Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Chandra M Guda

Choo-Bhin Ong

Chun Sei Tsai

Carl E Barlow

Cheng Fatt Yee

Lu Ding

Robert L Horn

Gregory B Thelin

Jing Booth

Michael C Kutas

Michael Ainsworth

Marc-Angelo P Carino

Fyodor Soiguine

A read command is received from a host requesting data from a portion of a first memory of a data storage system and it is determined whether one or more sections of the first memory including the portion have previously been written to by the host. If it is determined that the one or more sections have not previously been written to by the host, predetermined data is sent to the host in response to the read command without reading the portion of the first memory. According to another aspect, the requested data from the read command is cached in a second memory of the data storage system based on whether the one or more sections of the first memory have previously been written to by the host.

Read command processing for data storage system based on previous writes

Lifetime extension of a non-volatile semiconductor memory (NVSM) for a data storage device (DSD) includes determining a write amplification factor based on an amount of data previously written to the NVSM and at least one of an amount of data previously requested to be written to the DSD, and an amount of data previously requested to be written to the NVSM. At least a portion of the amount of data to be written to the NVSM is directed or redirected to the disk based on the determined write amplification factor.

Lifetime extension of non-volatile semiconductor memory for data storage device

A device comprises a first storage media and a controller. The controller configured to generate a first operational metric using a first set of operational data at a first frequency and a second operational metric a second set of operational data at a second frequency different than the first frequency; receive a write command to write data to the first storage media; and divert the write command to write data to a second storage media instead of the first storage media when at least one of the first operational metric and the second operational metric indicates that writing data to the first storage media may be harmful to the magnetic rotating disk or result in data loss.

Data storage device with selective write to a first storage media or a second storage media

A data storage device can include a magnetic rotating disk, a solid state memory, and a controller. The controller is configured to generate a first operational metric which is updated at a first frequency and a second operational metric which is updated at a second frequency different than the first frequency, receive a write command to write data to the magnetic rotating disk, and divert the write command to write data to the solid state memory instead of the magnetic rotating disk when at least one of the first operational metric and the second operational metric indicates that writing data to the magnetic rotating disk may be harmful to the magnetic rotating disk or result in data loss.

Embodiments of solid-state storage system are provided herein which reduce processing delays for performance-sensitive commands. These performance-sensitive commands are typically read-write commands which can be transferred to the storage media by a high performance path to optimize responsiveness to the host. This high performance path can be enabled and disabled to prevent conflicts with commands processed via a low performance path.

High performance path for command processing

A disk drive is disclosed that utilizes multi-tiered solid state memory for caching data received from a host. Data can be stored in a memory tier that can provide the required performance at a low cost. For example, multi-level cell (MLC) memory can be used to store data that is frequently read but infrequently written. As another example, single-level cell (SLC) memory can be used to store data that is frequently written. Improved performance, reduced costs, and improved power consumption can thereby be attained.

Disk drive data caching using a multi-tiered memory

A disk drive including a disk configured to spin at a target spin speed, a servo core configured to access the disk, a first non-volatile memory configured to store a first initialization firmware, a second non-volatile memory configured to store a second initialization firmware, a first volatile memory, a second volatile memory, a non-volatile memory core configured to access the first non-volatile memory, and a main core. The main core is configured to load the second initialization firmware from the second non-volatile memory to the second volatile memory concurrently with the loading of the first initialization firmware from the first non-volatile memory to the first volatile memory by the non-volatile memory core, control the servo core to initiate spinning of the disk, and communicate with the non-volatile memory core to service host commands from the first non-volatile memory when the disk is not spinning at the target spin speed.

Method and apparatus for servicing host commands by a disk drive

A data storage system is disclosed that utilizes high performance media manager transport architecture. In one embodiment, solid-state memory is connected via a bridge interface and media manager transport architecture optimizes the transfer and throughput of data communicated across the bridge. Media transport manager architecture can support reordering and interleaving of storage access commands by using priority and staging mechanisms. Balanced load of solid-state memory, parallel execution of storage access operations, improved concurrency, and increased performance can be attained.

High performance media transport manager architecture for data storage systems

A data storage system is disclosed that utilizes a high performance caching architecture. In one embodiment, the caching architecture utilizes a cache table, such as a lookup table, for referencing or storing host data units that are cached or are candidates for being cached in the solid-state memory. Further, the caching architecture maintains a segment control list that specifies associations between particular cache table entries and particular data segments. Such separation of activities related to the implementation of a caching policy from activities related to storing cached data and candidate data provides robustness and scalability while improving performance.

Growing community of inventors

Lake Forest, CA, United States of America

Chandra M Guda