JPH0512781A - Hard disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a fine power consumption state corresponding to the operation state of the hard disk device by instructing respective circuits to operate in the low consumption state or an active state according to the operation state of the hard disk device. CONSTITUTION:The hard disk device is initially in an idle state and a transfer control part 13, a write system 17, and a read system 18 are in the low power consumption state (state a). When an interruption is initiated, a power consumption control circuit 16 detects that and resets the low power consumption state of the transfer control part 13 and puts systems 17 and 18 in the low power consumption state (state b). When there is a request to read data out of the disk from a host, the circuit 16 receives its command and performs seeking operation. When the seeking operation ends, a read 1 state is entered, the low power consumption state of the read system is reset, and a state (c) is entered. The data on the disk are transferred to a buffer and also transferred to the host. Then circuits other than the transfer control part 13 are put in the low power consumption state and a state (d) is entered.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hard disk device, and more particularly to a method for reducing the power consumption thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a dedicated input terminal for designating low power consumption is provided, and the signal is used to reduce the power consumption only for a certain period.

Alternatively, all the circuits are set to the low power consumption mode before the command is issued, and the low power consumption state is released after the arbitrary command is issued.

[0004]

With the above technique, it is not possible to change the circuit that should be in the low power consumption state when one command includes a plurality of operating states. That is, the conventional method cannot realize fine power consumption reduction according to the operation of the hard disk device, and the effect of reducing power consumption cannot be said to be sufficient.

[0005]

In order to solve this problem, a power consumption control circuit for giving an instruction of a low power consumption state or an active state to each circuit in the hard disk drive according to the operating state of the hard disk drive is provided. .

[0006]

The power consumption control circuit detects from the command, the register, etc. what kind of operation the hard disk device is currently performing. Then, according to the detection result, the low power consumption state or the active state instruction is output to each circuit in the hard disk device. Receiving the instruction signal, each circuit in the hard disk device puts its operation into a low power consumption state or an active state.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows a hard disk device according to the present invention. The hard disk device 1 includes a hard disk controller 2, a CPU 3, a spindle motor control circuit 4,
Actuator control circuit 5, host interface circuit 6, buffer 7, encoder / decoder 8, VFO 9,
It is composed of a waveform shaping circuit 10, a read / write amplifier 11, and a disk 12. Hard disk controller 2
Is a transfer control unit 13 for controlling data transfer between the host and the disk, a formatter 14, a deformatter 1
5, a power consumption control circuit 16 is incorporated. The power consumption control circuit 16 is a circuit that instructs each circuit in the hard disk device 1 to operate in a low power consumption state or an active state. In the present embodiment, the controlled circuit that receives an instruction from the power consumption control circuit 16 to reduce the power consumption is the transfer control unit 1.
3, a formatter 14, a deformatter 15, and an encoder / decoder 8. The controlled circuit group realizes the low power consumption state by stopping the internal operation clock when receiving the signal of the low power consumption state instruction from the power consumption control circuit 16. The controlled circuit group is the power consumption control circuit 1
Depending on the section that receives the instruction from 6, the transfer controller 13, the formatter 14 and the write system 17 including the encoder / decoder 8 and the read system 18 including the deformatter 15 and the decoder among the encoder / decoder 8 can be selected. It is divided into

FIG. 2 shows the circuit configurations of the write system 17 and the read system 18. In the symbols in the figure, P means parallel and S means serial. The write system 17 calculates the CRC / ECC from the data transferred from the buffer.
CC encoding circuit 14a, selector 14b for selecting which of data and CRC / ECC is transferred to the disk,
The P / S converter 14c converts data from parallel data to serial data, and the encoder 8a encodes serial data. The read system 18 is composed of a decoder 8b for decoding data sent from the disc, an S / P conversion 15b for converting the decoded serial data into parallel data, and a CRC / ECC decoding circuit for decoding from the parallel data. To be done. In addition,
The circuit shown in FIG. 2 is not always the write system 17 and the read system 1.
It is not necessary for the write system 17 and the read system 18 to independently have one circuit, and one circuit may be shared by the write system 17 and the read system 18. For example, the encoding circuit and the decoding circuit share many portions, and in the present embodiment, if either the read system or the write system is in the active state, both the encoding circuit and the decoding circuit are activated.

FIG. 3 shows a circuit to be activated in each operating state of the hard disk device in the controlled circuit group. In the present embodiment, the operating state of the hard disk device is divided into four states, idle, seek, read, and write, and read and write are further divided into two depending on whether transfer is being performed between the disk and the buffer, that is, Whether the transfer is performed between the disk and the buffer: The transfer is performed between the host and the buffer at the same time as the transfer between the disk and the buffer, and the transfer is performed only between the host and the buffer. As shown in FIG. 3, the transfer control unit 13 is in a low power consumption state in an idle state, and is in an active state in other states. Further, the write system 17 is activated only in the write 1 state and the read system 18 is activated only in the read 1 state, and is in the low power consumption state in other states.

