JP2008198282A - Storage device fetching data in response to host access stream recognition - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain sufficiently high data throughput from a data storage device. <P>SOLUTION: The data storage device comprises a data storage medium, a head, a data fetch buffer, and a controller. The head is constituted so as to read data stored in a logic block address (LBA) on the medium. The controller reads data through the head from the LBA on the medium discriminated by LBA access sequence information in the data storage device discriminating sequence of the LBA accessed by a host device and stores it in the data fetch buffer. Also, the controller responds to a read command from the host device toward data in the LBA of the medium discriminated by the LBA access sequence information and being already read in the data fetch buffer by informing data relating to the command read in the host device from the data fetch buffer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates generally to data storage devices, host devices, and computer program products for accessing data streams such as audio / video data streams.

  Common types of data storage devices used in computers and data processing systems that store information in digital form include disk drives and tape drives (eg, magnetic and / or optical). A typical disk drive includes a head stack assembly, one or more data storage disks, and a spindle motor that rotates the storage disks. The head stack assembly includes an actuator arm assembly that includes one or more read / write heads attached to a flexure arm. The actuator motor rotates the flexure arm and head around the pivot bearing and can write data to and read data from concentric data tracks on the disk.

  In response to a read / write command from the host device to the disk drive to read / write data on the target block, this disk drive will target along the target track before it can read / write data. • The head must be positioned on the block. Through the seek operation, the disk drive moves the head across the data track in the radial direction from the start track to the destination track. Thereafter, disk rotation allows the target block of the destination track to be moved under the head so that data can be read from and written to it. The amount of time required to access the target block, i.e., access time, is the seek operation to position the head on the destination track, the time to settle the head on the destination track, and rotate down the head Contains the accumulated time of rotation delay, which is the time required for the target block on the destination track. Thus, the elapsed time taken by the disk drive to execute the read / write host command depends in part on the access time.

  Disk drives can use a speed profile to move the head during a seek operation, but this speed profile is designed primarily to minimize access time as well as seek operation, heat generation and Attempts to adapt to constraints imposed by the generation of acoustic noise introduced by / or error prevention / recovery (data integrity). Some disk drives swap queued read / write host commands in an attempt to reduce the accumulated time required to access some blocks of data in relatively adjacent tracks . However, speed profiles and / or swapping processes are designed with the expectation that these disk drives will be used in personal computer systems where read / write commands typically cause random seek operations. Speed profiles and / or swapping processes are adaptable when these disk drives are used by a host that causes a substantially non-random seek operation, such as when reading an audio / video (AV) data stream May not provide access time, acoustic noise, temperature management and / or data integrity.

  Disk drives are increasingly used for AV content in AV systems, high-definition and other high-definition AV content streams, interactive TV games, broadband Internet AV services, home appliances, etc. Many are used. For example, digital video tape recorders (DVRs) have entered the consumer electronics market, allowing users to use broadcasts that have been substantially video recorded and selected. Moreover, some DVRs can record two or more broadcasts simultaneously and / or record and play different broadcasts simultaneously. Thus, a disk drive in an AV system should provide sufficient storage capacity to allow an acceptable amount of AV content to be stored, and a large amount of AV data in real time without perceptible interruptions. It should provide a high data throughput for the need to store / retrieve the stream. Obtaining a sufficiently high data throughput from a disk drive can be difficult because it imposes acoustic noise, thermal management, and / or data integrity constraints.

  In some embodiments of the present invention, the data storage device includes a data storage medium, a head, a data fetch buffer, and a controller. The head is configured to read data stored at a logical block address (LBA) on the medium. The data fetch buffer is configured to store data. The controller is configured to read data from the LBA on the medium through the head, and these LBAs are identified by LBA access sequence information in the storage device, and the LBA access sequence information is the sequence of LBAs accessed by the host device. Identify The controller also stores the read data in a data fetch buffer. The controller also responds to a read command from the host device addressed to data in the LBA of the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information, but notifies the host device of data associated with the read command from the data fetch buffer. To respond to the read command that has been read into the data fetch buffer.

