Patent ID: 8468301

Claim:
A storage device array control apparatus operable to control writing of data onto an array of N storage devices, where N is an integer of 3 or greater, each storage device being operable to write data with a granularity of a sector having a predetermined sector size, the storage device array control apparatus being operable to control writing of data with a granularity of a transfer unit having a transfer size which is T times the sector size, where T is a plural integer representing the largest amount of data that is transmitted to the storage device array control apparatus at one time, T is greater than (N−1), and (N−1) is not a factor of T, and wherein T is fixed by operating system specifications outside of the control of the storage device array control apparatus, wherein a file to be transmitted to the storage device control apparatus is divided into transfer units, the storage device array control apparatus being operable to divide each transfer unit of data into plural stripes each consisting of a respective plural number of sectors of data having the sector size by splitting the transfer unit into multiple parts, the stripes having a size S, wherein S is less than T, and to calculate, in respect of each stripe, a parity sector of parity data representing the parity of all sectors of data in the stripe only and not including any sectors of data already stored on a storage device in the array; and the storage device array control apparatus being operable to cause writing of each sector of data and each parity sector onto respective storage devices in the array, the sectors of data and the parity sector in respect of each stripe being written onto different storage devices.