Transfer of cached data.

0001The present invention relates to data processing systems, and more particularly to the transfer of cached data in such systems.

0002Direct Access Storage Devices (DASD) are a class of disk data storage devices currently used in data processing environments. Typically, the burst data rate between the DASD and its associated electronic circuits, such as a cache memory, varies from less than two megabytes per second to six or so megabytes per second. Because of such high burst rates and the electronic speeds of circuits attached to the DASD, it has been common practice to synchronize the operation of a host computer access to a DASD to the rotation disk being accessed. This mode of operation is called synchronons mode, i.e., the operation of the data transfer is synchronized to the rotation of the disk in the DASD. Such synchronous operations are satisfactory up to predetermined lengths of signal cables extending between the DASD and its controller and connecting host processors. The reason for the limitation in the spacing is propagation time of the signals between the host processor and the DASD controller. Such propagation time, if extended beyond a predetermined maximal elapsed time, requires a longer time to connect and reconnect to a host processor and exchange control signals then the DASD uses to scan a gap between a control field and a data field on the disk surface. If the propagation time exceeds the gap scanning time, then an additional rotation of the DASD disk is required for reading the data field after scanning a control field. That is, in CKD architecture (count, key, data) the count and key field always precedes the data field for each record. Except in a FORMAT WRITE operation, the count field is in a read mode while the data field can be either in the read or write mode. Using the CKD architecture, it is required to read the count field, scan a gap, and then read the data field. If the gap scanning time is less than the control signal propagation time, such synchronous operations are impossible. The above discussion does not describe all possibilities; rather, the discussion is intended to explore a need for controlling and accessing DASD in other than a synchronous accessing mode.

0003The advent of optical fiber channels has brought a possible data burst rate much greater than the data burst rate of the DASD, such as four times the DASD burst rate. The data rate is combined with extra long cable length, such that the propagation delay is greater than the gap scanning time of the DASD, and the rearrangement creates performance problems for a DASD peripheral subsystem. It is also desired to maximize utilization of the channel, i.e., maximize utilization of the optical fiber channel such that once a burst of data and its control signals are transferred over the channel, such transfer proceeds for as long as possible. Rate changing buffers can accommodate some of the burst rate differences; however, more control is needed for efficiently using a DASD with such a fiber optic channel that has long propagation delays. It is desired to operate the DASD and the channel in a non-sychronous mode such that operations with both the channel and the device can be improved for the data transfer being effected between the host processor.

0004U.S. Patent 4,912,630 slows batch or burst data transfers between slow and high speed systems. This patent teaches that data or signal bursts are limited by a elapsed time, i.e., a number of processor cycles. It is desired to avoid such an elapsed time limitation on bursts of data transfers.

0005U.S. Patent 4,583,166 shows a cylindrical roll mode of DASD disk accessing and the use of a host channel type chain of commands within a peripheral subsystem. A so-called roll mode more efficiently uses a DASD in that data transfers can start at any rotational position of the disk. Such a roll mode is most effective for those data transfers involving one or more complete tracks of data to be transferred. The onset and termination of a data transfer beginning at any byte or record location on a track is called a break point.

0006U.S. Patent 4,214,742 shows an optical fiber serial channel to DASD connecting controller having a microprocessor. Several data paths, serial or parallel, are controlled by the microprocessor to effect different data transfers.

0007US Patents 4,393,445; 4,428,064 and 4,571,674 are also cited for purposes of general interest and background. It is also noted that DASD can be either of the magnetic or optical type.

0008Accordingly the present invention provides a method of transferring data between a host processor and a cache and a data storage device in a peripheral data storage subsystem, said device being organised with a plurality of data tracks, including the step of:    monitoring the data transfer between the host processor and the cache and the operation of the device and the cache to detect when the device operation has reached a predetermined reference state and the cache has a copy of data from a current track being accessed;    whereupon further device operations are suspended and data transfer between the cache and the host processor is initiated.