  Thus, the host device informs the data storage device about the sequence of LBAs it plans to read data. The data storage device prepares for an expected read command from the host device by reading data from the identified sequence of LBAs into the data fetch buffer. In response to a read command from the host device that is directed to one of the LBAs in the sequence of LBAs, corresponding data is posted from the data fetch buffer to the host device. The data storage device performs LBA in a manner that satisfies constraints on peak and / or average data throughput, acoustic noise that may be generated, heat generation, peak and / or average power consumption and / or data integrity. It is configured to use additional time between being notified by the host device about the sequence and receiving a read command applied to those LBAs to read the data.

  In some embodiments of the present invention, the data storage device is a disk drive. The data storage medium includes a rotatable data storage device and the head is configured to read the data storage in the LBA on the disk.

  Some other embodiments of the present invention provide a computer program product for reading a data storage location on a data storage medium in a data storage device. The computer program product includes computer program code implemented in a computer readable storage medium. The computer program code is executed by a host device and is configured to define a logical block address (LBA) sequence of data storage locations on a medium in the data storage device that the host device accesses. Other computer program code is configured to be executed by the host device to notify the data storage device from the host device of the sequence of LBAs defined as LBA access sequence information. Still another computer program code is executed by the host device so as to read data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information after notifying the data storage device of the LBA access sequence information. Configured to notify the read command.

  Some other embodiments of the present invention are directed to a method corresponding to a host device for reading a data storage location on a data storage medium in a data storage device. These and other embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Now, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings showing embodiments of the present invention. However, the present invention may be implemented in many alternative forms and should not be considered limited to the embodiments presented herein.

  Accordingly, while the invention may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention covers all modifications that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. , Equivalents, and alternatives. The same numbers indicate the same elements throughout the drawings.

  It should be understood that the terms “comprising” or “comprises” as used herein are open-ended and include elements, steps, and / or functions of one or more states. They do not exclude unstated elements, steps and / or functions. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the text clearly indicates otherwise. As used herein, the terms “and / or” and “/” include any or all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It should be understood that although first, second, etc. terms are used herein to describe various elements and / or regions, these elements and / or regions are not limited to these terms. . These terms are only used to distinguish one element / region from another. Thus, the first element / region discussed below can be named the second element / region without departing from the representation of the present invention.

  The present invention can be implemented as an apparatus, method and / or computer program product. Thus, the present invention can be implemented in hardware and / or software (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.). As a result, the term “signal” as used herein may take the form of a discrete value, such as a continuous waveform and / or a digital value in memory. The present invention further relates to a computer program on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code implemented on a medium used by or in connection with the instruction execution system. Can take the form of a product. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium is any medium that contains, stores, communicates, propagates or transfers a program used or associated with an instruction execution computer system facility or apparatus. obtain.

  The computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, equipment, device, or propagation medium. More detailed examples (non-exhaustive list) of computer readable media include: electrical contacts with one or more wires, portable computer diskettes, random access memory (RAM) ), Read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM or flash memory), optical fiber, and portable compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM) . It should be noted that the computer usable or computer readable medium may be paper or other suitable medium on which the program is printed, such that the program is optical, for example on paper or other medium. The program is captured electronically by scanning, then compiled, interpreted if necessary, or otherwise processed in an appropriate manner and then stored in computer memory.

  The functions / operations described in the blocks of the block diagram occur without following the order described in the operation description. For example, the two blocks shown subsequently are actually executed substantially simultaneously, or the blocks are sometimes executed in opposite order depending on the functions / operations involved. Some illustrations include arrows in the communication path to indicate the main direction of communication, but it should be understood that communication can occur in the opposite direction of the described arrow.

  For purposes of explanation, an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described below with respect to a magnetic disk drive and associated host device. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to use with disk drives; instead, it is used with any type of data storage device, which may be an optical disk drive. (E.g., but not limited to, CD-R / W, DVD-R / W) and tape drives. Thus, as used herein, “data storage medium” refers to any medium configured to store data, including but not limited to magnetic disks, optical disks, and magnetic tapes. Also, as used herein, “head” refers to any device configured to read and write data on a data storage medium.

