International Business Machines Corporation

Sony Corporation

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.v.

Lenovo (singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Tetsuya Tamura

Martin Aureliano Hassner

Hajime Nishimura

Takeshi Sasa

Kazuya Suzuki

Masayuki Demura

Barry Marshall Trager

Shmuel Winograd

Hiroshi Itagaki

Steven Robert Hetzler

Hiroshi Uchida

Hideo Asano

Hironobu Nagura

Nyles Heise

Keisuke Tanaka

Tetsuo Semba

Arvind M Patel

Tetsuo Ueda

Ehud Dov Karnin

Fuminori Sai

Yuzo Nakagawa

Yukio Fukushima

Takashi Kuroda

Katsuhiko Katoh

Akira Sasaki

Hiroshi Oshikawa

Takayuki Kinoshita

Uwe Schwiegelshohn

Richard Michael Hamilton New

Ralf Kotter

Akio Nakamura

Kohji Yamada

Shunsuke Kobayashi

Emi Shimono

A composite memory device, a data processing method and a data processing program can efficiently and selectively use a nonvolatile solid-state memory and a recording medium. The composite medium device includes a nonvolatile solid-state memory and a recording medium and is adapted to combine the data area of the recording medium and the data area of the nonvolatile solid-state memory and manage them as totally or partly integrated data area by means of a predetermined file system. The composite memory device is connected to a host appliance by way of an interface section.

Composite memory device, data processing method and data processing program

There is provided a composite type recording apparatus restricting write operations depending on the type of a connected host apparatus, including a recording medium having a first data region, a non-volatile storage medium having a second data region and an identification information table for integrating and managing the first and second data region, an information selection section for selecting positional information having predetermined identification information from the identification information table according to the type of the host apparatus, a conversion section for converting positional information selected by the information selection section into positional information matching the first data region or positional information matching the second data region, a first write section for writing data supplied from the host apparatus in the first data region according to conversion process of the conversion section and a second write section for writing data supplied from the host apparatus in the second data region.

Composite type recording apparatus, data writing method and data writing program

A head position estimator estimates the present position of a head relative to a recording medium, an LBA calculator for calculating positions of a data block to be read next and other data blocks existing before and after the data block, and a moving destination determiner for determining a data block at which the time required to move the head is the shortest, as a data block to be read next, on the basis of the present position of the head, which has been estimated by the head position estimator, and the positions of the respective data blocks, which have been calculated by the LBA calculator.

Recording and reproducing apparatus, content reproducing apparatus, magnetic disk device, and control method thereof

A data storage apparatus is provided. The data storage apparatus includes: a storage unit managed using a logical block address; a memory; a storage control unit for storing in the storage unit a free area control table transmitted from the host apparatus in which information on a free area in the storage unit is stored; an expanding unit for reading the free area control table in the storage unit and expanding it in the memory; a recording unit for recording data transmitted from the host apparatus into a free area in the storage unit on the basis of the free area control table in the memory; an updating unit for updating the free area control table in the memory after the data recording unit has completed a recording operation; and a transmission unit for transmitting to the host apparatus updated information included in the free area control table which has been updated by the updating unit.

Data storage apparatus and data access method for controlling address information for data writing using a free area control table

There is provided a recording apparatus which includes a recording medium having a data area with an address assigned to each cluster of a predetermined size; an interface for connection to a host apparatus; writing means for writing data in the data area; access order deciding means for dividing the data area of the recording medium into a plurality of areas each having an optional data capacity, and deciding an order of accessing the divided areas from the writing means; timing deciding means for deciding a timing when file information on written data is to be updated; control means for controlling the writing means to access a plurality of divided areas in accordance with the decided access order, search an empty cluster in the accessed area, and write data in the searched empty cluster and file information updating means for updating the file information on already written data.

Recording apparatus

A recording/reproducing apparatus is provided which can write continuously a file of large-capacity at high-speed. A record area of HDD is provided with a disk cache area for temporarily storing data to be written. The disk cache area is defined as a area that is not used by a host apparatus () in an LBA space, and the disk cache area is disposed in an area with a high transfer rate such as an outer circumferential area of a disk (). A file transferred from the host apparatus () is written in the disk cache area, and the file is transferred from the disk cache area to a usual user area during an idle period to release the disk cache area and prepare for next transfer data write.

Recording and reproducing apparatus and recording method

There is provided a composite memory device including a recording medium and nonvolatile recording medium and in which data is written to and read from the recording mediums on the basis of a common file system, the recording medium () having a first data area, the nonvolatile recording medium () having a second data area and an identification information table to manage the first and second data area collectively. The device further includes an information selector () to select positional information including predetermined identification information on the basis of the identification information table, converter () to convert positional information selected by the information selector () into position information corresponding to the first data area or into positional information corresponding to the second data area, first writing unit to write data supplied from a host device to the first data area and a second writing unit to write data supplied to the host device to the second data area.

Composite memory device, data wiring method and program

A data-storage apparatus, a data-storage method and a recording/reproducing system are provided, which effectively use the time elapsing before data is transferred to be written in a recording medium, such as disc-seeking time and disc-rotation standby time, thereby to raise the speed of transferring data. A hybrid storage apparatus has two storage areas, i.e., a disc and a nonvolatile solid-state memory. The disc and the memory have a disc cache area, a system area, and a user area each. If data is transferred from the host apparatus, it is written into the cache area of the nonvolatile solid-state memory that can be accessed at high speed for the first super cluster. While the data being so written, the head is moved to a prescribed position. Any data coming after the head is moved to this position is written into the cache area.

