Increased storage capacity for solid state disks using data compression

• Main Author: KALER PAUL
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 29.09.2009
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; PHYSICS

The storage capacity of a solid state disk (SSD) device is increased through data compression. The SSD is coupled to a host computer system and includes a non-volatile storage module (NVSM) and a volatile memory (VM). The SSD is associated with a predetermined compression ratio of n to 1, where n is a value greater than 1. A virtual storage capacity is initially reported to the host computer system that is n times the physical storage capacity of the VM. An overflow buffer is established on the storage media of the NVSM. The currently available virtual capacity of the VM is monitored based on the current compression ratio and the amount of data currently stored therein. Data is stored to the overflow buffer whenever the available virtual capacity falls below that necessary to successfully process a pending storage operation requested by the host computer system. The data stored in the overflow buffer is populated to the VM when the amount of available virtual capacity of the VM can accommodate the data.