0009The present invention also provides data storage apparatus including:    a data storage device having addressable data storage areas for storing one or more data records;    a cache connected to the device;    a data buffer connected to the cache and to the device;    host attachment means connected to the cache and to the buffer;    control means connected to the cache, buffer, attachment means and the device for controlling their respective operations;    data transfer means for transferring data signals between the attachment means, the cache and the device, including means for accessing a predetermined one of said addressable data storage areas as a current area;    first means in the control means for monitoring the data transfer and the operation of the device for indicating when the device operation has reached a predetermined reference state;    second means for monitoring the cache and device for detecting when a complete copy of data corresponding to the current area is stored in the cache; and    means responsive to detection of the device operation having reached said predetermined reference state and a complete copy of data corresponding to the current area being stored in the cache for suspending further device operations and initiating data transfer between the cache and the host processor.

0010In comparison with, for example, US 4,214,742, in at least a preferred embodiment the present invention provides different data paths for different functions under microprocessor control, such as shown in this reference. In particular, control of a rate-changing buffer and a cache can be used in combination for maximizing data transfers between a DASD and the high data burst rate of a serial channel having long propagation time delays.

0011The present invention is also useful with the known extended count key data (ECKD) architecture used in IBM data processing systems (IBM is a trademark of the International Business Machines Corporation). Such an ECKD architecture enables the transfer of a plurality of records with one read or write command. Count key data (CKD) format is still used on disks supplied by IBM.

0012In order that the invention may be fully understood a preferred embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none"><li>Fig. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a data processing system;</li><li>Fig. 2 is a simplified diagrammatic showing of a record control field used in the system illustrated in Fig. 1;</li><li>Fig. 3 is a simplified data processing system machine operation flow chart;</li><li>Fig. 4 is a simplified flow chart for a read operation; and</li><li>Fig. 5 is a simplified flow chart showing the sequence of operations for a recording or a write operation.</li></ul>

0013Referring now more particularly to the appended drawing, like numerals indicate like parts and structural features in the various diagrams. In Figure 1 host processor 10 is connected to peripheral subsystem 19 by a channel connection 12. Connection 12 between host processor 10 and the peripheral subsystem 19 is a high speed optical fiber channel 12. Optical fiber channel 12 can have a relatively long signal propagation time, i.e., host processor 10 can be physically displaced from the illustrated subsystem by a significant distance. A plurality of host processors 10 can be connected to a single subsystem 19 and correspondingly a plurality of subsystems 19 can be connected to one or more host processors 10. Attachment circuits 11 contain the usual channel attachment circuits for a peripleral subsystem 19 for enabling communication between the host processor 10 and the peripheral subsystem 19. Included in a controller portion of the peripheral subsystem 19 are: rate changing buffer 13 for accommodating differences in data burst rates of the optical fiber channel 12 and DASDs 20; a control and microprocessor circuit 14 (hereafter referred to as the microprocessor); and a cache 16, preferably having a capacity of 100 or more megabytes, which as known in the art, stores or caches data for a more rapid access by host processor 10. Data transfer circuits 18 are electronic circuits used to modulate, the signals to be recorded on DASD 20; demodulate signals received from DASD 20; provide error detection and correction operations on such data; and add and delete control characters and fields, as is known for such DASD operations. Operation of data transfer circuits 18 is synchronons with the rotation of a disk in DASD 20 which is currently being accessed. Each peripheral subsystem 19 will generally contain a plurality of DASDs 20 as indicated by ellipsis 21. Each of the data storage disks (not separately shown) have an index or reference circumferential position 20A.

