US Patent 7573715 High density storage system

The present invention provides methods and systems for storage of data. In one aspect, the invention provides a data storage system that includes a plurality of storage devices, such as, disks, for storing data, and a controller that implements a policy for managing distribution of power to the storage devices, which are normally in a power-off mode. In particular, the controller can effect transition of a storage device from a power-off mode to a power-on mode upon receipt of a request for reading data from or writing data to that storage device. The controller further effects transition of a storage device from a power-on mode to a power-off mode if no read/write request is pending for that storage device and a selected time period, e.g., a few minutes, has elapsed since the last read/write request for that storage device. In another aspect, the present invention provides a data storage system that includes a plurality of cooling plates, each with one or more storage devices thermally coupled thereto. More specifically, for example, a cooling plate can have a storage device thermally coupled to each of two opposed cooling surfaces. A heat exchanging device can be thermally coupled to the cooling plates, e.g., via fluid channels carrying a cooling fluid, for dissipating heat generated by the storage devices.