  FIG. 1 shows a simplified illustration of a disk drive, generally indicated at 10. The disk drive 10 includes one or more disks disposed in a disk stack 12 that is rotated by a spindle motor 14. The spindle motor 14 is attached to the base plate 16. An actuator arm assembly 18 is also attached to the base plate 16. The disk drive 10 is configured to store and retrieve data in response to read / write commands from the host device. The host device is communicatively coupled to a desktop computer, laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), digital video recorder / player, digital music recorder / player and / or disk drive 10 for data transmission. This includes, but is not limited to, other electronic devices that can be stored and retrieved.

  The actuator arm assembly 18 includes a head 20 (or transducer) attached to a flexure arm 22 that is attached to an actuator arm 24 that can rotate about a pivot bearing assembly 26. Yes. The head 20 includes, for example, a magnetoresistive (MR) element and / or a thin film inductive (TFI) element. An actuator motor 28 (eg, a voice coil motor (VCM)) rotates the actuator arm assembly 18 to move the head 20 radially relative to the disk stack 12. Spindle motor 14 and actuator arm assembly 18 include a controller, read / write channel circuitry, and other associated electronic circuitry 30 that can be enclosed in one or more integrated circuit packages mounted to a printed circuit board (PCB) 32. Is bound to The electronic circuit 30 includes analog and / or digital circuits and typically includes a digital signal processor (DSP), a microprocessor-based controller, and a memory device. The electronic circuit 30 may be further configured according to various embodiments of the present invention described below.

  Referring now to FIG. 2, the disk stack 12 typically includes a plurality of disks 34, each having a pair of disk surfaces 36,36. The disk 34 is mounted on a cylindrical shaft and is configured to rotate about a shaft 38 via the spindle motor 14. Although the disks 34 are described as magnetic disks for purposes of explanation, they can alternatively be optical disks or any other type of data storage disk.

  Referring now to the illustrations of FIGS. 1 and 3, the actuator arm assembly 18 includes a plurality of heads 20, each of which is adjacent to a different one of the disk surfaces 36. Each head 20 is attached to a corresponding flexure arm 22 attached to a corresponding portion of the actuator arm 24, and the actuator arm 24 can rotate about a pivot bearing assembly 26. Actuator motor 28 operates to move actuator arm 24, thus moving head 20 radially with respect to their respective disk surfaces 36.

  Referring to FIG. 4, the electronic circuit 30 includes a data controller 400, a servo controller 402, a read / write channel 404, a host command buffer 406, an LBS sequence association table 408, and pre-host input / output (I / O). A command data fetch buffer 410 is included. Although an exemplary embodiment of the electronic circuit 30 is illustrated with two separate controllers 400, 402, a read / write channel 404, and three separate memory devices 406, 408, 410, these are for illustration and discussion only. It is. It should be understood that the functions described herein for one or more controllers 400, 402, read / write channel 404, and / or devices 406, 408, 410 may be integrated into one integrated circuit, or two or more. It can be distributed among other integrated circuit packages. Head disk assembly (HDA) 420 may include actuator arm assembly 18, disk stack 12, actuator motor 28 and spindle motor 14.

  Read / write channel 404 operates in the normal manner to convert data between the digital format used by data controller 400 and the analog format executed through head 20 in HDA 420. The read / write channel 404 supplies servo position information read from the disk 34 in the HDA 420 to the servo controller 402. This servo position information can be used to detect the position of the head 20 with respect to a logical block address (LBA) along a track on the disk 34. The servo controller 402 uses the LBA and servo position information from the data controller 400 to seek the head 20 to the LBA on one target track on the disk surface 36, and the data is read / read on the LBA. While being written, the head 20 can be maintained in alignment with the target track.

  While waiting for the data associated with the command to be read or written to the LBA identified by the buffered host command, read and write commands from the host device are placed in the command buffer 406. Temporarily buffered. The data controller 400 executes buffered write commands by formatting the relevant information into blocks with appropriate header information, and the formatted data from the command buffer 406 via the read / write channel 404. It is configured to transfer to the LBA on the disk 34 identified by the buffer write command. Similarly, buffered read commands from the host device are temporarily stored in the command buffer 406 until data is retrieved from the LBA on the disk 34 identified by the buffered read command and notified to the host device. Buffered. The buffered commands can be removed from the command buffer 406 separately upon their respective completion.