0014Data bus 24 contains control and data lines for enabling attachment circuits 11 to communicate with rate changing buffer 13 and has an extension 25 to cache 16 such that signals from host processor 10 can be received both from data buffer 13 or cache 16. During a write or recording operation, the data signals can be supplied only to cache 16 or only to rate-changing buffer 13. The bus 22 connects rate-changing buffer 13 to data-transfer circuits 18 with a side bus-connection 23 to cache 16 such that signals from rate-changing buffer 13 can be recorded on DASD 20 and simultaneously copied to cache 16. Data read from DASD 20 is supplied to either or both of the rate changing buffer 13 and cache 16. Control line 27 represents a plurality of electrical connectors extending between microprocessor 14, and other major elements 11, 13, 16 and 18 of the controller for subsystem 19.

0015Microprocessor 14 includes a dispatcher or an executive which manages the operation of the microprocessor for controlling the peripheral data subsystem, as is known and practised. Some of the microcode modules are used exclusively for providing specific functions involving the data transfers. Microcode module DVE PROC 30 shown logically as being next to data transfer circuits 18, actually resides physically in the microprocessor 14, in that portion of the controller microprocessor 14 used for managing the data transfer circuits 18 and for effecting the data transfer operation between DASD 20, rate changing buffer 13 and cache 16. These types of operations are well known and will not be further described. Similarly, CD PROC 31 is a microcode module for operating with microprocessor 14 to control the operation of attachment circuits 11 for transferring data signals between host processor 10 and rate changing buffer 13 for transfer to DASD 20. Under DVE PROC 30 control, in a "branching" write operation, a copy of the data in rate changing buffer 13 supplied to DASD 20 is also supplied over bus extension 23 for storage in cache 16. Microcode module CC PROC 32 of microprocessor 14 controls data transfers between host processor 10 and cache 16 which do not involve rate changing buffer 13 or DASD 20. Transfers of signals between host processor 10 and a cache 16 is known in the art.

0016With each record 36 stored in rate changing buffer 13 is a record control field RCF 37. Referring to Fig. 2, RCF 37 is shown as having a CD PROC portion field 40 for use during writing operations which is controlled by CD PROC 31 and read by DVE PROC 30. RCF 37 is initialized by CD PROC 31 on a write operation and initialized by DVE PROC 30 on aread operation. Upon a read operation, flag bytes (not shown) are set by DVE PROC 30 to inform CD PROC 31 the requirements for the record being transferred and the number of records remaining in the track to be read. All of these other controls are not relevant to the present description and will not be described further. Setting GOCACHE during a DASD read operation can be performed by a host command read at either a breakpoint or track index, or after a write domain has ended and a DASD 20 read mode is established. In some instances several writing operations may occur in one host processor 10 defined write domain. GOCACHE could be set at the end of a one of the several writing operations which is within the host processor 10 defined write domain. GOCACHE byte 42 is a flag set by DVE PROC 30 when a DASD 20 portion of a data processing operation is a DASD read operation and reaches a predetermined status such that operations with the DASD 20 are to be interrupted and ensuing operations are preferably conducted with cache 16. Such a direct connection between host 10 and cache 16 enables a maximum data transfer rate over the optical fiber channel 12 while the data transfers with DASD 20 may be more efficient from a control view but are slower, i.e., do not maximize the burst rate of optical fiber channel 12. Operations conducted at the DASD 20 data transfer rate are interrupted or segmented using the GOCACHE flag, as will become apparent. Field 41 indicates the type of record contained in the record image within rate changing buffer 13. This is used during read operations for enabling CD PROC 31 to know what type of record is being transferred of the CKD format. Four types of records are used in the present embodiment. These are: an index or end of track location; record zero; a home address record (the latter two are CKD control records); and a user record. Nmmeral 43 indicates that RCF 37 contains fields other than that shown in Fig. 2.

0017The flow charts in Figs 4 et seq are directed toward operation of the controller shown in Fig 1 for a single device 20 which is currently transferring data with a host processor 10 via attachment circuits 11 and channel 12. It is to be understood that when the controller simultaneously handles more than one device operation at a time, a plurality of simultaneous operations may occur, each relating to a different device 20.

