KR100513377B1 - How to Set Up a Zone Map for Your Hard Disk Drive - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

Hard disk drive

I. The technical problem that the invention is trying to solve

It is possible to reduce the error rate of each write / write read channel of the hard disk drive, to reduce the waste of parts due to defective parts, and to improve the production yield.

All. Summary of the Solution of the Invention

The zone map is variably set according to the error rate during the test of the data write / read channel of the hard disk drive.

la. Important uses of the invention:

This can be important for zone map settings on hard disk drives.

Description

How to Set Up a Zone Map for Your Hard Disk Drive

The present invention relates to a hard disk drive, and more particularly to a method for setting a zone map according to an error rate of a write / read channel of a hard disk drive.

Generally, a hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as a drive) is a device that magnetically records data on a rotating magnetic disk (hereinafter referred to as a disk) or reads data recorded on the disk, so that a large amount of data can be stored. It is widely used as an auxiliary memory device of a computer system.

Looking at the data recording and reading process of the hard disk drive as follows. The drive records data transmitted from an external host (host computer) by magnetizing the data on the disk where the magnetic layer is formed by using an electric signal according to the data using a head. The magnetized form is converted into an electrical signal through the head to read data recorded in the magnetized form.

On the other hand, a method of recording data on a disc may be classified into a single zone recording method and a zone bit recording method or a zone density recording method according to the data recording density of the disc's inner and outer regions. .

When writing data onto a disc in a hard disc drive, the disc typically spins at a certain preset rotation speed. In the single zone recording method, the amount of data recorded per unit time at which the disc is rotated is the same in the inner and outer regions. Therefore, the data transfer rate is the same, but the physical density of the data recorded per unit distance on the disk, that is, the recording density is lower than that of the inner peripheral area. It was designed to compensate for this and record more data.

Hereinafter, the John bit recording method will be described with reference to FIG. 1. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a zone configuration of a magnetic disk configured by a zone bit recording method of a hard disk drive. As shown, in the zone bit recording method, the disk 18 is divided into a plurality of zones in the form of concentric circles. One zone consists of multiple tracks in the form of concentric circles in which data is recorded.

The number of sectors of a track in one zone may be the same, but the more zones on the outer periphery, the more sectors per track. In other words, when zones are referred to as zone 1, zone 2, zone 3, ... zone n from the outer periphery, the number of sectors in zone 1 is the largest, which means that the zone on the outer periphery side has a larger amount of recordable data. Therefore, the data recording density of the disc 18 becomes relatively even as a whole.

In the JohnBit recording method, the recording density of the outer circumference and the inner circumference is even, so that when data is recorded (or read) on a disk rotating at a constant speed, the data transfer speed is different at each outer circumference and inner circumference. That is, different for each zone. For example, when the data recording capacity of the entire disk 18 is 2.54 Gbyte, the data transfer rate may be 200 Mb / s in zone 1 and 110 Mb / s in zone n shown in FIG. Each of these zones and the corresponding data transfer rate scheme is called a zone map.

The disk and the hard disk drive disclosed below are assumed to employ the zone bit recording method described above.

On the other hand, since the quality of the hard disk drive depends on the performance of the data write / read channel, the performance of the data write / read channel is tested according to the zone map as described above during the manufacturing process. In such a performance test, the error rate is calculated and, if the error rate is above the allowable value, the drive is judged to be defective and the part replaced or the follow-up action taken accordingly.

In the manufacture of a hard disk drive, however, the main purpose is to increase the amount of data that can be recorded on a disk. Therefore, the zone map is set by the manufacturer so that the amount of data that can be recorded is the highest in accordance with the performance of the drive in advance. Setting the zone map to have the largest amount of recordable data means that the data transfer rate is faster. The faster the data transfer rate is, the greater the influence due to the softness error of the recording / reading channel becomes, and the error rate increases.

Therefore, in the performance test of the data write / read channel according to the preset zone map, the determination of the failure or normal of the entire drive may be changed by the minute performance difference of the channel. In the case of performing the defective treatment such as replacing the parts when the failure is judged by the above case, it can be a waste in terms of the production cost of production or in terms of production yield.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for setting a zone map of a hard disk drive, which can improve component production costs and production yield in a hard disk drive.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of setting a zone map that can reduce an error rate by overcoming a softness error in a data write / read channel test of a hard disk drive.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of setting a zone map that can overcome softness errors by lowering the data transfer rate during a data write / read channel test of a hard disk drive.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that, in the hard disk drive, the zone map is variably set according to the error rate during the test of the data write / read channel.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, specific details such as a zone map and a process of progress are shown, which are provided to help a more general understanding of the present invention, and the specific matters may be modified or changed within the scope of the present invention. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

