JPH0719425B2 - Power saving operation method of disk storage device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a power save operation method for a disk storage device such as a fixed disk device suitable for a battery-powered computer such as a laptop type.

[Conventional technology]

In order to use the above-mentioned laptop computer or the like as a portable personal computer, battery power supply is required, and it is required to reduce power consumption as much as possible in order to prolong battery life or usable time after charging. As is well known, the power consumption of the computer system is more in the peripheral device than in the main body, and especially the disk storage device that is indispensable as an external storage device uses a motor for driving the disk and operating the head There is power consumption of about 10W,
The compression is requested.

As the simplest solution to this, conventionally, by inputting a command to a keyboard of a computer, the operation of the disk storage device can be started and stopped as needed.

In another conventional technique, when the disk storage device is not accessed from the computer within a time of about several minutes, the motor is automatically stopped and placed, and when it is accessed again from the computer, the motor is restarted and the operation is restarted.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, it is practically difficult to finely reduce the power consumption by the above-mentioned conventional means for manually starting and stopping the disk storage device by the user because it takes time to input the keyboard. Also, with the conventional technology that automatically stops the motor when not accessed, the effect of reducing power consumption is considerably higher than this, but it usually takes at least about 10 seconds to restart the motor from the interrupted state of operation and put it in the restarted state. Therefore, the average access time becomes very long especially in the case of intermittent access to the disk storage device. For this reason, the time until the motor is automatically stopped is forced to be set to about several minutes as described above, so that it cannot always be said that the power consumption can be finely reduced.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a power save operation method for a disk storage device that can reduce power consumption more finely than ever before.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

According to the present invention, a power supply control circuit capable of controlling power supply for each main circuit system is provided in the disk storage device, and power is supplied to the head operation system after the first time period has elapsed since the read / write operation was interrupted. , A power saving means for cutting off the power supply to the disk drive system after the lapse of a second time period longer than the first time period is incorporated in the processor of the disk storage device, from after the lapse of the first time period to before the lapse of the second time period. During the period, the above-described object is achieved by holding the head at the position where the power supply was cut off by the head operation system. It should be noted that it is rather natural that the power supply control circuit and the processor are always supplied with power regardless of the progress of the first and second restrictions.

In the normal use state of the computer, it is preferable to set the first time period in the above configuration to about several seconds and the second time period to about several minutes.

In addition, as described above, after the first time period has passed, the second time period has passed.
In order to hold the head at the position where the power was cut off by the head operation system until before the time limit, the mechanical lock mechanism is generally provided in the head operation system even with a simple structure. However, if the head operating system itself has the function of holding its current position,
Of course, it is not necessary to provide such a mechanism. In particular, since the stepping motor has a function of holding the mover position even when power supply is stopped, it is advantageous to use this as a head operating motor.

In addition to the head operation system in the above configuration, the circuit system that cuts off the power supply after the elapse of the first time period includes a signal circuit system that handles read / write signals and a data circuit system that handles read / write data. It is advantageous in reducing consumption. On the contrary, if the circuit that should always maintain the power supply includes the power supply control circuit and the processor described above and an interface circuit that connects the processor to the computer, it is necessary to include the interface circuit.

[Action]

Also in the method of the present invention, when the read / write operation is interrupted, the motors for driving the disk and the head are automatically stopped to reduce the power consumption. However, the time until the automatic stop is shorter than that of the conventional first time Divided into the same second time period,
Only the head operation system is stopped after the first time period has elapsed, and the disk drive system is also stopped after the second time period has elapsed, so that the power consumption is reduced as compared to the prior art by the amount of stopping the head operation system after the first time period. In addition, the operation state can be immediately restored from the interrupted state after the first time period.

It should be noted that the distribution of the time intervals for accessing the disk storage device during execution of a job by a computer can be in a wide range from the unit of seconds to the unit of minutes. For example, by setting the time interval of 80% to be longer than that, for example, about several seconds, the head operation system can be frequently automatically stopped to finely reduce the power consumption.

However, if the disk is stopped in the first time period, it takes at least about 10 seconds to return to a read / write state, as described above, and the access time becomes very long. Since it moves to the so-called shipping zone and stops the disc,
When including the return time, it takes extra time for the head to reciprocate.

Therefore, in the present invention, the power supply to the disk drive system is interrupted only after the second time period, which is set to, for example, several minutes, which is longer than the first time period, has passed, and after the first time period has expired as described above. By maintaining the head position of when the power supply to the head operation system is cut off, it is possible to immediately return to the normal operating state without spending extra time for head movement such as the above-mentioned reciprocating movement. To do.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a disk storage device that implements the power save operation method according to the present invention.

