Patent ID: 6434663
Filing Date: 2002-08-13
Classification: G06F,G11B,Y02D

Abstract:
An apparatus comprising(a) an execution unit for executing programming instructions; and (b) a storage medium coupled to the execution unit and having stored therein a first plurality of programming instructions to be executed by the execution unit for implementing a caching and pre-fetch function of a device driver that selective pre-fetches and caches data stored in disk blocks to facilitate operation with a file system having file clusters with a cluster size greater than an underlying operating system's memory page size, and a second plurality of programming instructions to be executed by the execution unit for implementing a disk block allocation optimization function to generate a new set of disk blocks to reallocate disk blocks for file system clusters accessed by a sequence of file accesses of interest, such that overall access time for these file system clusters will be improved, accounting for the selective pre-fetches and caching to be performed to accommodate said file system.