  Some embodiments of the present invention allow DVRs, digital video players and other AV systems to read data from a sequence of LBAs that can be determined by the AV system prior to needing to read the data from the disk drive. It arises from the recognition of being. For example, when an AV system is commanded to play a movie, it can be configured to determine an LBA sequence to read data from the disk drive 10 and assemble at least a portion of the movie video frame. Thus, the AV system can notify the disk drive 10 of at least a portion of the defined LBA sequence prior to beginning to notify the disk drive 10 of a read command to read data from those LBAs. Alternatively or additionally, the disk drive 10 observes and learns the LBA sequence access information over time, thereby for one or more LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information. And / or in response to receiving a read command to other LBA-related things identified by the LBA access sequence information, which LBA needs to be accessed (eg, by LBA access sequence information) Receiving a read command for the LBA containing the video frame data prior to the identified video frame data. The disk drive 10 can begin fetching data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information and prepare to receive an associated read command from the AV system.

  Prior to receipt of the associated read command, at least some of the data from the LBA access sequence can be fetched so that the LBA access sequence information is received and directed to the LBA identified by this LBA access sequence information. Disk drive 10 is configured to use additional time during receipt of a read command issued to provide peak and / or average data throughput, possible acoustic noise, heat generation, peak and / or Alternatively, the read operation can be performed in a manner that satisfies average power consumption and / or data integrity constraints. For example, the disk drive 10 uses this additional time to reverse the order in performing the LBS access sequence, thereby minimizing (eg, increasing seek time between multiple accesses). (The order of the sequence for accessing the LBA is changed in order of decreasing number), and the LBA can be accessed.

  According to some embodiments of the present invention, the data controller 400 can be configured to store information about one or more access sequences in the LBA sequence association table 408. The LBA access sequence information is defined by the host device and notified to the disk drive 10. In response to receiving the LBA access sequence information from the host device, the disk drive 10 starts reading data from the disk LBA to the fetch buffer 410, and the disk LBA is identified by the LBA access sequence information. When a host read command is received, it is directed to data from one or more LBAs that have been searched into fetch buffer 410, and the data is moved from fetch buffer 410 to command buffer 406. To the host device that responds to the read command. The LBA access sequence information provides an early notification to the disk drive 10 as to which LBA is subsequently accessed by the host device, so that the data controller 400 can start from the disk LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. It can be further configured to be fetched so that peak and / or average data throughput, acoustic noise, heat that can be generated by one or more components of the disk drive 10, peak and / or Alternatively, constraints on power consumption by the average disk drive 10 and / or data error recovery process can be satisfied. For example, the data controller 400 seeks operation to the servo controller 402 using a velocity profile that reduces acceleration / deceleration of the actuator arm assembly 18 (to reduce noise, heat, and / or power consumption). And / or by using more robust error recovery processing than when used by the data controller 400 and / or servo controller 402 when responding to host read command time constraints. Again, more reread attempts are made from disk 34 to correct data errors upon detection.

  In some embodiments, the LBA access sequence information in table 408 defines a group of adjacent disk LBAs and defines the relative order expected when the group is accessed by the host device. For example, table 408 defines a sequence of one or more groups of LBAs, where each group is a starting LBA, a number of LBAs consecutively following the starting LBA in the group, and the I associated with the starting LBA. Define the type of / O access (eg, LBS is accessed sequentially within a group, LBA is accessed by jumping a defined number of LBAs between each access). For example, read a movie segment starting at LBA 10, continue with the next 90 LBA reads, jump 50 LBAs, read the next 100 LBAs, jump 250 LBAs, and the next 200 A sequence that identifies reading 4 LBAs, jumping 4300 LBAs, and reading the next 4000 LBAs (corresponding to reading LBAs 10-100, 150-250, 500-700, 5000-9000). The host notifies the disk drive 10 of access information.

  An exemplary host device 500 is illustrated by the block diagram of FIG. The host device 500 includes a controller 510, an application 522, a memory 520 including I / O LBA sequence information 524, and an I / O adapter 530. The I / O adapter 530 is connected to the host device 500 through, for example, an ATA bus, a SATA bus, a small computer system interconnect (SCSI) bus, a firewire bus, and / or a universal serial bus (USB). Can be communicatively coupled to the disk drive 10. Controller 510 may be, for example, a broadcast media source (eg, satellite, terrestrial, cable, and / or internet TV source), interactive video game, broadband internet AV service, and / or AV monitoring of disk drive 10. The application 522 can be configured to function as an AV system that stores AV contents such as those that can be searched.

