JP2002324371A - Magnetic disk apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic disk apparatus which can improve the informa tion processing speed of the data recording/reproducing in a high-end magnetic disk apparatus used in a subsystem and, the overall performance by shortening the access time from the subsystem. SOLUTION: On a base 102 of a 3.5 type magnetic disk form factor standard 201, one spindle motor 109 having a bearing direction along with the X-direction is installed. In this spindle motor 109, twenty-five small-diameter magnetic disks 100 are loaded, whose recording surfaces are parallel to the Z-direction. Six actuators 110, each including four magnetic heads 105 attached to the front edge, are installed on the facing surface with the Y-direction of the magnetic disks 100, for the twenty-five magnetic disks 100. In each actuator 110, a VCM(voice coil motor) 101 for the independent driving is provided, and is installed on one pivot having a bearing direction with the X-direction so that each is capable of driving independently.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a magnetic disk drive, and more particularly to a technique effective when applied to a magnetic disk drive realizing a high transfer rate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a magnetic disk device used for a storage subsystem or the like has been required to have high performance and high reliability. In addition, the amount and use time of information handled by the spread of the Internet in recent years is increasing. These are synergistic with the tendency of higher recording density accompanying the cost reduction of the magnetic disk drive, and the tendency of higher recording density is stronger, and the storage capacity per unit has been increased. Therefore, in the subsystem, the number of magnetic disk devices mounted on the system is reduced, and the space and the cost of the subsystem are reduced.

Further, since the entire subsystem can handle more information, it has been required to process the information in a short time. Therefore,
RAID (Redundant Arrays of
The performance of the subsystem has been improved by improving the information processing efficiency by exchanging commands with an Inexpensive Disks (controller) controller. However, from the viewpoint of the storage subsystem, the frequency of accessing the same capacity increases, which is a factor that lowers the performance of the entire system.

[0004] When the capacity of one magnetic disk device is increased and the number of mounted magnetic disks is reduced, even if the capacity of the entire system is the same, the larger the number of mounted magnetic disks, the more parallel processing is possible. Due to the large number, the latter is advantageous in terms of information processing. Such a phenomenon is nowadays a major problem in improving the overall performance of the subsystem when more information has to be provided to more users.

[0005]

Therefore, it is required to increase the information processing capability of the magnetic recording device while maintaining the recording capacity per magnetic disk device. As one means for improving the information processing capability of a magnetic disk, it is conceivable to improve the time (access time) for a head for reading and writing information to access target information. For example,
FIG. 7 shows an example of a magnetic disk drive used in a conventional subsystem. This magnetic disk device is configured such that a plurality of magnetic disks 604 are mounted on a single spindle motor 606 and hermetically sealed by a base 603 and a cover (omitted in FIG. 7). Then, the actuator 60
Signals from the magnetic head 608 at the end of the disk drive 5 are processed by a circuit board (not shown in FIG. 7) of the magnetic disk drive, and are connected to the subsystem via the connector 601. In addition,
In FIG. 7, reference numeral 607 denotes a screw hole, and 609 denotes a suspension.

In the magnetic disk drive, information is read and written at the same time in one track, and information processing is performed only on one track, and processing cannot be performed simultaneously on other tracks. This is because the magnetic head 608 cannot perform different operations in parallel. Therefore, the plurality of magnetic disks 60
4. Even with the magnetic head 608, it is only possible to read and write information on a certain track.
Assuming that the average time required for the actuator 605 to be positioned up to the track where the target information is read (written) is the access time, the access time of the high-end magnetic disk device is currently about 5 ms. The further improvement of the access time as the improvement of the mechanical system components is largely due to the improvement of the magnet material and the like, and it is in a situation where the performance of the magnetic disk device cannot be improved at a speed. Furthermore, when information is randomly stored on the magnetic disk 604, reading and writing to different tracks cannot be performed at the same time when the configuration of the magnetic disk device is adopted, which causes a loss of access time. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a magnetic disk device in which information exchange between a controller and a magnetic disk device is made faster and more suitable for a subsystem. . That is, a magnetic disk drive that improves the information processing speed of data recording / reproduction of a high-end magnetic disk drive used in a subsystem or the like, shortens the access time from the subsystem, and improves the performance of the entire subsystem Is provided.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, an SFF which is a standard specification of a screw hole for fixing to a personal computer or a server in an outer diameter of a magnetic disk device used in a subsystem. (Small Form
(Factor) -0301 standard (hereinafter referred to as 3.5-type magnetic disk form factor standard) 201 based on a magnetic disk drive, so that the plane direction of the magnetic disk drive in this base is the bearing direction. One spindle motor is installed, and two or more actuators are installed for a mechanism having one pivot bearing in the same direction as the bearing direction of the spindle motor. When the actuator having one small-diameter magnetic disk and a pair of magnetic heads is a magnetic disk unit,
The magnetic disk device is characterized by including drive mechanisms that are independently driven so that the magnetic disk units can be accessed.