Data-storage apparatus, data-storage method and recording/reproducing system

The Hamming distance of an array of storage devices is increased by generating a parity check matrix based on column equations that are formed using an orthogonal parity code and includes a higher-order multiplier that changes each column. The higher order multiplier is selected to generate a finite basic field of a predetermined number of elements. The array has M rows and N columns, such that M is greater than or equal to three and N is greater than or equal to three. Rowthrough row M&#x2212;2 of the array each have n&#x2013;p data storage devices and p parity storage devices. Row M&#x2212;1 of the array has n&#x2212;(p+1) data storage devices and (p+1) parity storage devices. Lastly, row M of the array has N parity storage devices.

Generalized parity stripe data storage array

An error correction algebraic decoder and an associated method correct a combination of a B-byte burst of errors and t-byte random errors in a failed sector, by iteratively adding and removing an erasure (N&#x2212;B) times until the entire failed sector has been scanned, provided the following inequality is satisfied: (B+2t)&#x2266;(R&#x2212;1), where N denotes the number of bytes, B denotes the length of the burst of errors, t denotes the total number of random errors, and R denotes the number of check bytes in the failed sector. This results in a corrected sector at a decoding latency that is a generally linear function of the number of the check bytes R, as follows: Decoding Latency=5R(N&#x2212;B).

Algebraic decoder and method for correcting an arbitrary mixture of burst and random errors

In conventional magnetic disk drives where stream data are treated, seek operations are performed at unnecessarily high speeds. This put the magnetic disk drives at a disadvantage in suppressing noise, reducing power consumption, and lowering the costs of actuator components. In one embodiment of the invention, a magnetic disk drive comprises a magnetic disk medium; a magnetic head; a head actuator to move the magnetic head relative to the magnetic disk medium; and a controller configured to control the head actuator to move the magnetic head to record data to and reproduce data from the magnetic disk medium. The controller is configured to control the magnetic head to record stream data on the magnetic disk medium in such a manner that the stream data is recognizable as stream data. The controller is configured to detect a situation in which two or more stream data are to be recorded or reproduced concurrently so as to set a slower seek operation mode.

Concurrent data recording and reproducing method, seek operation control method and magnetic disk drive using the methods

To implement an operation in Jacobian with improved computation complexity, the sum is computed of a divisor D=g.c.d. (a(x),y&#x2212;b(x)) and a divisor D=g.c.d. (a(x),y&#x2212;b(x)) on Jacobian of a hyperelliptic curve y+y=f(x) defined over GF(2) by: storing a(x), a(x), b(x) and b(x); and calculating q(x)=s(b(x)+b(x)) mod a(x) by using s(x) in s(x)a(x)+s(x)a(x)=1 in case of GCD(a(x),a(x))=1 where GCD denotes a greatest common polynomial. Thus, a new function q(x) is provided so as to reduce the entire computational complexity and the hardware size. Moreover, in the case of D=D, a(x) and b(x) is stored; and q(x)=Q(b(x)+f(x) mod a(x), a(x)) where Q(A,B) is a quotient of A/B is calculated.

Apparatus and method to compute in Jacobian of hyperelliptic curve defined over Galois field of characteristic 2

To improve the probability of error correction, thereby generating correct read data. Data is read from the same sector by a number of times and a majority decision is done in the same address, thereby the most frequently read value is regarded as the true data value in the address. For example, for an address 00, '00' is handled as a true data value.

Data storage apparatus, read data processor, and read data processing method

A method and an apparatus encodes and decodes blocks having a predetermined number of sectors of data bytes to detect and correct data bytes in error in each sector of a block. The method and the apparatus generates sector level check bytes for each sector in the block responsive to the data bytes in each sector according to a first level of an error correction code, and generates block level check bytes for a predetermined sector in the block responsive to the sector level check bytes of various sectors, including the predetermined sector, according to at least a second level of the error correction code. The method and apparatus processes the block to detect and correct data bytes in error in each sector within the capability of the sector level check bytes, to detect and correct data bytes in error in the at least two sectors that exceed the correction capability of the sector level check bytes but within the correction capability of the block level check bytes, or to indicate that the data bytes in error in the at least two sectors exceed the correction capability of each of the sector level check bytes and the block level check bytes. The method and apparatus improves signal quality for long streams of information having multiple sequential physical blocks of data bytes, such as audio visual information, with a low check byte overhead while being compatible with conventional 512 data byte sized sectors and conventional single sector error correction code processes.

Multiple level (ML), integrated sector format (ISF), error correction code (ECC) encoding and decoding processes for data storage or communication devices and systems

An encoding system and associated method protect against miscorrection due to parity sector correction in, for example, an on-drive RAID system. The system adds a parity cluster block, which itself is a complete, C3-protected cluster. Having the cluster level, C4 level correction, by parity sectors, checked and verified by C3 checks that have high reliability level, as well as the capability for checking consistency of a cluster block, even in the presence of 'jami' errors, makes this possibility unlikely. A scrub algorithm avoids read-modify-write operations by deferring the completion of the C2 and C3-ckecks until the storage device is idle.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Tetsuya Tamura