Patent ID: 6862609

Claim:
A computerized system for providing high speed fault-tolerant storage of information, the system comprising: an array of computer storage devices, said computer storage devices being capable of storing computer-readable information, said array of computer storage devices including a plurality of computer storage devices, computer-readable information stored on said plurality of computer storage devices, said computer-readable information being stored on said plurality of computer storage devices in data redundant fashion, said array being configured to appear as a unitary block of computer-readable storage to applications programs, an adapter for accessing said array, said adapter including an array interface for performing desired operations on said array, such as read and write operations, said adapter including a network interface for interfacing with a computer network in order to permit users on a computer network to access said array, said network interface operating according to a scalable coherent interface (SCI) protocol, a computer network, said computer network being arranged in ring topology, said computer network utilizing a unidirectional interfaces in order to minimize latency, a plurality of client processors connectable to said computer network, said computer network supporting distributed processing of tasks across a plurality of processors connected to said computer network, a block of memory shared by a plurality of processors on said network; and wherein said array selects at least one feature selected from the group consisting of on-demand storage journaling capability, hotfix redirection, mirrored caching, annotated storage journaling, dynamic stripe block allocation, dynamically added stripe and mirror sets, break-away mirroring, and infinite HSM storage journaling.