Patent ID: 7080207
Filing Date: 2006-07-18
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An electronic data storage apparatus, comprising: a storage device suitable for storing electronic data; a storage controller communicatively coupled to the storage device, the storage controller suitable for controlling data storage operations of the storage device; and a cache communicatively coupled to the storage controller, the cache including a plurality of cache blocks, each cache block of the plurality of cache blocks being suitable for storing electronic data for access by the storage controller; wherein the storage controller stores electronic data in the cache by including a cache block descriptor that defines data contained in a cache block included in the plurality of cache blocks, the cache block descriptor including at least one field describing a device block of the cache block; wherein the at least one field includes at least one of a present field, a modified field, a pinned field and a write-in-progress field, the present field indicating whether a corresponding device block is present in the cache block; wherein the storage controller is configured for staging data specifically requested by a host in a cache block included in the plurality of cache blocks without completely filling the cache block, the storage controller further being configured for flushing the staged data from the cache block without flushing the entire cache block from the cache.