  The controller 510 can be further configured to support simultaneous storage and / or retrieval of multiple AV content data streams to the disk drive 10. The controller 510 is configured to define an LBA sequence that is being accessed, for example, to perform a movie. By reading the file (link) table from the disk drive 10 identifying the disk LBA where the file data is stored, it defines the LBA sequence. The defined LBA sequence is then sent back to the disk drive 10 as LBA access sequence information, which begins to send a read command to the disk drive 10 addressed to the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. This is done by adding information to the file table and writing the file back to the disk drive 10 before. Accordingly, in preparation for receiving an urgent host read command addressed to the identified LBA as described above, the disk drive 10 fetches data from the identified disk LBA into the fetch buffer 410. The controller 510 notifies the disk drive 10 of access sequence information at a predetermined amount of time before sending the read / write command addressed to those LBAs, and is identified by the LBA to the fetch buffer 410. Allow enough time for the disk drive 10 to fetch at least some or all of the stored data. The amount of time between when the controller 510 notifies the disk drive 10 of LBA access sequence information and when it starts reading from the identified information is stored in the fetch buffer 410. It can be selected based on the amount of data. For example, this time is selected so that there can be a few seconds (eg, 2-5 seconds) to several minutes between when the disk drive 10 receives the sequence information and receives a read command thereto. be able to.

  4 and 5, according to an exemplary embodiment, the host device 500 may be a DVR. An end user can instruct the host device 500 to start a movie recorded on the disk drive 10. The controller 510 reads the file table from the disk drive 10 and generates a first LBA access sequence based on the file table. The first LBA access sequence reads the data from the host device 500 to generate an AV frame for the movie. Specify the LBA to be executed. The controller 510 stores the first LBA access sequence in the memory 520 as part of the LBA access sequence information 524, and at least a portion of the movie is stored in the LBA access sequence at a later use when performing this movie segment again. Information 524 can be combined. The controller 510 notifies the first LBA access sequence to the disk drive 10 through the I / O adapter 530. Data controller 400 stores the first LBA access sequence in table 408, fetches data from the disk LBA identified by the first LBA access sequence, puts it into data fetch buffer 410, and host device 500. In response to a separate read command from, the associated data is copied from the data fetch buffer 410 to the command buffer 406, and this data is communicated to the host controller as in the previous embodiment. The host controller 510 assembles the AV frame based on the data and further notifies the read command to the disk drive 10 directed to the LBA in the first LBA access sequence. The host controller 510 can generate and notify the disk drive 10 of further LBA access sequences, whereby the host device 500 generates a subsequent data stream so that subsequent AV frames of the movie The disk drive 10 can be further prepared to read commands when used to generate.

  While the host device 500 is performing a movie, the end user can command to start another movie performance. Controller 510 reads the file table from disk drive 10 and generates a second LBA access sequence that identifies LBAs from which at least a portion of the movie data can be read. The controller 510 notifies the disk drive 10 of the second LBA access sequence through the I / O adapter 530. Data controller 400 stores the second LBA access sequence in table 408 and reads the data from the identified LBA into data fetch buffer 410. The data controller 400 additionally or alternatively uses the LBA identified in the second LBA access sequence to read related to the data being fetched identified by the first LBA access sequence and / or the second access sequence Reconfigure or prioritize work, thereby attempting to satisfy throughput requirements, acoustic noise constraints, heat generation constraints, power consumption constraints, and / or data error recovery processing constraints.

