Temperature-defined data-storage policy for a hybrid disk drive

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9396755-B2
Application number	US-201313772143-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 20, 2013
Priority date	Feb 20, 2013
Publication date	Jul 19, 2016
Grant date	Jul 19, 2016

Abstract

Data is stored in a hybrid drive that includes a magnetic storage medium and a non-volatile solid-state device using a temperature-defined data-storage policy. According to the temperature-defined data storage policy, the drive can perform operations for modulating the temperature of the drive, minimizing increased wear on memory cells in the non-volatile solid-state device, and/or preventing data stored in the non-volatile solid-state device from being lost.

First claim

We claim:

1. A data storage device, comprising:
a magnetic storage medium;
a non-volatile solid-state device; and
a controller configured to:
detect a temperature of the data storage device that is greater than a predetermined temperature;
determine a maximum allowable number and an actual number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device, wherein each dirty memory block in the non-volatile solid-state device stores data that are not also stored on the magnetic storage medium;
execute a write command by writing data associated with the write command to one of the non-volatile solid-state device and the magnetic storage medium, so that the actual number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device is, after the writing, less than or equal to the maximum allowable number of memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device; and
if the actual number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device is greater than the maximum allowable number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device, copy a number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device to the magnetic storage medium to decrease the actual number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device.

2. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the temperature of the data storage device comprises a temperature of the non-volatile solid-state device.

3. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to execute the write command by changing a rate of data transfer to the non-volatile solid-state device by executing write commands to the non-volatile solid-state device at a lower rate of data transfer to the non-volatile solid-state device than a normal rate of data transfer to the non-volatile solid-state device.

4. The data storage device of claim 3 , wherein the controller is further configured to periodically pause execution of the write commands to the non-volatile solid-state device to achieve the lower rate of data transfer to the non-volatile solid-state device.

5. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to, when the detected temperature is greater than the predetermined temperature, execute a write command to the magnetic storage medium at a lower rate of data transfer to the magnetic storage medium than a normal rate of data transfer to the magnetic storage medium.

6. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the maximum allowable number is a function of the temperature that is greater than the predetermined temperature.

7. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to:
receive a flush-cache command;
in response to the flush-cache command, write to the magnetic storage medium substantially all data stored in the dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device; and
upon completion of writing to the magnetic storage medium substantially all data stored in the dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device, signal completion of the flush-cache command.

8. The data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the controller carries out the copying until the actual number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device is less than the maximum allowable number of dirty memory blocks in the non-volatile solid-state device.

Assignees

• Toshiba Kk

Inventors

• Budiman Mine Wonkyung
• Schmidt Thorsten
• Ehrlich Richard M
• Dunn Eric R

Classifications

• G11B2020/10833

  Copying or moving data from one record carrier to another · CPC title

• G11B5/5565

  system adaptation for compensation of variations of physical parameters, e.g. temperature · CPC title

• G11B20/10527 Primary

  Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements (G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence) · CPC title

• G11B19/046

  Detection or prevention or problems due to temperature · CPC title