Maxtor Corporation

Maxoptix Corporation

Iomega Corporation

Robert Jackson

Donald E Adams

Erhard Theodor Schreck

Alan Claude Burroughs

Charles B Abate

Timothy Glassburn

A disk drive includes a rotatable data storage disk, an interface, a transducer, a write buffer, an actuator, and a controller. The transducer is configured to read and write data on the disk. The interface is configured to receive data with associated write commands and a park signal. The write buffer is configured to temporarily store the data and associated write commands while the data waits to be written on the disk via the transducer. The actuator is configured to move the transducer between a parked position and tracks on a disk where data is read and written. The controller is configured to execute the buffered write commands by positioning the transducer relative to tracks on the disk while writing data from the write buffer to the disk, and is configured to respond to the park signal, which is indicative of an imminent transducer to disk contact condition, by moving the transducer to the park position without completing execution of the buffered write commands.

Parking a transducer responsive to a park signal

A method and apparatus which can provide a temperature estimate in a hard disk drive or other electronic device is provided. Output from the sensor, which may be indicative of a location spaced from the target temperature location, is sampled and integrated over an interval of time to form an estimate of average input sensor voltage. During the time interval, history of the HDD pre-amplifier operating modes is accumulated. The results are combined to form an estimate of HDA ambient temperature. Sensor offsets associated with each power mode, and weighted to the corresponding mode duty, can be subtracted from the average input sensor voltage.

Temperature estimator for electronic device

A disk drive that sustains a constant rate to a host and provides a method for allowing retries and accesses to reallocated sectors if the disk drive's recent historical performance has been sufficient to guarantee that the minimum transfer rate will be met while performing a retry or accessing a reallocated sector. During the transfer of data, the disk drive determines a reserve value that represents the amount of data that is stored in a transfer buffer. The reserve value is increased by the number of sectors actually sent to an intermediate buffer between the disk drive and the host, and decreased based on the minimum or constant data rate, normalized to revolutions of a disk within the drive. Based on this value, the disk drive determines if the disk drive can seek for data in reallocated sectors or to perform retries to correct faulty data while maintaining the minimum transfer rate. Because disk drive electronics provide automation for the transfer portion, the process of performing retries and seeks may be programed in the hardware such that specific conditions may be set under which the disk drive may stop and perform a retry or seek to a reallocated sector location.

Method and apparatus of sustained sequential data transfer in a media drive

A track seek method for a disk drive system. In the seek method of the present invention, the head is moved according to the characteristics of an ideal, electronically generated signal which is independent from data read off the disk. By varying the characteristics of the ideal signal, the seek profile is controlled. The ideal signal is sampled at times specified by an error signal which is based upon data read off the disk. The movement of the head is adjusted according to the sampled signal. Since track crossings correspond to ideal signal cycles, the number of tracks crossed is determined by counting the number of cycles of the ideal signal. Consequently, the position of the head is known at all times throughout the seek, thereby maintaining the seek in a closed-loop configuration during the entire seek. When the appropriate number of tracks have been counted, the head is stopped on the destination track and the head can access data contained therein. Furthermore, the seek operation's dynamic range may be increased by extending the range of each cycle of the ideal signal to cover more than one track.

Track seek method utilizing an ideal signal

A seek method for disk drive is described. In the seek method of the present invention, the tracking servo loop remains in a track positioning mode throughout the entire seek process. By effectively varying the reference position of the head with respect to track center under a predetermined profile, the track positioning mode is utilized to produce a pseudo-continous movement across the disk surface. In essence, the servo track following loop attempts to mainta position relative to a local track center as dictated by profile information supplied by a microprocessor. The system of the present invention is an open loop in the sense that no attempt is made to loop information about deviation from the predefined profile back to the microprocessor. Local positioning, however, remains closed loop at all times so that the system is always within the predicted track and arrives directly on target.

Growing community of inventors

Union City, CA, United States of America

Robert Jackson