  As described above, in some embodiments of the present invention, an LBA sequence that the host device will access is defined and the sequence is notified to the disk drive 10. According to some other embodiments, disk drive 10 may be configured to determine the LBA access sequence itself. For example, the data controller 400 can be configured to observe and learn sequentially searched LBA patterns, and the learned LBA sequences can be stored in the table 408. The data controller 400 can record a read command (eg, playing back an AV data stream) that appears to be associated with reading the data stream, for example. The data controller 400 can then determine, for example, when the target LBA of a buffered read command is within a defined LBA access sequence or to data within a defined LBA access sequence. For the LBA access sequence defined in table 408, from the host device by determining when the target LBA is observed to be accessed in proximity to the time prior to access. It is possible to determine when a read command is relevant. In response to determining that the buffered read command is associated with a defined LBA access sequence, data controller 400 fetches data from the defined LBA access sequence to fetch buffer 410. To prepare subsequent host commands for data therefrom as described above.

  In some further embodiments, host 500 includes a data transfer rate defined in the LBA access sequence information, thereby instructing disk drive 10 to identify the LBA identified through a series of host read commands. Read. Alternatively or additionally, the disk drive 10 can be configured to observe and define the data rate associated with the LBA access sequence in the table 408 via the controller 400 therefrom. Controller 400 then uses a known data rate to adjust how data is read from the associated LBA sequence. For example, a first LBA sequence associated with a normal resolution movie has a defined and learned data rate of 7 Mbit / sec, while a second LBA sequence associated with a high resolution movie is 19 Mbit / sec. Can have a defined and learned data rate. Based on these known data rates, the controller 400 will read more data from the second LBA sequence in the data fetch buffer 410 prior to the associated read command than for the first LBA sequence. Let's go. Thus, the controller 400 thus adapts to the LBA sequence known data rate by changing how much data is read into the buffer 410 prior to the associated host read command.

  The fetch buffer 410 includes integrated circuits such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or static RAM, for example. However, in some other embodiments, fetch buffer 410 includes a temporary storage location on disk 34. For example, the data controller 400 copies data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence to a temporary storage location on the disk 34 in preparation for a subsequent read command from the host device. This temporary storage location includes the adjacent disk LBA. Thus, even if the LBA access sequence corresponds to a non-adjacent LBA on disk 34 and is widely distributed on disk 34, the addressed data is adjacent in a temporary storage location on disk 34. Copied. Data controller 400 then continues to read back data from adjacent LBAs, but more quickly than if read from the original non-adjacent LBA, which introduces a delay with respect to seek operations between the far track and the LBA. .

  FIG. 6 illustrates, in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention, generating LBA access sequence information prior to sending the associated read command to the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information and storing the information on the disk. 4 is a flowchart of work performed by the host device 500 to notify the drive 10; At block 600, the host device 500 reads the file table from the disk drive 10. Then, at block 602, it generates LBA access sequence information based on the file table. At block 604, the host device 500 notifies the LBA access sequence information to the disk drive 10, and continues to notify the disk drive directed to the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of operations performed by the disk drive 10 to respond to LBA access sequence information and associated read commands from the host device 500, according to some embodiments of the present invention. In block 700, LBA access sequence information is retrieved by the disk drive 10 from the host device 500. At block 702, the disk drive 10 reads data from the LBA on the disk 34 identified by the LBA access sequence information. At block 704, this data is stored in the data fetch buffer 410. At block 706, in response to receiving a host read command directed to data at the disk LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information, at block 708 the disk drive 10 retrieves data associated with the read command with data Notification from the fetch buffer 410 to the host device 500 Then, at block 710, a determination is made as to whether all data identified by the LBA access sequence information has been read into the host device 500; otherwise, the work loop returns to block 706; Wait for further host read command and / or refresh timer expiration.

  In the drawings and description, there have been disclosed exemplary preferred embodiments of the invention and specific terminology has been used, but they are used in a general descriptive sense only and are within the scope of the appended claims. It is not intended to limit the scope of the invention presented.

(Related application)
This application is a tentative provisional application of US provisional patent application no. Claims the benefit and priority of 60 / 687,932, filed June 7, 2005 AD.

