CN1180350C

CN1180350C - virtual storage

Info

Publication number: CN1180350C
Application number: CNB01140969XA
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈英杰
Original assignee: Micro Star International Co Ltd
Current assignee: Micro Star International Co Ltd
Priority date: 2001-09-25
Filing date: 2001-09-25
Publication date: 2004-12-15
Anticipated expiration: 2021-09-25
Also published as: CN1410894A

Abstract

A virtual storage device is composed of at least one second data connector, a network control unit for connecting at least one data storage device in remote network, a virtual storage control unit connected to said second data connector for simulating said data storage device, and a CPU for controlling and converting data format.

Description

Virtual memory device

[technical field]

The present invention relates to a kind of virtual memory device, particularly relate to a kind of connected network to reach the virtual memory device of easy use, management and expansion teledata storage device.

[background technology]

As shown in Figure 1; on the main frame of previous calculation machine 3; usually can be provided with Data Holding Equipments such as Winchester disk drive 31, floppy drive 32, CD-ROM drive 33; access data is used when using a computer for the user; even these computing machines are communicated with each other with network; also mostly be the Data Holding Equipment that uses itself separately, and data are managed concentratedly effectively.In addition, these traditional storage facilitiess also have following inconvenience and puzzlement in the use:

1. because these Data Holding Equipments, Winchester disk drive for example, its storage area size is fixed, when the storage area of described Winchester disk drive uses inadequately, the user promptly must add again and puts a Winchester disk drive to expand the storage area, but need dismantle host machine casing when expanding hard disk and carry out the hard disk installation, general user mostly can't install voluntarily, increases the hard disk use and goes up the degree of difficulty that reaches on expanding.In addition, if during with floppy drive or CD-ROM drive access data, disc quantity not only increases along with data volume, and is careful and preserves in case corrupted data or loss have its trouble and inconvenience in the use.

2. cause during access data to lose easily,, when running into the undesired switching on and shutting down of unexpected power failure or computing machine, as easy as rolling off a logly cause the hard disk corruptions or the loss of data because these Data Holding Equipments all are directly to be connected with main frame.

3. very inconvenient when using a plurality of operating system, division management is difficult for, and newly-increased and cut apart its difficulty is all arranged for hard disk.

[summary of the invention]

The object of the present invention is to provide and a kind ofly make computing machine can carry out the virtual memory device of access, management and expansion long-range data memory device by connected network.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a kind of,, thereby reduce cost with Data Holding Equipments such as replacement Winchester disk drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drives by the virtual memory device that is assembled in the computing machine.

Virtual memory device of the present invention, in order to connect at least one data memory device of computing machine and telecommunication network, make computing machine carry out the data access action to described data memory device, it is characterized in that described virtual memory device includes: at least one first data connector that is arranged on the described computer main frame panel, one second data connector and a Plug Division, described first data connector and second data connector comprise the Winchester disk drive slot respectively, the floppy drive slot, the small computer system interface slot, described first data connector also comprises perimeter component connecting interface slot and Extended RAM slot, and described Plug Division is plugged in perimeter component connecting interface slot; One network control unit connects described data memory device by hub; One virtual storage control module is connected with described second data connector and network control unit respectively, to receive the data from described first data connector and data memory device; An and CPU (central processing unit), be connected with described virtual storage control module and network control unit respectively, after the data that entered described virtual storage control module by described second data connector are carried out Data Format Transform, described data are delivered to described data memory device via described network control unit to be stored, and to after carrying out another Data Format Transform by the data of described data memory device taking-up, deliver to described virtual storage control module, be used to export to described second data connector.Adopt such scheme of the present invention can reach the data storing space planning, use and manage effects such as easy and security height.

[description of drawings]

Below by most preferred embodiment and accompanying drawing virtual memory device of the present invention is elaborated, in the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is the synoptic diagram that shows the mode of computer utility storage facilities in the past;

Fig. 2 shows the circuit block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the synoptic diagram of user mode;

Fig. 3 is the circuit box synoptic diagram that shows a computer main frame panel;

Fig. 4 is the synoptic diagram that shows the application example of preferred embodiment of the present invention.

