KR100403043B1 - Apparatus for improving data write of hard disk drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus for improving data write of a hard disk drive is provided to execute data write operation without time delay in the case that physically continuous data sectors receive a data write command. CONSTITUTION: An adder(36) adds up output values of a disk LBA(Logical Block Address) register(28) and a disk sector counter(22). A first subtracter(38) subtracts an output value of the adder from an output value of a sector counter(34) for outputting a result to an AND gate(42). A second subtracter(40) subtracts an output value of a stop sector register(20) from an output value of a last sector register(30) for outputting a result to the AND gate. The AND gate operates the values output from the first and second subtracters with a RUN signal output from a disk sequencer(26) for loading a result to the disk sequencer. A selector(44) selects a smaller value in output values of the sector counter and the second subtracter for outputting the selected value to the disk sequencer.

Description

Data Light Enhancer on hard disk drives.

The present invention relates to a disk controller of a hard disk drive, and more particularly, to an apparatus capable of improving the performance of a data write operation.

The hard disk controller (HDC) of a hard disk drive, which is widely used as an auxiliary memory device of a computer system, is composed of components as shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a general HDC, and FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the disk controller 14 in FIG. In FIG. 1, the host interface 10 receives a command from a host and transmits the command to a microprocessor connected to the HDC, and transmits data accompanying the command to the host. A buffer controller 12 connected between the host interface 10 and the disk controller 14 controls read / write data transmitted between the host and the disk media. The disk controller 14 receives data transmitted from the host in the data write command from the buffer controller 12, writes the data to the disk media, and transmits data read from the disk media to the buffer controller 12 during the data read command. On the other hand, the microprocessor interface 4 interfaces the signals input and output between the microprocessor and the HDC.

2 shows a block diagram of the disk controller 14. The disk controller 14 includes a start sector register 18, a stop sector register 20, and a disk sector counter. A disk sector register (22), a disk address pointer (Disk Address Pointer) 24, and a disk sequencer 24 are included. The start sector register 18 stores the sector number of the first data sector to be read or written, and the stop sector register 20 stores sector number information of the last data sector to be read or written. The disk sector counter 22 indicates information on the total number of data sectors to be read or written, and the disk address pointer 24 indicates the start address of the buffer memory where data will be present during data read or write operation. The start sequence register 18, the stop sector register 20, the disk sector counter 22, and the disk sequencer 26, which are connected to the disk address pointer 24, are a kind of state machine for performing actual data read and write operations. (state machine). Hereinafter, a data write operation of the hard disk drive including the disk controller 14 having the configuration of FIG. 2 will be described. First, when a data write command is received from the host, the local microprocessor sets a start sector number, a stop sector number, a disk sector counter, and a disk address pointer in response to the received write command, respectively, in the disk controller 14. The disk sequencer 26 is started. After the disk media is rotated and the magnetic head is in the data sector to be written, data write starts. When the data write operation is completed for every data sector, the logical microprocessor sequentially increases the start sector register 18 by one and decrements the disk sector counter 22 by one. Thereafter, the write operation is terminated when the value obtained by increasing the start sector register 18 by one coincides with the value of the stop sector register 20. However, when a write cache is implemented in a conventional hard disk drive, if a write command is continuously received for a physically continuous data sector, the following problem occurs. In the first data write command, the microprocessor writes the start sector register 18 and the stop sector register 20, the disk sector counter 22, the disk address of the disk controller 14 to write the data transmitted from the host to the disk media. The value of the pointer 24 is set respectively, and the disk sequencer 26 is started. At this time, if another data write operation command is received at a physically continuous position with respect to the data sector currently being written from the host, when the data received by the second write command is completed after the current write operation is completed, the desired data sector is already received. Since it has passed, there is a problem that a time delay of more than one rotation occurs for every write operation.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for improving data writing of a hard disk drive capable of performing a data writing operation without time delay when a data writing command is received in a data sector having a physically continuous position.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, in order to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the present invention, the same components have been given the same reference numerals, and detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

