Seagate Technology Incorporated

Brett Alan Cook

Jonathan Williams Haines

Timothy Richard Feldman

Steven Scott Williams

Gregory Paul Moller

Paul Michael Wiggins

Mark A Gaertner

Wayne Howard Vinson

Luke William Friendshuh

Peter Igorevich Vasiliev

Tong Shirh Stone

James Carl Hatfield, Jr

Gabriel Ibarra

JyeKai K Chang

This disclosure is related to distributed media cache for data storage systems, such as disc drives, flash devices, or hybrid devices. In one example, a data storage device comprises a data storage medium and a controller adapted to selectively divide a media cache into a plurality of physically separate media cache portions on the data storage medium based on a physical attribute of the data storage medium and to store data received from a host system into the media cache portions.

Distributed media cache for data storage systems

The disclosure is related to systems and methods of controlling wear of a memory. In a particular embodiment, a system is disclosed that comprises a memory and a performance governor circuit coupled to the memory. The performance governor circuit is adapted to control a wear of the memory as a function of time.

Memory wear control

This disclosure is related to systems and methods for selective metadata storage in a system having multiple memories. In one example, a device may include a control circuit configured to selectively store a metadata base map in a first memory or a second memory. The metadata base map may include information to determine a physical memory address from a logical block address. The control circuit may also be configured to store metadata updates separately from the metadata base map. The metadata updates may comprise changes to the metadata base map. The control circuit may also be configured to selectively store the metadata updates in the first memory or the second memory based on characteristics of the device.

Selective storage of address mapping metadata in a system having multiple memories

The present disclosure provides a data storage system. In one example, the data storage system includes a data storage media component having a plurality of data storage locations. A first set of the plurality of data storage locations are allocated for a main data storage area. The data storage system also includes a controller configured to define a write cache for the main data storage area by selectively allocating a second set of the plurality of data storage locations.

Non-volatile write cache for a data storage system

An exemplary method includes receiving a command for storing data to a plurality of data storage resources, storing the data in a set of buffer storage locations, defining a plurality of jobs for the command, each of the plurality of jobs having an associated data operation with at least one of the data storage resources, and reallocating a subset of the buffer storage locations that stored the data for a completed job prior to completion of at least one other job.

Data management in a data storage system

The present disclosure provides a method in a data storage system. The method includes defining a plurality of jobs for a command received from a host. Each of the plurality of jobs is associated with one or more of a plurality of data storage resources of the data storage system. The plurality of jobs have a defined order that is a function of addresses of data in the plurality of data storage resources. The method also includes issuing the plurality of jobs to the associated data storage resources and receiving information from the data storage resources for the plurality of jobs. The information is received by a controller of the data storage system for the jobs in an order that is different than the defined order. The method includes transmitting the received information to the host for the plurality of jobs in the defined order.

Methods and systems are disclosed to generate a data map for a data storage device. A data map may be generated by scanning, during a power-on initialization process, data units of data stored on a data storage medium of a data storage device. The scanning may start from a selected data unit and proceed through the data units in an order opposite to a write order to identify a first data unit that is not fully erased. Also. an error recovery status of the first data unit may be determined based on an error correction code. A likely erased status of the first data unit may be assigned when the determined error recovery status is unrecoverable.

Data storage devices and methods for power-on initialization

A method includes programming a non-volatile memory. The memory includes a plurality of cells, wherein each cell is configured to store a plurality of values, wherein each of value is represented by N digits where N is an integer greater than 1, wherein each of the plurality of cells is further configured to store electric charge representing a plurality of voltage levels, and wherein each of the plurality of voltage levels represents one of the plurality of values. Programming comprises providing the plurality of voltage levels into a first group of voltage levels and a second group of voltage levels in one of the plurality of cells, wherein a highest voltage level of the first group is less than or substantially equal to a lowest voltage level of the second group, and storing, in the first group of voltage levels, electric charge representing a value comprising, at most, N-1 digits.

Low-wear writing in a solid state memory device

Method and apparatus for actively protecting a device from damage due to an impact or other acceleration condition. An active protection system is provided with a sensor which outputs an acceleration signal in relation to an acceleration state of the device. A circuit processes the acceleration signal in relation to a configuration control input indicative of an operational environment in which the device is operated, and a protection mechanism configures the device in relation to the processed acceleration signal. A configuration control module preferably supplies the configuration control input as a user selectable or host input. Preferably, protection mechanism places the device in a protective state to protect against damage due to an imminent impact, such as from a free fall condition. The processing preferably comprises adaptive filtering of the acceleration signal and the application of one or more thresholds to detect said imminent impact.

Active protection system

A method and system for managing the transfer of data into and out of a buffer in a disc drive is disclosed. The operation of the vectored buffer management (VBM) system is administered by a software-based control module. The control module creates and maintains a buffer table by dividing the buffer table into buffer sectors. The buffer sectors are further arranged into buffer segments, or circularly linked lists upon which the buffer table is partitioned. The control module effectuates the transfer by implementing an application module across the buffer table. Once the application module is arbitrarily positioned at an index sector by the control module, data transfer is accomplished when the application module walks through a particular buffer segment identified by the index sector. Specific control of the application module across a buffer segment is administered through host and disc address pointers, which are coupled to host and disc next pointers, respectively.

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

Brett Alan Cook