1 is a perspective view of a disk drive having electronic circuitry constructed in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a disk stack having a plurality of data storage disks. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of an actuator arm assembly having a plurality of actuator arms. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portion of the electronic circuitry of the disk drive shown in FIG. 1 configured in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a host device configured according to some embodiments of the present invention. In order to generate LBA access sequence information and notify the disk drive of FIG. 1 prior to sending the associated read command according to some embodiments of the present invention, the host device of FIG. FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of operations performed by the disk drive of FIG. 1 to respond to LBA access sequence information and associated read commands from the host device of FIG. 5 in accordance with some embodiments of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

10 disk drive 12 disk stack 14 spindle motor 16 base plate 18 actuator arm assembly 20 head (transducer)
22 Flexure Arm 24 Actuator Arm 26 Pivot Bearing Assembly 28 Actuator Motor 30 Electronic Circuit 32 Printed Circuit Board 34 Disc 36 Disk Surface 38 Axis

Claims (28)

A data storage device,
A data storage medium;
A head configured to read data stored at a logical block address (LBA) on the data storage medium;
A data fetch buffer configured to store data;
Data is read through the head from the LBA on the data storage medium identified by the LBA access sequence information in the data storage device that identifies the LBA sequence accessed by the host device, and the read data is converted into the data A read command from the host device that is stored in a fetch buffer and directed to data in an LBA of the data storage medium identified by the LBA access sequence information, from the data fetch buffer A controller configured to respond to the read command that has been read into the data fetch buffer by notifying the host device of the data associated with the read command;
The data storage device comprising: The data storage medium includes a rotatable data storage disk;
The head is configured to read data stored in an LBA on the disk;
The controller reads data from the LBA on the disk identified by the LBA access sequence information in the data storage device identifying the LBA sequence accessed by the host device through the head, and reads the read data. A read command from the host device stored in the data fetch buffer and directed to data in an LBA of the data storage medium identified by the LBA access sequence information, the data fetch buffer; The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to respond to the read command that has been read into the data fetch buffer by notifying the host device of the data associated with the read command. .   When the controller reads data from the disk in response to the LBA access sequence information, the controller is performing a seek operation compared to when reading data from the disk in response to a read command received from the host device. The data storage device of claim 2, wherein the data storage device is configured to limit acceleration and deceleration to a lower value.   2. The data according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to perform access in order of increasing or decreasing numbers to the identified LBA by changing the order of the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. Storage device.   The controller prioritizes reading of data from each of the media LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information into the data fetch buffer, thereby providing the LBA access sequence information. The data storage device according to claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to increase a throughput at which the data can be read from the identified medium LBA.   The controller prioritizes reading of data from each of the media LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information into the data fetch buffer, thereby providing the LBA access sequence information. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to reduce noise generated by the data storage device while reading data from the identified medium LBA.   The controller prioritizes reading of data from each of the media LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information into the data fetch buffer, thereby providing the LBA access sequence information. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to reduce power consumption by the data storage device while reading data from the identified medium LBA.   The data storage device according to claim 1, wherein the access sequence information identifies an order in which a sequence of LBAs on the medium is accessed by the host device.   The access sequence information identifies a plurality of LBAs on the medium that are expected to be accessed by the host device, but each of the plurality of LBAs is predicted to be accessed by the host device. 2. The data storage device according to claim 1, wherein no particular order is identified.   The controller receives the LBA access sequence information from the host device, stores the LBA access sequence information in the data storage device, and data from the medium LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the read data is stored in the data fetch buffer in response to receiving the LBA access sequence by reading.   The controller receives a plurality of different LBA access sequence information, stores the plurality of different LBA access sequence information in a table in the data storage device, and each of the plurality of LBA access sequence information. Respond to receipt of each of the LBA access sequence information by reading data from the identified media LBA into the data fetch buffer, and the read command related from the data fetch buffer to the host device The read command from the host device is directed to the data in the medium LBA identified by one of the plurality of LBA access sequence information that has been read to the data fetch buffer. I will identify when Data storage device according to claim 10, wherein the configured.   The controller reads data from each LBA on the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information to the data fetch buffer and the associated data sequence from the data fetch buffer to the host device. Is configured to respond to a sequence of read commands from the host device directed to data in the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information that has been read into the data fetch buffer. The data storage device according to claim 1.   The controller observes an LBA pattern read on the medium by the host device, generates the LBA access sequence information based on the read pattern of the read LBA, and is received from the host device. The medium LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information is determined when a further read command from the host device is imminent and is directed to the medium LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. Configured to respond to the indication of an emergency host read command to the media LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information by reading data from and storing the read data in the data fetch buffer Claimed data according to claim 1 Storage device.   