Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Western Digital Ventures, Inc.

Sandisk Technologies Inc.

Hgst Netherlands, B.v.

Michael Stephen Rothberg

William Bernard Boyle

Gregory B Thelin

Chun Sei Tsai

Marc A Bombet

Quoc Dang

Jan F Rebalski

Raffi Codilian

Horia Cristian Simionescu

Kenny T Coker

Jonathan Lee Hanmann

Mark F Vallis

Jonathan V Nguyen

Matthew W Milne

Eric L Severtson

Xuejian Fu

Jan G Abrahamsson

John Edward Lauber

Donald L McKeefery

Jonathan L Hanman

Anthony C Geria

Vu L Luu

Andrew Hill

Gobinathan Athimolom

Daniel A Hanson

A machine-implemented method for managing a flash storage system includes determining a projected life value for each of a plurality of flash memory devices in the flash storage system, wherein the projected life value for at least one of the plurality of flash memory devices is higher than the projected life value of at least another one of the plurality of flash memory devices. The method also includes determining operating parameters for each of the plurality of flash memory devices based on the respective projected life values for the plurality of flash memory devices. The method also includes configuring the plurality of flash memory devices based on the determined operating parameters.

Operating parameters for non-volatile memory devices

Operating parameters for flash memory devices

A system and method are provided for boundary scan testing one or more digital data storage drives. In particular, a drive tester system connects to the one or more digital data storage drives via a standard two-wire interface, such as a system management bus (SMBus) interface. The drive tester system performs a boundary scan test on the on more digital data storage drives via the standard two-wire interface. The boundary scan test may include a vector test.

Boundary scan testing a storage device via system management bus interface

Techniques for implementing a hybrid non-volatile memory storage system are disclosed. The hybrid memory system may include a first non-volatile memory; a second non-volatile memory; and a memory controller to analyze a type of an operation and a characteristic of the operation, to determine a state of the second non-volatile memory, and to determine whether another operation is being implemented on the second non-volatile memory, the memory controller selectively implementing an operation on one of the first non-volatile memory and the second non-volatile memory segment based on the type of the operation, the characteristic of the operation, the state of the second non-volatile memory, and whether another operation is being implemented on the second non-volatile memory such that the memory controller implements the operation on the first non-volatile memory concurrently with the other operation being implemented on the second non-volatile memory based on the type of the operation.

Hybrid solid state drive (SSD) using PCM or other high performance solid-state memory

A method is disclosed for configuring a data storage device. The data storage device receives a configuration code, and in response to the configuration code selects a configuration data record set from a plurality of configuration data record sets. The data storage device is configured in response to the selected configuration data record set. For example, the data storage device may be configured into a manufacturing test procedure mode, and then into a customer specific operating mode. In another embodiment, a hardware configuration of the data storage device is identified, and the configuration code selected based on the identified hardware configuration.

Configuring a data storage device with a configuration data record set in response to a configuration code

A disk drive is disclosed including a disk, and a head actuated over the disk. Control circuitry within the disk drive is operable to receive a write operation for a refresh zone of the disk, measure a write operation quality parameter that affects the quality of the write operation, and perform the write operation. An update function is enabled in connection with performing the write operation, wherein the update function is operable to update a refresh monitor as a function of the write operation and the write operation quality parameter. Data stored in the refresh zone of the disk is refreshed in response to the refresh monitor.

Disk drive biasing a refresh monitor with write parameter of a write operation

A disk drive is disclosed including a disk comprising a plurality of refresh zones, and a head actuated over the disk. The disk drive further comprises control circuitry for receiving access commands from a host. The control circuitry refreshes a refresh zone in a plurality of segments with an interval between each segment, and processes at least one of the access commands during the interval between at least two of the segments, wherein a size of each segment and the interval ensures an average throughput of access commands received from the host does not fall below a first threshold.

Disk drive refreshing zones in segments to sustain target throughput of host commands

A disk drive is disclosed including a first disk surface comprising a plurality of data tracks, wherein each data track comprises a first plurality of data sectors, and a second disk surface comprising a plurality of data tracks, wherein each data track comprises a second plurality of data sectors. A first head is actuated over the first disk surface and a second head is actuated over the second disk surface. The first and second data sectors are accessed in a serpentine access pattern, wherein a plurality of refresh zones are defined relative to the serpentine access pattern. When a write command is received from a host, data is written to at least one of the refresh zones, and a refresh monitor associated with the refresh zone is updated.

Disk drive refreshing zones based on serpentine access of disk surfaces

A disk drive is disclosed including a disk, and a head actuated over the disk. A refresh monitor is maintained for data stored on the disk, wherein the refresh monitor comprises an update function responsive to an operating parameter of the disk drive. A duration monitor is maintained, and the update function of the refresh monitor is modified in response to the duration monitor. The data stored on the disk is refreshed in response to the refresh monitor.

Disk drive modifying an update function for a refresh monitor in response to a measured duration

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a head actuated over a disk. A redundancy generator generates a plurality of redundancy symbols appended to user data to form a codeword C(x) written to a selected data sector on the disk. During a read operation, a syndrome generator generates a plurality of error syndromes in response to a received codeword C'(x) generated by reading the selected data sector. An error detector, responsive to the error syndromes, detects a number of errors in the received codeword C&#x2032;(x), and a plurality of counters count a number of times the number of errors falls within a predetermined plurality of ranges to thereby provide a distribution of the errors. The error distribution is used, for example, for selecting a track density or ECC depth, or for failure prediction or defect mapping.

Disk drive employing error threshold counters to generate an ECC error distribution

A method is disclosed for ordering error recovery steps of an error recovery procedure executed by a disk drive, wherein each error recovery step having an execution time. The disk drive comprises a disk having a plurality of tracks, wherein each track comprises a plurality of data sectors. A plurality of step success counters are initialized, wherein each counter corresponds to one of the error recovery steps. A plurality of the error recovery steps are executed, wherein if an error recovery step successfully recovers one of the data sectors the corresponding step success counter is incremented. A step priority value is computed for each error recovery step in response to the step success counter and execution time for each step. The error recovery steps are then ordered in response to the step priority values.

Optimizing order of error recovery steps in a disk drive

An information storage device is disclosed (such as a disk drive) comprising an interface for connecting to a host through a cable, and control circuitry for communicating with the host over the cable by executing a communication process. The communication processes comprises the steps of transmitting a communication request to the host over the cable and waiting to receive a response from the host over the cable. A cable loss event is logged if the host fails to respond after executing the communication process at least twice. Performing the communication process multiple times before logging a cable loss event helps ensure a communication failure is actually due to a faulty cable connection.

Disk drive or any serial attached device logging a cable loss event

A disk drive and method are disclosed for data transfer initiated by nonstandard disk-drive commands on a serial interface that only supports standard disk-drive commands. In the method, a nonstandard disk-drive command for data transfer is embedded within a first data block accessible using a first standard disk-drive command. The first standard disk-drive command is transmitted through the serial interface causing the first data block to be transferred from the host computer to the disk control system. The embedded command is extracted from the transferred first data block and provided to the disk control system. A status response is transmitted to the host computer based on the extracted command. At least one additional standard disk-drive command is transmitted through the serial interface to the disk control system for transferring the identified data between the host computer and the disk drive.

Disk drive and method for data transfer initiated by optional disk-drive commands on a serial interface that only supports standard disk-drive commands

Growing community of inventors

Foothill Ranch, CA, United States of America

Michael Stephen Rothberg