0018Referring next to Fig. 3, an overall view of machine operations is shown for the data processing system shown in Figure 1. Host processor 10 starts a data transfer operation with an address to one DASD 20 at machine step 50. The data transfer actually occurs between the host processor and the data processing subsystem at machine step 51. This step includes transferring data between the DASD 20 and the host processor 10, and between the DASD 20 and cache 16 upon a read operation, and between host processor 10 and cache 16 on a write operation. In machine step 52, DVE PROC 30 monitors the status of the data transfer operation with respect to DASD 20. The purpose of this monitoring is to determine a status in which the mode of operations can switch from device oriented operation to cache oriented operation for more effectively using the high speed channel 12. At machine step 53, DVE PROC 30 detects a predetermined end of DASD operations and sets GOCACHE flag 42 for indicating to the rest of the controller a host cache operation is to ensue. Machine step 54 represents that the cache-to-host mode is set which is indicated by the CD PROC 31, DVE PROC 30 being inactive, and CC PROC 32 being established for effecting the data transfers. Activating CC PROC 32 before it is needed reduces channel response time between the controller and the host processor 10.

0019Fig. 4 shows a read operation. A read operation involves asynchronous operations controlled by CD PROC 31 for transferring data from buffer 13 to host processor 10 and by DVE PROC 30 for transferring data from DASD 20 to buffer 13 and cache 16. The DVE PROC 30 operations are first described. A host command read operation is initiated by host processor 10 at machine step 60, i.e., the controller 19 may have received a read operation command and is starting DVE PROC 30 to requested data from DASD 20 to buffer 13 and cache 16. Such reading is also initiated by controller 19 for desired records. The operation is described for a host requested read. This read operation can be for one or more records stored on DASD 20. At each DVE PROC 30 controlled machine step 61 iteration, the controller 19 reads one of the host requested data records from a DASD 20 to buffer 13 and cache 16 for supplying same via buffer 13 as controlled by CD PROC 31 to the host processor 10. At the end of each record, DVE PROC 30 determines whether or not an index mark 20A on the track of Fig. 1 has been sensed. If an index mark 20A is sensed, then the scanning of the disk is at an end of a track being addressed, also called a current track. At machine step 63, DVE PROC 30 determines whether or not the next track is stored entirely in cache 16. Note that the next track accessed by host processor 10 can be the current track or another track. If yes, then at machine step 64 the GOCACHE flag 42 is set to the active condition for signaling to CD PROC 31 to send a channel command retry to host processor 10 and to transfer control 10 CC PROC 32. Operation of a channel command retry (CCR) is known and will not be further described for this reason. Following setting GOCACHE flag 42, DVE PROC 30 stops device operations as indicated at machine step 65 and waits for another device operation to begin. If the entire contents of the next track being read was not stored in cache 16 at machine step 63, then machine operations return to step 61. As described earlier, a break point can be the beginning and end of a roll mode track read operation for DASD 20 or the location of a first record of a split track stored in cache. If the break point has been read, then the contents of the current track being read is in cache and steps 64 and 65 are then performed. However, if no break point has been reached, then the read operation should continue by repeating steps 61 et seq. The operation of steps 64 and 65 stops the device operation based upon reaching an index mark and finding the contents of the current track and cache or reaching a break point during a read operation. If a next track is to be read and a copy of data stored in such next track is in cache 16, then the machine operations are then shifted from cache-to-host processor 10 operations for effecting higher data transfer rates enabled by the connection 12. It is to be understood that host processor 10 can terminate the machine operations illustrated in Fig 4 at any time.