[0009] Further, the actuator is also provided on the cover side at a position facing the magnetic disk supported by the spindle motor with respect to the actuator provided on the base and alternately with respect to the actuator. Similarly, in order to enable access in units of magnetic disk units, a drive mechanism is provided so as to be independently driven.

[0010] Thus, by providing the magnetic disk device with a RAID system function, the magnetic disk units can access each other in parallel, and apparently the information processing capability is improved as a single magnetic disk device. It will be.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a magnetic disk drive to which the present invention is applied.
Is a plan view with the cover removed, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the entire appearance. The magnetic disk device of the present embodiment has a magnetic disk 100 on which information is recorded, and a VCM (Voice Coil Motor) for driving an actuator.
101, a base 102 serving as a device base, an R / W (Read / Write) channel IC (I / O)
integrated circuit (HDC) 103, an HDC (Hard Disk) for controlling driving of a magnetic disk
(Controller) 104, a magnetic head 105 for reading information from a magnetic disk, and an internal PCB (Printed Circuit Bo) constituting a RAID system.
ard) 106, a spindle motor 109 for rotatingly driving a magnetic disk, an actuator 110 for driving and supporting a magnetic head, an internal PCB connector 111 for connecting an internal PCB, an FPC connector 112 for connecting an FPC, an FP
C (Flexible Printed Circuit)
t) 113 and the like.

One spindle motor 109 having a bearing direction in the X direction is installed on the base 102 of the 3.5-inch magnetic disk form factor standard 201 of the apparatus base. This spindle motor 109 has a small diameter (φ2
Twenty-five magnetic disks 100 (7.4 mm or less) are mounted, and the recording surface of the magnetic disk 100 is parallel to the Z direction (see FIG. 2). With respect to the 25 magnetic disks 100, actuators 110 each having four magnetic heads 105 attached to the front end are provided on both sides of the magnetic disk 100 on opposite sides of the magnetic disk in the Y direction.
A table is installed. The actuators 110 are installed so as to be individually driven at one pivot having a bearing direction in the X direction. A VC for driving each of the actuators 110 independently is provided.
M101 are provided, and each VCM 101 is fixed to the base 102, respectively.

As shown in FIG. 2, the base 102 has a 3.5-type magnetic disk form factor standard 201.
Are formed on the side surface. An external PCB 204 provided with an I / F (Interface) connector 202 is fixed to the back surface of the base 102. The inside of the magnetic disk device is sealed by fixing a cover 203 to the upper surface of the base 102 with screws or a method equivalent thereto. This cover 203 has an I /
External PCB 204 without F connector 202
Has been fixed.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of the magnetic disk drive according to the present embodiment in a state where it is sealed by a cover 203, and FIG. 3B is an enlarged sectional view taken along the line AA 'of FIG. 2 shows an arrangement relationship in the Z direction in the present embodiment. An external PCB 204 provided with an I / F connector 202 is fixed to the base 102, and the external PCB 204 is connected to the internal PCB 106 via a PCB external connector 300. The cover 203 side is an I / F
An external PCB 204 having no connector 202 is fixed and similarly connected to the internal PCB 106 via a PCB external connector 300. Internal PCB 106
Are mounted in the Z direction in the present embodiment, and each internal PCB 106 is connected by a PCB internal connector 301. Also, the base 102 side and the cover 203
The internal PCB 106 is connected via the FPC 113.

The actuator 110 is fixed to the base 102 and the cover 203 via the VCM 101, respectively. The actuator 110 on the cover 203 side is symmetrically arranged with respect to the rotation center axis of the magnetic disk 100 with respect to the actuator 110 fixed on the base 102 side. That is, the actuator 110 is
Also on the third side, the magnetic disk 100 is supported by the spindle motor 109 and opposed to the actuator 110 fixed to the base 102, and alternately.

FIG. 4 is a schematic layout diagram of the arrangement relationship between the actuator 110 and the magnetic disk 100 and the structure of the actuator 110, showing three magnetic disk units. In the magnetic disk 100, magnetic heads 105a and 105b are respectively arranged on the opposing magnetic recording surfaces 100a and 100b of the adjacent magnetic disk 100, and the opposing magnetic recording surfaces 100a and 1b of the magnetic disk 100 are arranged.
The pair of magnetic heads 105 arranged at 00b is attached to the carriage arm 700. In the present embodiment, two carriage arms 700 are arranged on the actuator 110 for three magnetic disks 100. Further, the magnetic recording surfaces 100c, 100 outside the magnetic disk 100
As for d, recording and reproduction are performed by the magnetic head 105 attached to the actuator 110 adjacent to the opposing actuator.
Thus, in the present embodiment, the three magnetic disks 1
On the other hand, two actuators 110 each having two pairs of magnetic heads 105 are controlled in units of magnetic disk units, and are independently controlled so that they can be accessed in parallel.

