Patent ID: 7219169
Filing Date: 2007-05-15
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for operating a direct memory access (DMA) disk controller, the method comprising: receiving a data transfer command identifying one or more locations in memory and a set of regions on a plurality of disks accessible to the DMA disk controller, the set of regions comprising noncontiguous regions on any one of the plurality of disks; transferring data from the set of regions on the plurality of disks to the one or more locations in memory according to the data transfer command; and wherein: the data transfer command further identifies a target location for parity data; transferring data comprises calculating the parity data for the data to be transferred and writing the parity data to the target location; and the target location for parity data is identified by any one of a memory location specifier, a disk location specifier and a no-capture specifier, the no-capture specifier indicating that the parity data is not to be written.