Disk drive block ordering system
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorsAARON WADE WILSON, BRETT GERALD LAMMERS
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system for laying out and accessing data in a disk drive system. The layout resides in a table in firmware of the disk drive system. The table includes multiple entries or rows, one corresponding to each different area in the disk media. The entry provides information about the range of block addresses in that area including the starting and end block address in the area, and information about the range of physical addresses including the head and the starting and ending cylinder number. A firmware routine finds the appropriate entry in the table and converts the block address to the physical address, or vice versa.
Claims10
A method of accessing data on disk media in a disk drive system, the system also having control circuitry with associated memory, the method comprising:
- providing a data layout table containing the layout of the data in a tabular form in the associated memory of the control circuitry;
- upon external requests to access data in the disk drive system, the external request including a block address, converting the block address in the external request to a physical address by accessing the data layout table;
- and
- accessing the data on the disk media by utilizing the physical address.
A disk drive system for storing data, the system comprising:
- at least one storage disk, the disk having a storage surface thereon on which data can be stored;
- at least one sensor operatively associated with the storage surface, the sensor generating signals representative of the data stored on the storage surface;
- control circuitry associated with the storage disk and the sensor, the control circuitry including circuitry for determining where on the storage disk a particular segment of data is stored, wherein the determining circuitry includes a table providing a layout of the data on the storage disk, the table being employed to determine where the particular segment of data is stored.
A method of converting between logical addresses and physical addresses in a disk drive system, the method comprising:
- providing a data layout table relating logical addresses to physical addresses in the disk drive system;
- upon the need to convert between logical addresses and physical addresses, accessing the table to convert between a given one of the logical and physical addresses and the other of the logical and physical addresses;
- and
- supplying the converted address.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.