MASSIVE(TM) - THE MASS-STORAGE SYSTEM IV ENTERPRISE

The Mass Storage System IV Enterprise is a fourth-generation mass stor age system being designed at the National Center for Atmospheric Resea rch. It will Provide file system service to teraflops computing system s appropriate to Grand Challenge problems. A bitfile managed by MaSSIV E(TM) can be a complete, self-contained UNIX(TM) file system specific to a particular MaSSIVE(TM) client. MaSSIVE(TM) will stage whole file systems from archival storage onto online storage devices and then pro vide its clients with raw block access to the staged file system. It w ill comply with the IEEE Mass Storage System Reference Model, and will consist of co-operating processes distributed across a network of sup ermicrocomputers. The client interface to a file system will be implem ented through a custom device driver that will permit I/O to MaSSIVE(T M) online storage devices. The device interface through a high bandwid th data fabric to the storage device will use common device controller -specific protocols. As file systems are unmounted by clients or clien ts disconnect from the data fabric, file systems may be migrated back to archive storage and removed from online storage. Prototypes for por tions of MaSSIVE(TM) are under development.