The controller receives a read command received from the host device slightly more than a plurality of LBA accesses identified by the LBA access sequence information when a plurality of read commands from the host device are continuously received. A plurality identified by the LBA access sequence information when the one read command received from the host is directed to one LBA that was previously observed by the controller to have been accessed at a previous time. 14. A data storage device according to claim 13, wherein said read command is directed to said medium LBA.   The controller determines that one read command received from the host device indicates that multiple read commands are subsequently received from the host device, and the read / write command received from the host is the LBA access sequence. 14. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein when read to an LBA identified by information, these read commands are configured to be directed to a plurality of media LBAs by LBA access sequence information.   The controller stores the data read from a plurality of LBAs identified by LBA access sequence information to the temporary storage location on the medium, wherein the data fetch buffer includes a temporary storage location on the medium. The data storage device according to claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to do so.   17. The data store of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to store data read from an LBA identified by LBA access sequence information in an adjacent group of LBAs at the temporary storage location on the medium. apparatus.   The controller uses the LBA access sequence information to read data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information based on a defined data transfer rate that the host device commands to the controller. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is configured to adjust how data is read from a plurality of identified LBAs.   The data storage device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to receive the defined data transfer rate according to LBA access sequence information from the host device. A computer program product for reading a data storage location on a data storage medium in a data storage device, said computer program product comprising computer program code embodied in a computer readable storage medium, said computer program product The program code is
A computer program configured to be executed by a host device to define a sequence of a plurality of logical block addresses (LBA) of data storage locations on the medium in a data storage device accessed by the host device. Code,
Computer program code configured to be executed by the host device to notify the data storage device from the host device as LBA access sequence information as a sequence defined by the LBA;
After the LBA access sequence information is notified to the data storage device, the host device executes a read command to the data storage device so as to read data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. Computer program code configured to, and
A computer program product comprising:   After the LBA access sequence information is notified to the data storage device, the host device executes a read command to the data storage device so as to read data from the LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. The computer program code configured to be further configured to notify the LBA access sequence prior to at least one defined amount of time before it notifies the read command. The amount of time is sufficient for the data storage device to read data from a plurality of media LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information to a single fetch buffer in the data storage device. 21. A computer as defined in claim 20 Program product.   Computer program code configured to reorder the LBAs identified by the LBA access sequence information so as to perform access to the identified plurality of LBAs in order of increasing or decreasing number. 21. The computer program product of claim 20.   Reading the file table from the data storage device that identifies which medium LBA data the data is stored in, and generating the LBA access sequence information notified to the data storage device based on the file table 21. The computer program product of claim 20, further comprising computer program code configured to be executed by the host device. A method for a host device for reading a data storage location on a data storage medium in a data storage device, comprising:
Defining a sequence of logical block addresses (LBA) of data storage locations on a medium in a data storage device from which the host device reads data;
Notifying the LBA defined sequence as LBA access sequence information from the host device to the data storage device;
Reading data from the LBA on the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information;
Storing the data read from the LBA on the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information in a data fetch buffer in the data storage device;
After notifying the LBA access sequence information from the host device to the data storage device, the host sends the data storage device directed to the data stored in one medium LBA identified by the LBA access sequence information. Sending a read command from the device;
Responding to the read by notifying the host device of the data associated with the read command from the data fetch buffer;
Including said method. Defining a sequence of logical block addresses (LBS) of data storage locations on the medium of the data storage device from which the host device reads data;
Reading one file table from the data storage device to the host device for identifying in which medium LBA the data is stored;
Generating the LBA access sequence information notified to the data storage device by the host device based on the file table;
25. The method of claim 24, comprising:   Storing the data read from the LBA on the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information in the data fetch buffer of the data storage device to an electronic circuit memory in the data storage device 25. A data storage device according to claim 24 including writing the read data.   Storing the data read from the LBA on the medium identified by the LBA access sequence information in the data fetch buffer of the data storage device transfers the data to a temporary storage location on the medium. 25. A data storage device according to claim 24 to be written.   28. The method of claim 27, wherein writing the read data to a temporary storage location on the medium includes writing the data onto an adjacent group of LBAs at the temporary storage location on the medium.

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