From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262657AbTDMXEG (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 19:04:06 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262659AbTDMXEG (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 19:04:06 -0400 Received: from pc2-cwma1-4-cust86.swan.cable.ntl.com ([213.105.254.86]:41143 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262657AbTDMXEF (for ); Sun, 13 Apr 2003 19:04:05 -0400 Subject: Re: Benefits from computing physical IDE disk geometry? From: Alan Cox To: "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" Cc: Chuck Ebbert <76306.1226@compuserve.com>, Linux Kernel Mailing List In-Reply-To: <20030413182405.GG676@gallifrey> References: <200304131407_MC3-1-3441-57C7@compuserve.com> <20030413182405.GG676@gallifrey> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Message-Id: <1050272088.24564.2.camel@dhcp22.swansea.linux.org.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.2.2 (1.2.2-5) Date: 13 Apr 2003 23:14:49 +0100 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sul, 2003-04-13 at 19:24, Dr. David Alan Gilbert wrote: > Now given these discs have processors on board isn't it about time > someone improved the disc interface standards to push some of the > intelligence drivewards? I guess with enough intelligence the drive > could do free block allocation and could do things like copying blocks > around for you. I wish it would. Most of the research and stuff so far has either put the file system into the disk firmware (upgrade hell). Having a disk which talked entirely about read(handle,offset, length) write(handle, offset, length) alloc(handle, near_handle, length, otherhints...) might well work out rather better. It also allows the disk to do fairly major relayout of data as it learns usage.