Storage medium reader physical location access

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11308992-B1
Application number	US-201916711959-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 12, 2019
Priority date	Dec 12, 2019
Publication date	Apr 19, 2022
Grant date	Apr 19, 2022

Abstract

Technologies are provided for accessing a physical location of a storage medium reader of a storage device. A computing device can transmit a request for the storage medium reader's physical location. The storage device can determine the physical location of the storage medium reader and transmit the location to the computing device. The computing device can use the physical location of the storage medium reader to determine an expected latency for retrieving one or more stored data items. The computing device can transmit a command to change the physical location of the storage medium reader, for example by changing a location of the storage medium reader with respect to a given storage medium and/or changing a storage medium that is accessed by the storage medium reader. The computing device can control the placement of the storage medium reader in order to optimize retrieval of data items from the storage device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
a host computer configured to:
transmit, to a storage device, a first command requesting a current physical location of a storage medium reader of the storage device with respect to a storage medium,
receive a response from the storage device, comprising the current physical location of the storage medium reader of the storage device with respect to the storage medium, and
determine an expected latency for retrieving a data item using the storage medium reader of the storage device based on the current physical location of the storage medium reader;
transmit, to the storage device, a second command requesting a change to the physical location of the storage medium reader of the storage device; and

the storage device, wherein the storage device comprises a storage device controller configured to:
receive the first command from the host computer,
transmit the response, comprising the current physical location of the storage medium reader with respect to the storage medium, to the host computer,
receive the second command, and
update the physical location of the storage medium reader based on the second command.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the storage device comprises a plurality of storage media; and
updating the physical location of the storage medium reader comprises moving the storage medium reader from a first storage medium, of the plurality of storage media, to a second storage medium, of the plurality of storage media.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first storage medium and the second storage medium are different types of storage media.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the storage device is a first storage device and the expected latency is a first expected latency;
the system further comprises a second storage device; and
the host computer is further configured to:
determine that a second expected latency for retrieving the data item using a storage medium reader of the second storage device based on a physical location of the storage medium reader of the second storage device is less than the first expected latency, and
use the second storage device to retrieve the data item instead of the first storage device.

5. A method comprising:
transmitting a request to a storage device for a current physical location of a storage medium reader within the storage device;
receiving a response from the storage device comprising a value indicating the current physical location of the storage medium reader within the storage device; and
prioritizing a transmission of a data access command based on the current physical location of the storage medium reader within the storage device, wherein the prioritizing the transmission of the data access command comprises determining a latency of retrieving a data item using the storage device based on the current physical location of the storage medium reader.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein transmitting the request to the storage device comprises transmitting an operational status request to the storage device.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining another latency of retrieving the data item using another storage device based on a physical location of a storage medium reader of the other storage device; and
selecting the storage device or the another storage device to use to retrieve the data item based on the determined latencies.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
transmitting a command to the storage device comprising a value indicating another physical location; and
receiving a response from the storage device, indicating that the storage medium reader has been moved to the another physical location.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the transmitting the command to the storage device comprises transmitting a command to switch the storage medium reader from accessing one storage medium to accessing another storage medium.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the command comprises a storage medium identifier associated with the another storage medium.

11. A storage device comprising a storage medium reader and a storage device controller, wherein the storage device controller is configured to:
determine an expected latency to access a storage location of a storage medium based on a physical location of the storage medium reader;
transmit the expected latency to a computing device connected to the storage device;
determine a current physical location of the storage medium reader with respect to the storage medium; and
transmit the current physical location of the storage medium reader with respect to the storage medium to the computing device.

12. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the storage device controller is further configured to:
receive a request for the current physical location of the storage medium reader from the computing device; and
transmit the current physical location of the storage medium reader to the computing device responsive to receiving the request.

13. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the storage device controller is further configured to change a physical location of the storage medium reader responsive to a command from the computing device, wherein the command from the computing device is a command requesting a change to the physical location of the storage medium reader of the storage device.

14. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the physical location of the storage medium reader is transmitted as part of an operational status message.

15. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein the storage device controller is further configured to:
receive a data access command from the computing device;
determine an expected latency of fulfilling the data access command based on the physical location of the storage medium reader;
determine that the expected latency exceeds a specified threshold; and
transmit a failure response to the computing device.

16. The storage device of claim 11 , further comprising a plurality of storage media that are accessible using the storage medium reader.

17. The storage device of claim 11 , wherein:
the storage device further comprises a magnetic disk storage medium; and
the storage medium reader comprises an actuator, an actuator arm, and a magnetic read head.

Assignees

• Amazon Tech Inc

Inventors

• Jo Keun Soo
• Farhan Munif M
• Warfield Andrew Kent
• Markle Seth W
• Rivnay Roey

Classifications

• G11B21/083 Primary

  on discs · CPC title

• G11B21/086

  on tapes · CPC title