FIG. 4 is an internal block diagram of the power consumption control circuit 16. The detection circuit 16a decodes an interrupt signal, a command, and a register indicating the state of internal operation, and determines whether the hard disk device is idle, seeking, reading, or writing, and when the read / write operation is performed, the disk and the buffer are read. Detects if a transfer is in progress. The instruction circuit 16b is a circuit that receives the output result of the detection circuit 16a and generates and outputs a signal for instructing the controlled circuit group whether or not to be in the low power consumption state.

FIG. 5 shows a circuit for the controlled circuit group to realize a low power consumption state and an active state. Particularly, FIG. 5B shows a case of an encoding / decoding circuit as an example of receiving a plurality of instruction signals. . In (a), when the low power consumption state instruction signal (= 0), the clock is fixed to 0 to realize the low power consumption state, but when the active state instruction signal (= 1), the clock is output. . In (b), the clock is fixed only when both the read system and the write system are in the low power consumption state to realize the low power consumption state.

Next, the control operation of the power consumption control circuit 16 will be described with reference to FIG. 6 by taking the case of reading data from the disk to the host in the hard disk device of this embodiment as an example.

The initial state is the idle state, and the transfer control unit 1
3, the write system 17, and the read system 18 are in a low power consumption state. That is, the state is (a). If an interrupt occurs here, the power consumption control circuit 16 detects it and the transfer control unit 1
The low power consumption state of 3 is released, and the state shifts to the state of (b). When there is a request from the host to read the data on the disk,
The power consumption control circuit 16 also receives the command, and first,
Seek is executed and seek is executed. When the seek is completed, the read 1 (disk, etc.) state is entered next, and the low power consumption state of the read system 18 is released. That is, the state shifts to the state of (c). Then, the disk data is stored in the buffer. When the data is accumulated in the buffer and can be transferred to the host, data transfer from the disk to the buffer and data transfer from the buffer to the host are performed simultaneously. Eventually, when the data transfer from the disk to the buffer ends, the state shifts to the read 2 (host only) state, and the circuits excluding the transfer control unit 13 are set to the low power consumption state. That is, the state shifts to the state (d). After that, if the data transfer to the host is completed and there is no request for new command,
It becomes the idle state as in the beginning and returns to the state of (a).

By using this embodiment, it is possible to obtain a hard disk drive which consumes less power than the conventional one.

[0016]

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a fine and low power consumption state according to the operating state, and to obtain a hard disk drive which consumes less power than the conventional one.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of an embodiment of a hard disk device of the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of a write / read system,

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of status categories and active states of each category,

4 is an internal explanatory diagram of the power consumption control circuit in FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of clock control in a controlled circuit,

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of transition of a controlled circuit group at the time of reading.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Hard disk device, 2 ... Hard disk controller, 3 ... CPU, 4 ... Spindle motor control circuit, 5
... actuator control circuit, 6 ... host interface circuit, 7 ... buffer, 8 ... encoder / decoder, 9
VFO, 10 waveform shaping circuit, 11 read / write amplifier, 12 disk, 13 transfer controller, 14 formatter, 15 deformatter, 16 low power consumption control circuit.

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A hard disk device comprising a power consumption control circuit for instructing each circuit to enter a low power consumption state or an active state according to an operating state. 2. The power consumption control circuit according to claim 1, wherein the circuit for detecting the operating state of the hard disk device and the low power consumption state for each circuit in the hard disk device according to the output result of the detection circuit. Alternatively, a hard disk device including a circuit for instructing activation. 3. A hard disk device according to claim 1, wherein the power consumption control circuit is provided inside a hard disk controller. 4. A hard disk device, characterized in that when a write command is executed, a part or all of the circuits on the data transfer path at the time of read execution are brought into a low power consumption state. 5. A hard disk device, characterized in that when a read command is executed, a part or all of the circuits on the data transfer path at the time of write execution are set to a low power consumption state. 6. When a write command is not being executed and data is not being transferred from the buffer to the disk, part or all of the circuits on the data transfer path from the buffer to the disk when the write is being executed are set to the low power consumption state. A hard disk drive characterized by: 7. When a read command is not being executed and data is not being transferred from the disk to the buffer, a part or all of the circuits on the data transfer path from the disk to the buffer when the read is being executed are set to a low power consumption state. A hard disk drive characterized by: 8. A hard disk device characterized by setting a part or all of the circuits on a data transfer path at the time of executing a read and a write to a low power consumption state at the time of executing a seek. 9. The method according to claim 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8.
A hard disk drive that performs multiple controls among the low power consumption controls.