Patent ID: 7234021

Claim:
A data storage system, comprising: a set of disk drives to store a data element; a set of memory circuit boards to store a set of hash lists and a cache; and a front-end interface coupled to the set of disk drives and the set of memory circuit boards, wherein the front-end interface is configured to: receive a request for the data element, the request including a disk address identifying a set of disk drive locations that stores the data element, perform a hash function on the disk address in order to generate a hash pointer, and provide a search command, the disk address and the generated hash pointer to the set of memory circuit boards, and wherein the set of memory circuit boards is configured to: receive the search command, the disk address, and the hash pointer from the front-end interface, search the set of hash lists based on the hash pointer and the disk address, and provide an indication to the front-end interface indicating whether the set of hash lists includes an entry indicating that the data element resides in cache.