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US 7,305,572 B1Granted
Disk drive input sequencing for staggered drive spin-up
AssigneeEMC Corporation
InventorsJohn V. Burroughs, Stephen E. Strickland, Timothy E. Dorr
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disk drive spin-up is staggered to reduce peak power requirements. Spin-up of the drives is controlled by selectively delaying voltage inputs to the disk drives. Alternately, spin-up of the drives is controlled by staggering the timing of communications to the disk drives.
Claims17
A method of controlling disk drive spin-up comprising the steps of:
- providing a first input voltage to a first set of one or more disk drives and a second set of one or more disk drives;
- providing a second input voltage that is different than the first input voltage level to the first set;
- providing the second input voltage to the second set a time interval after it is provided to the first set;
- wherein the first and second sets of one or more disk drives spin up after the provision of the second input voltage.
1 more element
Apparatus comprising:
- a power circuit for providing first and second input voltages to each of a first set of one or more disk drives and second set of one or more disk drives, wherein the first and second input voltages are different;
- the power circuit operable to provide the second input voltage to the second set a time interval after the second input voltage is provided to the first set;
- wherein the second input voltage is provided to cause the first and second sets of disk drives to spin up.
A storage system, comprising:
- multiple disk drives, each of the multiple disk drives including rotation circuitry arranged to operate in response to a first power supply signal, and data storage control logic arranged to operate in response to a second power supply signal;
- a control assembly having a power circuit and a host controller, the power circuit being arranged to output the first and second power supply signals, the host controller being arranged to direct operation of each disk drive via communications with the data storage control logic of that disk drive;
- and
- a set of power rails interconnected between the control assembly and the multiple disk drives, the set of power rails being arranged to convey the first and second power supply signals outputted from the power circuit of the control assembly to the multiple disk drives;
- the power circuit of the control assembly being arranged to concurrently provide the first power supply signal to the rotation circuitry of each of the multiple disk drives;
- the power circuit of the control assembly being arranged to provide the second power supply signal to the data storage control logic of a first set of disk drives at a first time, the first set of disk drives including at least two disk drives;
- the power circuit of the control assembly being arranged to provide the second power supply signal to the data storage control logic of a second set of disk drives at a second time substantially after the first time, the second set of disk drives including at least two disk drives.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.