First, the operation of the hard disk drive will be described. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a hard disk drive to which the present invention is applied. Referring to FIG. 2, the microprocessor 10 is connected to a programmable read only memory (PROM) 12 and a static random access memory (SRAM) 14 that store predetermined control programs and data of the microprocessor 10. Control the overall operation of the drive. The head 16 is attached to one end of the actuator to rise to a predetermined height on the rotating disk 18, which is a recording medium, and is driven into and out of the disk 18 to write data to or read data from the disk 18 surface. The voice coil motor (VCM) 20 located at the other end of the actuator having the head 16 attached to one end drives the head 16 in response to the applied current level and direction. The spindle motor 22 normally rotates the disk 18 mounted on the drive shaft in accordance with a control signal input from the motor driver 24. The VCM driver 26 is connected to the VCM 20 to control the driving of the VCM 20. The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 28 is connected to the microprocessor 10 and the VCM driver 26, receives a digital control signal from the microprocessor 10, and converts the digital control signal into an analog signal and outputs the analog signal to the VCM driver 26. The motor driver 24 is connected to the spindle motor 22 and the microprocessor 10 and controls the driving of the spindle motor 22 under the control of the microprocessor 10. The pre-amplifier 30 is connected to the head 16 to amplify and output the reproduced signal and output a signal to be recorded to the head 16. The read / write channel circuit 32 is connected to the microprocessor 10, the preamplifier 30, and the disk data controller (DDC) 34, and receives the data to be recorded from the DDC 34 under the control of the microprocessor 10, encodes the data, and outputs the preamplifier 30 to the preamplifier 30. do. In addition, the read / write channel circuit 32 digitally converts the analog reproduction signal input from the preamplifier 30 and outputs the encoded read data (ERD). An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 36 is connected to the read / write channel circuit 32 to receive an analog servo reproduction signal, digitally converts it to PES, and outputs it to the microprocessor 10. The gate array 38 is connected to the read / write channel circuit 32 to receive an ERD signal and detects and outputs servo information such as gray codes in the servo region of the disc 18. The DDC 34 has a sequencer that performs operations according to the microprograms downloaded from the microprocessor 10. The DDC 34 stores data received from an external data input device (e.g., a host computer) via a read / write channel circuit 32 and a preamplifier 30. Record on 18 or read data from disk 18 and send it to an external data input device. The DDC 34 also interfaces the host computer with the microprocessor 10. The DDC 34 also temporarily stores data transmitted between the host computer, the microprocessor 10 and the read / write channel circuit 32 in the buffer RAM 35.

The microprocessor 10, which controls the overall operation of the drive, controls the DDC 34 in response to read or write commands received from the host computer and controls track search and track following. The PROM 12 stores the above-described operating program of the microprocessor 10 and various setting values.

In the hard disk drive having the above-described configuration, the microprocessor 10 variably sets the zone map according to the error rate when testing the data write / read channel according to the feature of the present invention. This is to set an optimal data transfer rate (recording density) according to the performance of the recording / reading channel. This will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 is an exemplary diagram of various zone maps set according to an error rate of a write / read channel according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a proper zone map according to an error rate of a write / read channel according to an embodiment of the present invention. This is a control flowchart of the microprocessor 10 in the process of setting the.

As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of zone maps are pre-set, such as zone map 1, zone map 2,... As shown in FIG. 3, according to the zone map 1, data recording is set to be 200 Mb (Mega-bit) per second, that is, 200 Mb / s in zone 1, which is the outermost zone of the disc 18, and zone n, which is the innermost zone of the disc 18. Is set to 110Mb / s. Zone map 1 is preset based on the maximum data recording capacity of the current drive. For example, the zone map 1 may be a zone map that is conventionally applied collectively when the current drive has a data recording capacity of 2.54 Gbytes. On the other hand, zone map 2 is set to 180 Mb / s in zone 1, 90 Mb / s in zone n, and zone map n is set to 120 Mb / s in zone 1 and 30 mb / s in zone n. The zone map 2 and the zone map n may be zone maps applied to a drive having a data recording capacity of 2.1 Gbyte and 1.6 Gbyte, respectively.

In the error test, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the microprocessor 10 sets the zone map to zone map 1, that is, zone map 1 to set the zone map that may have the largest data recording capacity first in step 40. Thereafter, in step 42, the test is performed according to the corresponding zone map, and then in step 44, the error rate is calculated. Subsequently, in step 46, it is determined whether the error rate is within the allowable range. If it is within the allowable range, it is determined that the recording / reading channel of the drive is normal. In step 48, the corresponding zone map is set as the reference zone map. That is, if the error rate is within the allowable range when tested with the current zone map 1, the zone map 1 is set as the reference zone map, and the operation is performed according to the zone map 1 described above when the data is recorded / read.