For example, in a conventional magnetic disk drive,
Since the outer magnetic recording surface is used, as in the structure of the actuator 605 shown in FIG. 7, the suspension 609 is attached to both ends of the actuator 605 only on one side of the carriage arm. Therefore, compared to the case where the suspension 702 is fixed to both surfaces of the carriage arm 700 as in the present embodiment, the manner in which the force is applied to the carriage arm 700 becomes unstable, and the vibration of the magnetic head at the time of high-speed access is performed. Had a larger structure. Therefore, the structure of the actuator 110 according to the present embodiment is effective in suppressing vibration of the magnetic head 105 during high-speed access.

Next, in this embodiment, the electric signal from the magnetic head 105 is transmitted to the FPC 1 shown in FIG.
13, the internal PCB 1 by the FPC connector 112.
06. Also, the internal PCB connector 111 connects to another internal PCB. Also, internal PCB1
06, the R / W channel IC 103 of the electric device that controls the respective actuators 110 and the HDC 10
4 and the like and a RAID controller are built in, and each actuator 110 can be controlled independently, so that each actuator 110 appears as a single magnetic disk device. As described above, the magnetic disk drive has the internal PCB 106 constituting the RAID system, and the external electric signal transmission is performed by the Ethernet,
This is performed by CSI, Fiber Channel, or the like. In the present embodiment, 1 is set on both sides of the magnetic disk.
The two actuators 110 are magnetic disk devices that can be independently controlled, and each magnetic disk device is distributed and
Parallel processing becomes possible. Therefore, the access time of the magnetic disk device can be improved.

FIG. 5 shows an actuator 110 of the magnetic disk drive according to the present embodiment and a method of fixing the same.
(A) is a side view of a state where the actuator 110 is fixed to the VCM 101, and (b) is a schematic perspective view thereof. The VCM 101 that drives the actuator 110 has a VCM yoke 500 as shown in FIG.
The CM magnet 504 is fixed. And VC
The V-groove 503 is attached to the M yoke 500, and the V-groove 503 is provided at both ends of the pivot shaft 505 of the actuator 110.
The VCM yokes 500 are respectively installed so that the pivots 505 come in contact with the V-grooves 503 and the pressing plate 5.
02, the actuator 110 is fixed to the VCM 101 by applying pressure to the pivot shaft 505 and fixing the pressing plate 502 with the screw 501.

When the actuator 110 is fixed in the same manner as in the present embodiment, the magnetic head 10
When the defect of No. 5 appears, since each actuator 110 is independently fixed, it is possible to remove and replace it without affecting the other actuators 110,
The efficiency of repair work can be improved.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view of a spindle motor 109 mounted on the magnetic disk drive according to the present embodiment. Spindle motor 109 of the present embodiment
Is a spindle motor structure using a dynamic pressure bearing.
The X direction of the base 102 is the spindle bearing direction.
The stator housing 409 is fixed by screws so that the X direction of the base 102 is set as an axis. A stator 405 is fixed to the stator housing 409 with an adhesive so as to be coaxial. Also, the stator housing 40
A shaft 408 is press-fitted into the shaft 9, and a hub 407 and an axial bearing 410 are attached to the shaft 408 in a coaxial direction. With this structure, the axial bearing 410 can have a degree of freedom in the rotation direction. Then, the magnetic disk 100 is fixed by alternately inserting the magnetic disk 100 and the spacer 400 outside the hub 407 and applying the magnetic repulsive force of the thrust preload magnet 403 from the clamp plate 404 to the clamp 401. Does not move in the direction of the rotation axis. And the other side of the shaft 408
Bush 40 fixed to base 102 by screws
2 and fixed to the base 102 with screws. Further, the position adjustment between the magnetic disk 100 and the actuator 110 is performed when the shaft 408 is fixed to the shaft 408 with screws. The drive of the magnetic disk 100 in the rotation direction is performed by the hub 4.
07, a magnet 406 is mounted on the outside, and this can be realized by a stator 405 fixed to a stator housing 409.

Thus, in the case of the structure of the spindle motor 109 according to the present embodiment, the bearing span can be made long, so that it is strong against runout in the radial direction and leads to improvement in positioning accuracy.

