unit 2100 may be configured to control operations of the computing system 2000. In particular, the computing system 2000 may be configured to perform a similar role to that of the controller 260 illustrated in FIG. 3. For example, the processing unit 2100 may be configured to limit or prevent data in the buffer memory 2300 from being written to an external storage device 3000 according to a mapping table of the system memory 2200, as described in detail below.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 7, the system memory 2200 may serve all or in part as a main memory of the computing system 2000. An application program 2210 and a file system 2220 may be provided in the system memory 2200. The file system 2220 may include, for example, file systems including a File allocation table file system, but the invention is not limited to such embodiments. A device driver 2230 and a mapping table 2240 may be further provided in the system memory 2200. The device driver 2230 may control an interface with external storage device 3000, and the processing unit 2100 may control the interface with the external storage device 3000 using the device driver 2230. Further, the processing unit 2100 may be configured to manage address mapping between the external storage device 3000 and the buffer memory 2300 using the device driver 2230. The mapping table 2240 in the system memory 2200 may be used to store interface information with the external storage device 3000, address mapping information between the external storage device 3000 and the buffer memory 2300, and write state information indicating whether data in the buffer memory 2300 is valid information, along lines described above. The processing unit 2100 may update the write state information. For example, when all data of a file processed by the application program 2210 is deleted or when a part of data of a file processed by the application program 2210 is deleted, the processing unit 2100 may update the write state information in the mapping table 2240 based on the device driver 2230. The processing unit 2100 may control the buffer memory 2230 and the external storage device 3000 so that at least a part of data stored in the buffer memory 2230 is written in the external storage device 3000 according to the write state information of the mapping table 2240. Accordingly, it is possible to limit or prevent data in the buffer memory 2300 corresponding to previously deleted data from being written in the external storage device 3000.

The buffer memory 2300 may be used to smooth data transfer between the computing system 2000 and the external storage device 3000. The buffer memory 2300 may include high-speed volatile memory, such as DRAM or SRAM, and non-volatile memory, such as MRAM, PRAM, FRAM, NAND flash memory, NOR flash memory, or the like. In exemplary embodiments, the buffer memory 2300 may include a NAND flash memory.

The buffer memory 2300 may function as a write buffer. For example, the buffer memory 2300 may function as a write buffer that temporarily stores data to be written in the external storage device 3000 according to request of the processing unit 2100. The write buffer function may be used selectively. For example, data processed by the processing unit 2100 can be directly transferred to the external storage device 3000 without passing through the write buffer, that is, the buffer memory 2300. The buffer memory 2300 may also serve as a read buffer. For example, the buffer memory 2300 may function as a read buffer that temporarily stores data read out from the external storage device 3000 according to a request of the processing unit 2100. Although only one buffer 2300 is illustrated in FIG. 7, two or more buffer memories can be provided to the computing system 2000. In this case, each buffer may be used as a write buffer, a read buffer, or a buffer having write and read buffer functions.

Continuing to refer to FIG. 7, the external storage device 3000 may be used to store data including document data, image data, music data, and program, and may include a magnetic disk and/or a non-volatile semiconductor memory, such as a flash memory. No buffer memory is provided in the external storage device 3000. The buffer memory 2300 of the computing system 2000 may be used as a cache memory, e.g., a write buffer/read buffer. The buffer memory 2300 and the external storage device 3000 may function as a hybrid hard disk (HHD).

The processing unit 2100 may be configured to control the external storage device 3000 and the buffer memory 2300. The processing unit 2100 may control the external storage device 3000 using the device driver 2230 so that data in the external storage device 3000 is transferred to the computing system 2000 as necessary. The processing unit 2100 may control the buffer memory 2300 and the external storage device 3000 using the device driver 2230 so that data in the external storage device 3000 is transferred to the computing system 2000 via the buffer memory 2300 as necessary. The processing unit 2100 can cause data in the external storage device 3000 to be stored temporarily in the buffer memory 2300. For example, all or a part of data temporarily stored in the buffer memory 2300 may be transferred to the external storage device 3000 under control of the processing unit 2100 when the buffer memory 2300 lacks room for storing new data or when an idle time period of the processing unit 2100 exists. In order to perform the above-described operations, as set forth above, the processing unit 2100 may manage the mapping table 2240 for storing address mapping information between the external storage device 3000 and the buffer memory 2300 and write state information indicating whether data in the buffer memory 2300 is valid information. In some embodiments, the computing system 2000 and the external storage device 3000 may be interconnected by a standardized interface, such as ATA, SATA, USB, SCCSI, ESDI, or IDE interface, or by other types of interfaces.

When the buffer memory 2300 lacks room for storing new data or when the processing unit 2100 is idle for a sufficient time period, the computing system 2000 may refer to write state information of the mapping table and prevent at least a part of data stored in the buffer memory 2300 from being transferred to the external storage device 3000. The computing system 2000 may limit or prevent invalid data in the buffer memory 2300 from being written in the external storage device 3000, based on write state information indicating whether data stored in the buffer memory 2300 is valid data or invalid data. In other words, the computing system 2000 may selectively control a data transfer operation to the external storage device 3000 by fastening a tag of valid/invalid information to data stored in the buffer memory 2300. An operation of transferring data stored in the buffer memory 2300 to the external storage device 3000 may be substantially the same as described in FIGS. 4 to 6, and description thereof is thus omitted. According to the illustrated embodiments, write performance of the computing system 2000 may be improved, and it may be possible to prevent the lifetime of the external storage device 3000 from being unduly shortened due to unnecessary write operations. It may also be possible to increase battery life.

