Disk drive with multiple read-write heads

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9728212-B1
Application number	US-201615191324-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 23, 2016
Priority date	Jun 23, 2016
Publication date	Aug 8, 2017
Grant date	Aug 8, 2017

Abstract

The embodiments of the invention improve the traditional disk drives by eliminating the mechanical actuator assembly that moves the read-write head attached to the actuator assembly, and replacing it with multiple read-write heads mounted over one or more rotating platters. The number of the read-write heads is preferably sufficiently large so that the read-write heads cover all tracks on the one or more rotating platters. In one embodiment, a disk includes a rotatable platter, a central spindle to rotate the rotatable platter arounds an axis, an electric motor to drive the central spindle, and multiple read-write heads mounted over the rotatable platter. In one embodiment, the platter includes multiple tracks arranged in form of concentric circles, where each of the read-write heads performs read-write operations on one of the tracks, and each track is assigned at least one of the multiple read-write heads.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A disk drive, comprising:
a rotatable platter for storing data magnetically,
a central spindle to rotate the rotatable platter around an axis,
an electric motor to drive the central spindle, and
a plurality of read-write heads mounted over the rotatable platter, the plurality of read-write heads operable to read the data stored on the rotatable platter and to write data to the rotatable platter;
wherein each of the read-write heads has a dedicated buffer to store data to be written or read by the read-write head.

2. The disk drive of claim 1 , wherein the rotatable platter comprises a plurality of tracks, each of the plurality of read-write heads to perform read and write operations on one of the plurality of tracks.

3. The disk drive of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of read-write heads are operable to perform read-write operation substantially simultaneously.

4. The disk drive of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of read-write heads comprise read heads for reading data only and write heads for writing data only.

5. The disk drive of claim 1 , further comprising one or more rotatable platters, each of which rotatable around the axis by the central spindle.

6. The disk drive of claim 1 , further comprising a multiplexer for selecting one of the plurality of read-write heads at a time.

7. The disk drive of claim 1 , further comprising:
a buffer to store data to be written or read by the read-write heads, and
a controller having an output channel to output the data from the buffer and to receive data from outside of the disk drive.

8. The disk drive of claim 7 , wherein the controller comprises a plurality of output channels to output and receive data substantially simultaneously.

9. The disk drive of claim 7 , wherein the controller supports parallel data reception and transmission between the buffer and a disk driver.

10. The disk drive of claim 1 , wherein the read-write heads are non-movable.

11. A data processing system, comprising:
a processor;
a memory storing executable instructions that are executable by the processor; and
a disk drive to store data, the disk drive comprising:
a rotatable platter for storing data magnetically,
a central spindle to rotate the rotatable platter around an axis,
an electric motor to drive the central spindle, and
a plurality of read-write heads mounted over the rotatable platter, the plurality of read-write heads operable to read the data stored on the rotatable platter and to write data to the rotatable platter;
wherein each of the read-write heads has a dedicated buffer to store data to be written or read by the read-write head.

12. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the rotatable platter comprises a plurality of tracks, each of the plurality of read-write heads to perform read and write operations on one of the plurality of tracks.

13. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of read-write heads are operable to perform read-write operation substantially simultaneously.

14. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of read-write heads comprise read heads for reading data only and write heads for writing data only.

15. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the disk drive further comprises one or more rotatable platters, each of which rotatable around the axis by the central spindle.

16. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the disk drive further comprises a multiplexer for selecting one of the plurality of read-write heads at a time.

17. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the disk drive further comprises:
a buffer to store data to be written or read by the read-write heads, and
a controller having an output channel to output the data from the buffer and to receive data from outside of the disk drive.

18. The data processing system of claim 17 , wherein the controller comprises a plurality of output channels to output and receive data substantially simultaneously.

19. The data processing system of claim 17 , wherein the controller supports parallel data reception and transmission between the buffer and a disk driver.

20. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the read-write heads are non-movable.

Assignees

• Emc Corp
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Lee Leo

Classifications

• G11B5/09

  Digital recording · CPC title

• G11B5/49 Primary

  Fixed mounting {or arrangements, e.g. one head per track} · CPC title

• G11B5/4969

  Details for track selection or addressing · CPC title

• G11B5/29

  Structure or manufacture of unitary devices formed of plural heads for more than one track {(G11B5/33, G11B5/49 and subgroups take precedence; in thin film structure G11B5/31)} · CPC title

• G11B5/4886

  relative to rotating disc · CPC title