Ganger

IEEE COMPUTER, VOL. 27, NO. 3, MARCH 1994, pp. 30-36.

Gregory R. Ganger, Carnegie Mellon University 
B.L. Worthington, R.Y. Hou, Yale N. Patt, University of Michigan 

As the performance of other system components continues to improve rapidly, storage subsystem performance becomes increasingly important. Storage subsystem performance and reliability can be enhanced by logically grouping multiple disk drives into disk arrays. Array data organizations are defined by their data distribution schemes and redundancy mechanisms. The various combinations of these two components make disk arrays suitable for a wide range of environments. Many array implementation decisions also result in trade-offs between performance and reliability. Disk arrays are thus an essential tool for satisfying storage performance and reliability requirements, while proper selection of a data organization can tailor an array to a particular environment.

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