In some embodiments, the buffer memory 2300 may be integrated with the processing unit 2100 in a common circuit board assembly, e.g., mounted on an on-board type of computing system. In further embodiments, the buffer memory 2300 may be connected to the processing unit 2100 via a PCI bus or a PCI-E bus. Other interconnection techniques may also be used. For example, commonly used interfaces for a desktop and notebook computers may be used.

In the event that the buffer memory 2300 is realized with a non-volatile memory, such as a NAND flash memory or a NOR flash memory, it can be used for various functions. For example, the buffer memory 2300 may be used as a boot-up memory for storing a boot code that is used at booting. A buffer memory 2300 may also be used as a boot-up memory. Furthermore, important software can be stored in the buffer memory 2300 in order to improve system performance.

In some embodiments of the present invention, various functions of constituent elements are described. However, an interface function (including a control function) can be provided in each constituent element if necessary. Although a bus of a computing system in FIG. 7 is simplified, such a bus may include various buses that are well known in a computing system.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A computing system comprising:

a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device; and

a processing unit configured to selectively invalidate data stored in the buffer memory and to control transfer of data from the buffer memory to the external storage device responsive to the selective invalidation.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to manage write state information of the temporarily stored data.

3. The computing system of claim 2, wherein the processing unit is configured to control the buffer memory and the external storage device according to the write state information so that at least some of the temporarily stored data is not written in the external storage device.

4. The computing system of claim 3, wherein the write state information indicates whether the temporarily stored data is valid.

5. The computing system of claim 4, wherein processor is configured to store the write state information in a table in a system memory of the computing system.

6. The computing system of claim 5, the system memory is configured to store a device driver configured to manage the buffer memory.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer memory comprises a volatile semiconductor memory including SRAM or DRAM and a non-volatile semiconductor memory including a NAND flash memory, a NOR flash memory, MRAM, FRAM, or PRAM, and the external storage device comprises a magnetic disk and/or a non-volatile semiconductor memory.

8. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer memory is configured as a read cache memory and/or a write cache memory.

9. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the buffer memory is configured to store software for improving system performance.

10. A computing system comprising:

a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device;

a system memory configured to provide a device driver configured to manage the buffer memory; and

a processing unit configured to control the buffer memory responsive to the device driver and to manage write state information of data stored in the buffer memory.

11. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the write state information indicates whether the temporarily stored data is valid.

12. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to prevent writing of invalid data from the buffer memory to the external storage device.

13. The computing system of claim 11, wherein the processing unit is configured to update the write state information.

14. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is configured to store the write state information in a table in the system memory.

15. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the buffer memory is configured as a read cache memory and/or a write cache memory.

16. The computing system of claim 10, wherein the buffer memory is configured to store software for improving system performance.

17. A data management method of a computing system which comprises a buffer memory for temporarily storing data intended for storage in an external storage device and a processing unit operatively associated with the buffer memory, the data management method comprising:

selectively identifying data temporarily stored in a buffer memory as invalid; and

selectively transferring data from the buffer memory to an external storage device based on the selective identification of data.

18. The data management method of claim 17, wherein when the temporarily stored data is invalidated, the temporarily stored data is not written in the external storage device.

19. The data management method of claim 17, wherein selectively identifying comprises updating write state information for the temporarily stored data.

20. A computing system comprising:

a buffer memory configured to temporarily store data intended for storage in an external storage device; and

a processing unit configured to selectively control data transfer from the buffer memory according to invalidation information for data stored in the buffer memory.

21. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit is configured to invalidate the temporarily stored data in the buffer memory according to the invalidation information so that at least a part of the stored data in the buffer memory is not written in the external storage device.

22. The computing system of claim 21, wherein the processing unit is configured to prevent transfer of temporarily stored data that is invalidated.

23. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the processing unit is configured to manage write state information of the temporarily stored data.

24. The computing system of claim 23, further comprising a system memory configured to store the write state information in a table.

25. The computing system 24, wherein the system memory is configured to store a device driver configured to manage the buffer memory.

26. The computing system 20, wherein the buffer memory comprises a volatile semiconductor memory including SRAM or DRAM and a non-volatile semiconductor memory including a NAND flash memory, a NOR flash memory, MRAM, FRAM, or PRAM, and the external storage device comprises a magnetic disk and/or a nonvolatile semiconductor memory.

27. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the buffer memory is configured as a read cache memory and/or a write cache memory.

28. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the buffer memory is configured to store software for improving system performance.

29. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the buffer memory is configured to communicate with the processing unit via a PCI-E bus.

30. The computing system of claim 20, wherein the buffer memory and the processing unit are integrated in a common circuit board assembly.