3 shows a detailed configuration diagram of the disk controller 14 to which the data write improving apparatus according to the present invention is connected. In FIG. 3, the disk LBA register 28, the start sector register 18, the stop sector register 20, the last sector register 30, and the disk sector counter 22 are the microprocessor interface 4 and the disk sequencer (Fig. 26) and store or counter information of the data sectors to be written by the logic microprocessor, respectively. The calculator 36 adds and outputs the output values of the disk LBA register 28 and the disk sector counter 22, and the first subtractor 38 subtracts the output value of the sector counter 34 and the output value of the adder 36. Output to AND gate 42. The second subtractor subtracts the output value of the boot stop stop register 20 by the output value of the last sector register 30 and outputs the output value to the AND gate 42 through the inverter INV. The value generated by gating the value output from 38 and 40 with the RUN signal output from the disc sequencer 26 is loaded into the disc sequencer 26. The selector 44 selects a smaller value among the output values of the host sector counter 34 and the output values of the second subtractor 40, which are respectively input through the A and B terminals, and outputs them to the disk sequencer 26, and the host LBA. Register 32 and sector counter 34 indicate the LBA of the data sector and the total number of data sectors upon another data write command received from the host. Hereinafter, the operation during the data write operation of the disk controller 14 having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

First, when the first data write command is received from the host, the LBA (Logical Block Address) of the first data sector of the write data accompanying the data write command is set in the disk LBA register 28, and the LBA is set to PBA (Physical Block ADDRESS). The start center register 18 is set. Then, using the number of data sectors requested by the host, the logical microprocessor sets the disk sector counter 22 and the stop sector register 20, respectively. After setting the last sector number of the track to be written to the last sector register 30 and moving the head to the track to be written, when the first data sector is encountered, the disk sequencer 26 is started to write the data. When one data sector is written to the media, the disk LBA register 28 and the start sector register 18 are incremented by one while the disk sector counter 22 is decremented by one. At this time, if the start sector register 18 and the stop sector register 20 are the same, the disk sequencer 26 stops because the first received write data is all written.

If the second data write command is received while writing data accompanying the first received data write command, the conditions for writing data in successive data sectors are as follows. The first command received from the host must be a data write command. Second, the current disk sequencer 26 must be writing data to the media. The sum of the third disk LBA register 28 and the disk sector counter 22 (that is, the output of the adder 36) must be equal to the host LBA register 32. Fourth, the value of the current stop sector register 20 should be smaller than the value of the last sector register 30.

When all of the above conditions are satisfied, the operation of the data write improvement apparatus according to the present invention is performed as follows. First, in a first step, the second subtractor 40 subtracts the value of the stop sector register 20 of the data sector from the value of the last sector register 30 of the data sector accompanying the first data write command. Output to terminal B of). At this time, the selector 44 selects a smaller value from the output value of the second subtracter 40 and the output value of the data sector counter 34 accompanying the second data write command received from the host and outputs the small value to the disk sequencer 26. do. In the second step, the stop sector register 20 is newly set by adding the LA value output through the selector 44 in the first step to the stop sector register 20 of the first received data sector. In the third step, the disk sector counter 22 is newly set by adding the LA value output through the selector 44 in the first step to the disk sector counter 22 of the first received data sector. Thereafter, the fourth step notifies the logical microprocessor that the contents of the stop sector register 20 and the disk sector counter 22 of the disk controller 14 are newly set. Accordingly, the logic microprocessor performs a data write by controlling the disk sequencer 26 until the start sector register 18 matches the value of the stop sector register 20. As a result, the first and second data write commands are executed. The accompanying data can be written to a physically contiguous sector of data.

As described above, according to the present invention, as soon as the data write command is received from the host, the stop sector register and the disk sector counter of the disk controller are updated to continuously perform the data write operation without stopping the disk sequencer. Therefore, since multiple data write commands can be executed even during one rotation of the disk media, there is an advantage of preventing time delay that may occur during data write operations.

1 is a block diagram of a general hard disk controller.

2 is a block diagram of a disk controller in FIG.

3 is a detailed configuration diagram of a data write improvement apparatus according to the present invention.

Claims (1)

A start sector register for storing the first data sector number of the write data received from the host, a stop sector register for storing the last data sector number of the write data, a disk sector counter for storing the total number of data sectors of the write data; And a last sector register for storing the last sector number of the track on which the write data is written, and a disk LBA register for storing the logical block address of the first data sector of the write data. In An adder configured to add data of the disk LBA register and a value of a disk sector counter to calculate data sector information currently being written on the media when the first write data received from the host is written to the media; The data sector information being written on the current media calculated by the adder and the data sector information of the second write data received from the host while the first write data is written on the media are subtracted. A first subtractor for determining continuity; A second subtractor for subtracting and outputting a value of the stop sector register from a value of a last sector register of data being written on the media; Selecting means for comparing a value output from the second subtractor with a magnitude of a sector counter value of the second write data to output a small value; And And a disk sequencer for newly setting the values of the stop sector register and the disk sector register by adding the values output from the selection means to the stop sector register and the disk sector register values, respectively. Device.