On the other hand, if the error rate exceeds the allowable range in step 46, the microprocessor 10 proceeds to step 50 to determine whether the currently set zone map is the last zone map, and if not the last zone map, proceeds to step 54 to set the next zone map. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step 42 to repeat the above test. That is, if the test is performed according to the zone map 1 as shown in FIG. 3 when the current test is performed, the next zone map is set to the zone map 2 and tested. This is done by first testing the zone map with the largest data recording capacity and trying to find the zone map that can record the most data while the error rate is within the allowable range.

If the test is performed up to the zone map n where the error rate exceeds the allowable range and is currently set, the microprocessor 10 proceeds to step 52 in step 50 to determine the write / read channel of the current drive. Failure processing is performed.

As an example of the actual execution of the above process, for example, a test in which a total data recording capacity is 2.54 Gbyte (Giga byte) was tested under the condition of zone map 1 as shown in FIG. If it is within%, even if the error rate of the test result is exceeded, the error rate may be only about 20% when the same test is performed again under the condition of zone map 2 (that is, the data recording capacity is 2.1 Gbyte).

In the above example, looking at the capacity in which the actual data is recorded, when the data recording capacity is 2.54 Gbytes, when the drive is determined to be genuine due to an error rate of 30% in subsequent tests, the actual data recording capacity is (whole) Recording capacity—in terms of error capacity) is about 1.778 Gbytes. On the other hand, when the data recording capacity is 2.1Gbyte, when the test error rate is 20%, the actual data recording capacity at this time is 1.8Gbyte, so there is no difference in terms of the actual data recording capacity.

As described above, in the present invention, a zone map suitable for the characteristics of the recording / reading channel of each drive can be set, and an error rate can be reduced.

In the above process, the number of zone maps and the data transfer rate for each zone are appropriately determined in advance.

In addition, in the above-described embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of zone maps are configured in advance, and the present invention is performed by finding a suitable zone map. However, in another embodiment of the present invention, the maximum data storage capacity of the drive is allowed. After the test is first performed with the zone map, when the error rate is higher than the allowable value, the amount of data to be recorded per unit time for each zone in the zone map may be reduced by a predetermined amount.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the zone map is variably set according to the error rate during the test of the data write / read channel of the hard disk drive, the write / write read channel suitable for the characteristics of each drive is configured, thereby reducing the error rate and defective parts. There is an advantage that can reduce the waste of parts due to processing, improve the production yield.

1 is a diagram illustrating a zone configuration of a magnetic disk configured by zone bit recording method of a hard disk drive.

2 is a schematic block diagram of a hard disk drive to which the present invention is applied.

3 is an exemplary diagram of various zone maps set according to an error rate of a recording / reading channel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a control flowchart of a microprocessor in the process of setting an appropriate zone map according to an error rate of a write / read channel according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (3)

In the standard zone map setting method of a hard disk drive employing the zone bit recording method, Presetting a first zone map based on the expected maximum data recording capacity of the hard disk drive and at least one additional zone map based on a capacity smaller by a predetermined capacity than the maximum data recording capacity; Performing a test based on the first zone map and the additional zone map sequentially when performing a performance test of a data recording / reading channel of the hard disk drive; And setting the corresponding zone map as the reference zone map when the performance of the recording / reading channel satisfies a preset tolerance value in the test. The first zone map and the additional zone map are provided by tabulating information on each zone of the disc and the data transfer rate of each zone, and the first zone map and the additional zone map on the disc of each zone corresponding to the first zone map and the additional zone map. Zone map setting method characterized in that the location is the same. In the zone map setting method of a hard disk drive employing the zone bit recording method, Testing the performance of a data write / read channel according to an initial zonemap set to the expected maximum recording capacity of the hard disk drive; Repeating the test while lowering the data transmission rate for each zone of the initial zone map by a predetermined unit when the performance is less than or equal to a preset allowable value; Setting the final zone map at the tested data transmission rate when the repeated test is within a preset allowable number of times and the performance of the data recording / reading channel satisfies a preset allowable value among the repeated tests. , The initial zone map and the final zone map are provided by tabulating the information on each zone of the disc and the data transfer rate of each zone, and the position of the zone on the disc corresponding to each zone between the initial zone map and the final zone map is Zone map setting method characterized in that the same. 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of treating the performance of the recording / reading channel as bad when the repetitive test exceeds a preset allowable number of times.