Furthermore, since the magnetic disk 100 has a small diameter, the moment of inertia can be suppressed to a small value. The spindle motor 109 used in the present embodiment is more superfluous than the spindle motor 206 used in the current 3.5-type magnetic disk device. It is possible to rotate at a high speed (for example, 40000 rpm or more). This reduces the read waiting time of the servo. Also, the data area of the small-diameter magnetic disk 100 becomes narrow, but the magnetic head 10
Since the drive distance of No. 5 is short, high-speed access is possible as compared with the conventional magnetic disk diameter, so that a higher-speed access time can be realized in the magnetic disk device according to the embodiment. Furthermore, a small-diameter magnetic disk 1
When the value is set to 00, the carriage arm 700 is also reduced in size, so that the weight can be reduced. As a result, the main resonance frequency of the carriage arm 700 can be secured at 7 kHz or more, and the settling performance can be secured by improving the servo band.

Further, by adopting the structure of the magnetic disk device as in the present embodiment, it becomes possible to drive a plurality of apparent magnetic disk devices with one spindle motor 109. This is more reliable because there are fewer failure factors than in the case where a plurality of spindle motors are driven to obtain the same effect as in the structure of the conventional magnetic disk drive. Cost can be reduced.

[0026]

As described above, by adopting the structure of the magnetic disk device according to the present invention, it is possible to increase the rotation speed of the spindle motor, thereby realizing high-speed data transfer. . In addition, since the plurality of actuators can be independently driven, information can be processed in parallel. As described above, it is possible to realize a magnetic disk device having an improved information processing speed and a general-purpose subsystem.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a state in which a cover is removed in a magnetic disk drive according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view showing the entirety of the magnetic disk drive according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are a plan view showing a state in which the magnetic disk drive according to the embodiment of the present invention is sealed with a cover, and an enlarged sectional view taken along line AA 'of FIG. .

FIG. 4 is a schematic layout diagram showing an arrangement relationship between an actuator and a magnetic disk and a structure of the actuator in the magnetic disk device of one embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are a side view and a schematic perspective view showing a state in which an actuator is fixed to a VCM in the magnetic disk drive of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic sectional view showing a spindle motor in the magnetic disk drive according to the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a state in which a cover is removed from a conventional magnetic disk drive which is a premise of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 ... magnetic disk, 100a, 100b, 100
c, 100d: magnetic recording surface, 101: VCM, 102:
Base, 103 ... R / W channel IC, 104 ... HD
C, 105, 105a, 105b ... magnetic head, 106
... Internal PCB, 109 ... Spindle motor, 110 ... Actuator, 111 ... Internal PCB connector, 112 ...
FPC connector, 113 ... FPC, 201 ... screw hole, 2
02 I / F connector, 203 cover, 204 external PCB, 300 PCB external connector, 301 PCB
Internal connector, 400 ... spacer, 401 ... clamp,
402: bush, 403: thrust preload magnet,
404 ... clamp plate, 405 ... stator, 406
... magnet, 407 ... hub, 408 ... shaft, 40
9: stator housing 410: axial bearing, 5
00: VCM yoke, 501: screw, 502: pressing plate, 503: V groove, 504: VCM magnet, 5
05: pivot shaft, 700: carriage arm,
702 ... Suspension.

Continuing from the front page (72) Inventor Shigeo Nakamura 2880 Kozu, Odawara-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Hitachi, Ltd.Storage Business Unit (72) Inventor Shozo Saegusa 2880 Kozuhara, Kodawara-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Hitachi, Ltd.Storage Business Unit ( 72) Inventor Takashi Yamaguchi 502 Kandate-cho, Tsuchiura-shi, Ibaraki F-term in Machine Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. 5D068 AA01 BB02 CC12 EE15 GG03 GG07 5D088 JJ03 JJ08

Claims (5)

[Claims] A spindle motor that is mounted horizontally on a mounting surface of an apparatus base and rotationally drives a magnetic disk on which information is recorded; and a spindle motor that is mounted vertically on the mounting surface of the apparatus base and mounted on the magnetic disk. A magnetic disk drive comprising: a plurality of actuators for driving and supporting a magnetic head for reading recorded information; and a drive mechanism for independently driving the plurality of actuators. 2. The magnetic disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of actuators are alternately arranged at positions facing the magnetic disk. 3. The magnetic disk device according to claim 1, further comprising an electric circuit board mounted on the device base and constituting a RAID system, and wherein an external electric signal transmission unit is an Ethernet (registered trademark). , SCSI, or Fiber
A magnetic disk drive, which is a channel. 4. The magnetic disk drive according to claim 1, wherein a V-groove portion is provided in a VCM yoke for driving each of the actuators, and both ends of a pivot shaft of each of the actuators are fixed to the V-groove portion. A magnetic disk drive. 5. The magnetic disk drive according to claim 1, wherein the magnetic head includes a plurality of magnetic heads each arranged on an opposing magnetic recording surface of the adjacent magnetic disk. A magnetic disk drive attached to an arm, wherein the actuator is provided with one or more carriage arms.