JPH1196649A - Disk drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make suppressible the power consumption more, by limiting the application of an opposite-direction voltage in a power save mode and inertially rotating a spindle motor and stopping the same. SOLUTION: In a normal mode before moving to a power save mode, such as a sleep mode, a spindle motor SPM 4 is forcibly stopped by the application of an opposite-direction voltage. On the other hand, if there are no access commands for a disk 5 within a specified time, a CPU 2 moves to the sleep mode to output a mute command, and a spindle motor driver 3 stops the supplying of a driving current to the SPM 4. When a request is made for ejecting the disk 5 during the inertial rotation, the CPU 2 ejects the disk 5 if the SPM 4 is in a stopped state, and if it is in a rotated state, the CPU 2 ejects the disk 5 after applying an opposite-direction voltage to the SPM 4 and forcibly stopping the same. Also, when there are no requests made for ejecting the disk 5 nor access commands during the inertial rotation, the inertial rotation of the SPM 4 is continued for spontaneous stopping.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a drive for a disk-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a "disk") such as a CD-ROM, and more particularly to a control for stopping the rotation of a spindle motor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a CD-ROM drive 1 having a configuration shown in FIG.
The spindle motor driver 3 suddenly stops by applying a reverse voltage to the spindle motor 4 to apply a forcible braking force. This is an essential requirement in a normal use situation where the disk 5 must be stopped in a short time.

[0003]

When the rotation of the spindle motor is stopped in a so-called normal mode in which a reverse voltage is applied to the spindle motor 4 to apply a brake, the current consumption is considerable. The drive 1 used for the required portable computer has a large effect. The conventional drive 1 is provided with a power saving function called a sleep mode from the viewpoint of enhancing the power saving effect. This is a function to suppress power consumption by stopping the spindle motor 4 according to the judgment of the CPU 2 when an access command such as a read command or a seek command is not generated from the host computer 6 for a predetermined time. Therefore, in particular, the portable computer frequently shifts to the sleep mode, and it is not convenient if a large current is consumed by stopping the spindle motor 4 each time. Therefore, the present invention provides a spindle motor rotation stop control method capable of further suppressing power consumption.

[0004]

That is, the present invention relates to a disk drive in which a reverse voltage is applied to a spindle motor for rotating a disk-shaped recording medium to forcibly stop the spindle motor. It is characterized in that the spindle motor is stopped and stopped by inertial rotation of the spindle motor. According to this, when the stop state is given to the spindle motor in the power saving mode, the spindle motor stops spontaneously due to the inertial rotation, so that the power consumption can be significantly reduced, and the forced braking force is frequently applied. Therefore, the durability of the spindle motor is not impaired.

[0005] The present invention also relates to a disk drive that shifts from a normal mode to a sleep mode and stops the spindle motor when access to the disk-shaped recording medium rotated by the spindle motor is not performed for a predetermined time. It is characterized in that the spindle motor is coast-rotated in the mode. In other words, the power saving effect can be further improved without consuming a large current every time the sleep mode shifts frequently.

In the above disk drive according to the present invention, it is more preferable to apply a back electromotive force to the spindle motor to forcibly stop the disk drive when there is a command to eject the disk-shaped recording medium during the inertial rotation of the spindle motor. That is, when ejecting the disk even during the inertial rotation, if the rotation of the spindle motor is forcibly stopped and the disk is immediately stopped, it is safe to replace the disk.

In the present invention described above, any drive having a power saving function such as a sleep mode can be used with any type of drive according to a recording medium such as light or magnetism. Also,
Examples of the host computer include various personal computers with a built-in drive or an external drive, and CPUs or microcomputers of a system control system built in the drive itself and receiving various processing commands from external input devices (for example, homes). Microcomputer built in game console)
And so on.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below. The hardware configuration for executing the rotation stop control of the spindle motor of the present invention is the same as the block diagram shown in FIG.
At the time of the normal mode before the transition to the sleep mode, the spindle motor 4 is forcibly stopped by the application of the reverse voltage as in the related art. On the other hand, after the transition to the sleep mode, the rotation of the spindle motor 4 is stopped as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

When there is no access command to the disk 5 such as a read command or a seek command from the host computer 6 within a predetermined time, the CPU 2 shifts to a sleep mode (s10). CPU in this sleep mode
2 outputs a mute command different from the rotation stop command in the normal mode, and in response to this, the spindle motor driver 3 stops supplying the drive current to the spindle motor 4 (s12). That is, instead of supplying a current for providing a reverse voltage as in the normal mode, it is merely to cut the drive current up to that point. As a result, the spindle motor 4 rotates by inertia.

During the inertial rotation, the CPU 2 detects whether or not a request to eject the disk 5 is made by a command from the host computer 6 or by operating a disk ejection button (not shown) of the drive 1. (S14).
Here, if there is a request to eject the disk 5, the CPU 2 detects whether or not the spindle motor 4 has stopped through the FG output (frequency tach generator output) (s16). Executed (s
18). On the other hand, when the spindle motor 4 is still rotating, the spindle motor 4 is forcibly stopped by applying a reverse voltage to the spindle motor 4 (s2
0), the disc 5 is ejected (s18).

On the other hand, if there is no request to eject the disk 5 at s14, the CPU 2 detects whether or not a new access command to the disk 5 is issued from the host computer 6, and determines whether or not to start the spindle motor 4 again. Is determined (s22), and if necessary, the spindle motor 4 is started to rotate (s24). If it is not necessary to rotate the disk 5 without an access command, the disk 5 is naturally stopped while allowing the spindle motor 4 to coast freely (s26). After that, according to the presence or absence of the ejection request of the disk 5 (s14), the ejection process is performed (s16,
In s18), the stopped state of the spindle motor 4 in the sleep mode is maintained as it is (s22, s26, s1).
4).

[0012]

According to the present invention, a reverse voltage is not generated every time a power saving function such as a sleep mode that is frequently performed is executed, so that the power saving effect can be further enhanced. When the portable computer provided is driven by a battery, the driving time can be extended. Also, since the spindle motor is not forcibly braked every time the power saving function is executed,
When a brush motor or the like is employed as the spindle motor, the life of the motor is prolonged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a procedure for stopping the rotation of a disk according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a drive and a host computer.

[Brief description of reference numerals]

 1 drive 2 CPU 3 spindle motor driver 4 spindle motor 5 disk 6 host computer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A disk drive for applying a reverse voltage to a spindle motor for rotating a disk-shaped recording medium and forcibly stopping the spindle motor. In a power saving mode, the application of the reverse voltage is suppressed and the spindle motor is coasted. A disk drive characterized by being stopped. 2. A disk drive in which the spindle motor is shifted to a sleep mode and the spindle motor is stopped when access to the disk-shaped recording medium rotated by the spindle motor is not performed for a predetermined time. A disk drive characterized in that a motor is coasted. 3. A spindle motor is forcibly stopped by applying a reverse voltage to the spindle motor when a command to eject the disk-shaped recording medium is issued during the inertia rotation of the spindle motor.
Or the disk drive according to claim 2.