Patent ID: 8543742
Filing Date: 2013-09-24
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A smart flash drive comprising: a top-level smart storage switch that is connected upstream to a host and has a plurality of downstream interfaces; a plurality of second-level smart storage switches each having an upstream interface to the top-level smart storage switch and a plurality of downstream interfaces; an operation unit, in a data path of the top-level smart storage switch, for performing an operation upon data to be stored in a physical block of flash memory, wherein the operation is a compression or an encryption; a plurality of single-chip flash devices (SCFD's), a SCFD comprising: a top-level Redundant Array of Individual Disks (RAID) controller, in the top-level smart storage switch, the top-level RAID controller striping host data into a plurality of top-level stripes to the plurality of second-level smart storage switches a plurality of second-level RAID controllers in the plurality of second-level smart storage switches, wherein a second-level RAID controller stripes data received on the upstream interface of a second-level smart storage switch into a plurality of second-level stripes to the plurality of SCFD connected to the second-level smart storage switch; and an interleaving controller, in the SCFD, for interleaving data received by the SCFD across multiple planes of flash memory.