JPS5821346B2 - Head control method in rotating magnetic storage device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a head control method in a rotary magnetic storage device in which the head is brought into contact with a storage medium during read and write operations.

In a rotating magnetic storage device such as a floppy disk, the head is brought into contact with the storage medium only during read/write operations, and the head is set in a non-contact state during standby.

This is because if the head is kept in constant contact with the storage medium, since the storage medium is rotating at high speed, the head and the storage medium will wear out and shorten their lifespan.

However, in order to actually perform a read/write operation, it is necessary to set the head in a proper operating position where it contacts the storage medium.

Setting the head to this official operating position requires approximately 50 milliseconds because it involves mechanical movement.

When a storage device such as a floppy disk is connected to a computer, the computer is forced to wait, resulting in an extremely large time loss for the entire system.

In order to address these problems, storage devices such as diskettes are generally designed to bring the head into contact with the storage device during the 5eek operation (movement of the head to the target track) prior to the read/write operation. A method is adopted in which the head is separated from the storage medium at the end of the read/write operation.

However, in actual use, read and write operations are performed in sector units, and the read and write operations are performed on sectors within the same track several times (sectors).

That is, even though there are quite a few operations that do not require 5eeks, in this case it is necessary to bring the head into contact with the storage medium at the beginning of each read/write operation, resulting in a large amount of waste.

In addition, in computer systems, 5eek and read/write operations are usually treated as independent functions, so 5e
The length of time until a read/write operation is instructed after ek is not constant, and the read/write operation is not necessarily instructed after 5eek.

Therefore, the head may remain in contact with the storage medium for a long period of time other than during read/write operations.

As described above, it is recognized that there are points that need to be improved in the current system in terms of efficiency and life.

The present invention has been made to solve these problems, and will be described in detail below.

The key point of the present invention is that the head is set at a predetermined position on the storage medium at the beginning of each read/write operation, and the head is removed from the storage medium after a certain period of time has passed after the read/write operation is completed. It is in the point that I made it.

To explain in more detail with reference to the figure, the read/write operation sequence is in standby state S.

In step S1, it is determined whether or not the head is in contact with the storage medium, that is, whether the head is set. If not, issue a command to set the head in step S2, wait for time until setting of the head is completed, and perform read/write routine R.
to go into.

When the work in this routine R is completed, step S4 is reached in which a timer is set for a predetermined time, specifically 1-2 track times, or 40-80 msec.

After this step S4, the standby state S is resumed.

Return to If a read/write command is obtained again before the time set in step S4 has elapsed, the read/write routine R is entered through step S1, but the read/write command must be obtained within the time set in step S4. For example, the standby state S is triggered by a time-up signal from a timer.

The process moves to step S5 in which the head is separated from the storage medium, and the head is reset.

As is clear from the above description, the present invention is different in that the head is kept in contact with the storage medium for a certain period of time even after the read/write operation is completed, and is continuously held at the position where the read/write operation was performed. There is no difference in read/write operations for the track recorded by the present invention from existing devices, but read/write operations for sectors within the same track can be performed continuously without moving the head toward or away from the storage medium. It is possible to shorten the overall access time.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The figure is a flowchart for explaining the method of the present invention, where So indicates a standby state, 81 to S5 indicate steps, and R indicates a read/write routine.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a rotary magnetic storage device configured to have a head in contact with a storage medium during a read/write operation, the head contacts the storage medium to perform a read/write operation, and the head remains in storage for a certain period of time even after the read/write operation is completed. A method for controlling a head in a rotary magnetic storage device, characterized in that the head is continuously held at the position where the read/write operation is performed while the head remains in contact with the medium.