[embodiment]

Consult Fig. 2 and shown in Figure 3, one preferred embodiment of virtual memory device of the present invention shown in the figure, described virtual memory device 1 is in order to connect at least one data memory device of a computing machine and telecommunication network (among Fig. 2 be example with four data storage devices 41,42,43,44), to make computing machine carry out data access to described data memory device 41,42,43,44.Described virtual memory device 1 is a circuit board in the present embodiment, the one side is provided with Plug Division (being golden finger) 10 for being plugged on the computer main frame panel 2, and as shown in Figure 3, be typically provided with a plurality of first data connectors 20 on the general computer main frame panel 2, comprising data transmission interfaces such as four perimeter component connecting interfaces (PCI) slot 201, two Extended RAM (Dimm) slots 202, two Winchester disk drive (IDE) slots 203, floppy drive (FDD) slot 204 and two small computer system interfaces (SCSI) slots 205.And 10 of the Plug Divisions on the described virtual memory device 1 be plugged on described PCI slot 201 one of them.And described long-range data memory device 41,42,43,44 as shown in Figure 2, is a plurality of archives servers that are connected to network in the present embodiment, and described archives server is to be connected with described virtual memory device 1 by a hub (Hub) 46.

The virtual memory device 1 of present embodiment comprises a plurality of second data connectors 11, a network control unit 12, one virtual storage control module 13 and a CPU (central processing unit) 14; Wherein:

Described second data connector 11 be in order to described computer main frame panel 2 the above first data connector 20 in IDE slot 203, FDD slot 204 and scsi socket 205 corresponding connections, so, also include two IDE slots 111, FDD slot 112 and two data transmission interfaces such as scsi socket 113 in described second data connector 11, data can be sent on described virtual storage control module 13 or the computer main frame panel 2 by the winding displacement that is connected corresponding first and second data connector 20,11.

Described network control unit 12 is responsible for the data memory device 41 with telecommunication network, 42,43 or 44 is online, when computing machine one start, an appointed in advance data memory device during described network control unit 12 promptly can connect to network automatically, for example data memory device 41 (also can be specified a plurality of data memory devices 41 certainly simultaneously, 42,43,44 etc.), and make described computing machine and data memory device 41 set up online, grasp and carry out the operating system that defaults in the described data memory device 41 then, and specify the data storing space of described data memory device 41 as described computing machine, and make described data memory device 41 emulation become the Winchester disk drive of described computing machine, storage facilitiess such as floppy drive or magneto-optic machine, and described data memory device 41 mainly is made up of a plurality of Winchester disk drive with vast capacity, and it has huge storage area for storage data.

Described virtual storage control module 13 is connected with described second data connector 11 (comprising IDE slot 111, FDD slot 112 and scsi socket 113) and described network control unit 12 respectively, with the treat storage data of reception, and receive the data to be read of taking out from described long-range data memory device 41 by described network control unit 12 by IDE slot 203, FDD slot 204 and scsi socket 205 one of them input in described motherboard 2 the above first data connector 20.Therefore, described virtual storage control module 13 is by being connected with described IDE slot 111, FDD slot 112 and scsi socket 113, and be connected to long-range data memory device 41 by described network control unit 12, and emulation become one can be for the output of the Data Holding Equipments such as Winchester disk drive, floppy drive or magneto-optic machine of access data, go into end.

Described CPU (central processing unit) 14 is to be connected with described network control unit 12 and virtual storage control module 13 respectively, to control described both start, and to one of them is imported described virtual storage control module 13 and carries out Data Format Transform with the data that store by described second data connector 11 (IDE slot 111, FDD slot 112 and scsi socket 113), make to form a data packet, and then make described virtual storage control module 13 that described data packet is delivered to storage in the described data memory device 41 via described network control unit 12; And, when data are read from data memory device 41 and are sent to described network control unit 12 with the data packet form, described CPU (central processing unit) 14 is promptly carried out another Data Format Transform to described data packet, after from package, taking out data, described data are delivered in the described virtual storage control module 13, again by described second data connector 11 (the IDE slot 111, FDD slot 112 and scsi socket 113) one of them exports corresponding slot (IDE slot 203 in computer main frame panel 2 the above first data connector 20 to, FDD slot 204 or scsi socket 205).

In addition, described virtual memory device 1 also comprises an internal storage location 15, it is a flash memory (Flash Rom) in the present embodiment, wherein be preset with the storage area of an operating system and a part, when computing machine one start, described network control unit 12 can't connect to network when going up the data designated storage device immediately, computing machine promptly can use the operating system in the described internal storage location 15 to finish boot action earlier, computing machine still can be operated by start, and when having data to store in the computing machine, also can be temporarily stored in earlier in the storage area of described internal storage location 15, obtain online up to described network control unit 12 and long-range archives server.

Therefore, after described virtual memory device 1 is plugged on the computer main frame panel 2 and passes through some related softwares settings, and described virtual memory device 1 with long-range data memory device online after, described long-range data memory device promptly can be regarded as virtual Winchester disk drive, floppy drive or magneto-optic machine storage facilitiess such as (MO), and described virtual memory device 1 promptly be regarded as described storage facilities (being described data memory device) output, go into end.So, when having data to store in the computing machine, described data are promptly by described first and second data connector 20, the corresponding IDE slot 203 that connects in 11,111, FDD slot 204,112 or scsi socket 205,113 are sent in the described virtual storage control module 13, at this moment, described network control unit 12 is obtained online with the data memory device 41 of telecommunication network, described CPU (central processing unit) 14 is about to described data and converts the data packet form to, by described virtual storage control module 13 described data packet is delivered to described network control unit 12 and makes described data packet is sent in the long-range data memory device 41 and store.

And when computing machine is desired reading of data, it sends one and reads the IDE slot 203 of signal to described first data connector 20, FDD slot 204 or scsi socket 205 one of them, 14 of described CPU (central processing unit) are known described information by described virtual storage control module 13, and make described network control unit 12 take out via the data that network will be stored in the described data memory device 41, and send in the described CPU (central processing unit) 14 and carry out Data Format Transform, with by taking out data in the network data package, again described data are delivered in the described virtual storage control module 13, with by described second data connector 11 (the IDE slot 111, FDD slot 112 and scsi socket 113) one of them exports corresponding second data connector (IDE slot 203 to, FDD slot 204 or scsi socket 205).

So, as shown in Figure 4, be arranged on when virtual memory device 1 of the present invention on each computing machine of Administrative Area (or office block) for example, and be provided with several data memory devices 51 in the described Administrative Area, 52,53,54, then pass through a hub 55 with described

data memory device

51,52,53,54 with each computing machine on virtual memory device 1 link together, promptly form an internal lan network, so during each computer booting, can be by described virtual memory device 1 and its preassigned

data memory device

51,52,53 or 54 obtain online, and can be respectively to described

data memory device

51,52,53,54 carry out the data access action.

In sum, virtual memory device 1 of the present invention has following advantage:

1. utilize described virtual memory device 1, computing machine in the same area is stored in data centralization by the communications protocol on the network to be located in the described zone on long-range a certain or a few data storage devices, make that the data of these computing machines can be by centralized management, keeping, and one having data (for example operating system) to upgrade in the described data memory device, all computing machines in the described zone can obtain up-to-date data immediately.

2. by described virtual memory device 1 is set on computers, make computing machine can utilize the huge storage area of a teledata storage device to carry out data storing, and do not need on every computing machine, to set up data access equipment such as Winchester disk drive, floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, can effectively reduce cost and reduce the space of main frame.

3. by described virtual memory device 1, the computing machine user can plan the hard drive space size in the described data memory device easily, also can increase and decrease required hard drive space arbitrarily, and use and Extended Spaces all are easy to.

4. has defencive function in order to avoid destroy; because computing machine must could carry out data access to the data memory device of telecommunication network by described virtual memory device 1; therefore the storage area allocation table (Partation table) that in data memory device, does not have entity; so any low order is destroyed; as format actions such as (Format) all can't to as described in the archives server damage and the security that can improve data storing.

Claims

1. A virtual storage device, used to connect a computer to at least one data storage device of a remote network, so that the computer can perform data access operations on the data storage device, characterized in that the virtual storage device includes:

At least a first data connector, a second data connector and a plug-in part arranged on the motherboard of the computer, the first data connector and the second data connector respectively include a hard disk drive slot, floppy disk drive slot, small computer system interface slot, the first data connector also includes a peripheral component connection interface slot and an expansion memory slot, and the plug-in part is plugged into the connection interface slot of the peripheral component;

A network control unit, connected to the data storage device through a hub;

a virtual storage control unit, respectively connected to the second data connector and the network control unit, to receive data from the first data connector and the data storage device; and

A central processing unit, connected to the virtual storage control unit and the network control unit respectively, to perform data format conversion on the data entering the virtual storage control unit through the second data connector, and transfer the data to the virtual storage control unit through the The network control unit sends the data to the data storage device for storage, and performs another data format conversion on the data retrieved from the data storage device, and then sends it to the virtual storage control unit for output to the second data Connector.

2. The virtual storage device according to claim 1, characterized in that: the virtual storage device further comprises a memory unit, and when the network control unit is not connected to the data storage device of the remote network, the memory unit That is to provide the operating system and part of the data storage space for the computer to start and use.

3. The virtual storage device according to claim 1, wherein the data storage device is a file server.