0020The CD PROC 31 operations, which occur asynchronously to the just-described DVE PROC 30 operations, are next described. CD PROC 31 determines when a host processor 10 read command has resulted in records stored in buffer 13 are to be transferred over channel 12 to the host processor. The GET OP line 90 represents such determination. At machine step 91 a read operation of transferring data from buffer 13 to host processor 10. At machine step 92, CD PROC 31 checks the GOCACHE flag 42. If GOCACHE flag 42 is off, then data is to be transferred, i.e. such as one data record, from buffer 13 to host processor 10. This data transfer occurs at machine step 93. Following this data transfer, CD PROC 31 gets identification of the next operation to be performed, if the next operation is a host processor commaded read, then steps 91 et seq are repeated, otherwise operations beyond the scope of the present description are performed. If at step 91, the GOCACHE flag 42 is ON, then DVE PROC 30 has indicated that device operations should stop and cache operations should be initiated. At machine step 95, CD PROC 31 and DVE PROC 30 activities are stopped (note that reading of DASD 20 has already stopped and this action deactivates, the DVE PROC module) and CC PROC 32 is activated for initiating cache 16 to host processor 10 data transfers. CD PROC is exited at 96.

0021A write operation is illustrated in Fig. 5. At machine step 70, host processor 10 issues a "LOCATE RECORD" command. This command sets an address space or write domain of DASD 20 address space for limiting the write operation. A write command follows the LOCATE RECORD command at machine step 71. The data transfers indicated by the write command 71, which can be for more than one CKD record, is effected at machine step 72. At machine step 73, whether or not the end of the write domain has been reached is checked. If not, an additional write command can be received at step 71. This description assumes that the issued write commands are such that there is no overrun in rate changing buffer 13 and that cache 16 has sufficient data storage space for all of the data to be written to DASD 20. In the event of a possible overrun, a control mechanism beyond the present description can issue a channel command retry (CCR) which interrupts the transfer of data signals from host processor 10 to the illustrated data processing subsystem to prevent overrun or to recover from an overrun error. Such overrun prevention and recovery is not pertinent to an understanding of the present embodiment. If the end of the write domain has been reached, i.e., writing is completed, then at machine step 74 a check is made whether or not a cache hit was made, i.e., was there data in the cache relating to the write command, if not, device read mode operations are entered at step 75. If a cache hit has occurred, i.e., data was in the cache 16 that was overwritten by the write command, at machine step 72, then at machine step 76 a check is made whether or not a copy of the entire track is in cache 16. If yes, if an entire track has been written and it is in cache, then the GOCACHE flag is set at step 77. On the other hand, if the entire track is not in cache, then at machine step 78, whether or not the HA record is valid is checked, i.e., was index passed, and the home address record has been stored in cachz 16. If yes then at machine step 78 device read mode operations of step 75 are entered.

0022Therefore, in at least a preferred embodiment the invention provides an enhanced method and apparatus for transferring data between a cached DASD or other data processing subsystem and one or more host processors via a high speed channel having a long propagation time.

0023At least a preferred embodiment of the invention provides a method of operating a cached peripheral controller which connects a high speed channel to a low speed device includes the steps of transferring data between a channel and the device via a controller, storing a copy of the data being transferred into a cache, monitoring the device operation for detecting that the data transfer has reached a predetermined status at the device; then terminating the data transfer from the channel, stopping the device activity as to the instant data transfer, and activating the cache and channel for transfers therebetween which do not involve the device. Such a decision is made independent of whether or not the data transfer between the host processor and device has been completed.

0024Viewed from another aspect at least a preferred embodiment of the invention provides a peripheral subsystem having a plurality of peripheral devices, data transfer circuits connected to each of peripheral devices, a cache and a rate-changing data buffer being connected to the data transfer circuits for exchanging data signals therebetween, host attachment circuits connected to the buffer and said cache for exchanging data signals therewith and control means connected to the attachment circuits cache, buffer and data transfer circuits for controlling their respective operations including a GOCACHE flag which indicates that data transfers between one of the peripheral devices stops while data transfers between the cache and attachment means ensue. Control means monitor the operation of the device for determining the time to switch data transfer mode between device with attachment circuit operation to cache and attachment circuit data transfer operations.

0025While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention.