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| United States Patent Application | 20110276743 |
| Kind Code | A1 |
| Kirshenbaum; Alexander ;   et al. | November 10, 2011 |
The invention is directed towards a system and method that utilizes external memory devices to cache sectors from a rotating storage device (e.g., a hard drive) to improve system performance. When an external memory device (EMD) is plugged into the computing device or onto a network in which the computing device is connected, the system recognizes the EMD and populates the EMD with disk sectors. The system routes I/O read requests directed to the disk sector to the EMD cache instead of the actual disk sector. The use of EMDs increases performance and productivity on the computing device systems for a fraction of the cost of adding memory to the computing device.
| Inventors: | Kirshenbaum; Alexander; (Redmond, WA) ; Ergan; Cenk; (Bellevue, WA) ; Fortin; Michael R.; (Redmond, WA) ; Reinauer; Robert L.; (Kirkland, WA) |
| Assignee: |
MICROSOFT CORPORATION Redmond WA |
| Family ID: | 35789162 |
| Appl. No.: | 13/187757 |
| Filed: | July 21, 2011 |
| Application Number | Filing Date | Patent Number | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12775168 | May 6, 2010 | 8006037 | ||
| 13187757 | ||||
| 12366112 | Feb 5, 2009 | 7805571 | ||
| 12775168 | ||||
| 10970772 | Oct 21, 2004 | 7490197 | ||
| 12366112 | ||||
| Current U.S. Class: | 711/102 ; 711/E12.008 |
| Current CPC Class: | G06F 12/0866 20130101 |
| Class at Publication: | 711/102 ; 711/E12.008 |
| International Class: | G06F 12/02 20060101 G06F012/02 |