The disk storage device 80 shown in FIG. 1 is a so-called fixed disk device with a built-in controller, and as usual, a disk drive system 40 including a spindle motor 41 and a drive circuit 42 for driving the disk 1 thereof. A head operating system 50 including a carriage 51 for carrying the position of the head 2 corresponding to each surface of the disk 1, a head operating motor 52 closely mechanically coupled to the carriage 51, and a drive circuit 53 for driving the same.
Is provided. In this embodiment, a stepping motor is used as the head operating motor 52.

The power supply control circuit 10 constituting the system of the present invention controls the power supply of the power supply voltage V to the disk drive system 40 and the head operation system 50, and in this embodiment, includes two transistor switches 11 and 12. The processor 20 is for interconnection with a computer and for controlling the disk storage device as a whole, and the power saving means 30 constituting the present invention is incorporated as its software. To the power supply control circuit 10.

The signal circuit system 60 is for processing read / write signals to / from the disk 1, and has a read / write circuit 61 connected to all the heads 2, a demodulation circuit 62 for read signals, and a data separation / encoding / decoding function as usual. A signal processing circuit 63 is included, and in this embodiment, the power supply thereto is controlled simultaneously with the head operating system 50. The data circuit system 70 is a small processor dedicated to data having a read / write signal and a mutual conversion function between read / write data.

The processor 20 also controls the head operation system 50, the signal circuit system 60, and the data circuit system 70 in addition to the above-described power supply control circuit 10, and the internal bus 21, the interface circuit 22, and the external bus 23.
Is connected to a computer (not shown) via the power supply control circuit 10, and the power is always supplied during the operation of the disk storage device without the power supply control circuit 10 together with the interface circuit 22. In addition, the data circuit system 70 should normally be supplied with power at all times, but in some cases, like the signal circuit system 60, the head operation system may be used.
At the same time, the power supply to 50 may be controlled.

Now that the general configuration of the disk storage device 80 has been described, the overall operation of the system of the present invention will be described with reference to the operational flow of the power saving means 30 shown in FIG.

The interface circuit 23 watches the selection signal SL from the computer on the external bus 24. When the selection signal SL designating the disk storage device 80 arrives, the internal bus 21 is connected to the external bus 23. The power saving means 30 of 1 receives this in the first step S1, and in the following step S2, the switches 11 and 12 of the power supply control circuit 10 are both turned on by setting the power supply control signal S to 0 in this example. This powers all circuitry within the disk storage device 80.

In the next step S3, the operation is sorted according to the value of the mode variable M, and if the mode variable M is 1 indicating that the previous state was after the elapse of the first time period, the operation is a step.
Moved to S5, showing that it was after the second time limit 2
If so, the process proceeds to step S4.

In step S4, when the previous state is after the second time period elapses and the power supply to the disk drive system 40 is cut off, the disk 1 which has been stopped by the power supply in step S2 is in the normal rotation state. It is a timer operation step to have a time until it becomes possible to read and write
The operation is moved to step S4 after a lapse of a time of, for example, several seconds to about 10 seconds preset in this timer. In step S5, a time variable t for timed operation, which will be described later, is set to zero.

The next step S6 is a step for performing a read / write operation designated by the computer side in association with the selection signal SL. In this step, the head 2 is moved to a predetermined track as usual, and then the data is read. Read it out and send it to the computer,
Or conversely, it includes the operation of writing the data sent from the computer to it. After the end of the operation of step S6, the flow of operation is returned to the first step S1, and in response to this, the interface circuit 20 again enters the state of waiting for the selection signal SL to arrive.

However, on the power saving means 30 side, the operation is stepped.
The process proceeds from S1 to step S7, and the power supply control signal S is compared with 1. Immediately after the end of the read / write operation, its value is 0, so the operation enters step S8 and the time variable t is the first time period T1.
It is determined whether or not it is smaller. At first, of course, the operation moves to step S9, and after adding the time unit Δt to the time variable t, the flow returns to step S1.

When the state in which the selection signal SL is not received continues and the time variable t reaches the first time period T1 as a result of successive addition in step S9, the operation proceeds from step S8 to step S10, and the power feeding control circuit 10
The power supply control signal S to 1 is set to 1 and at the same time the mode variable M
Is also set to 1. As a result, the power supply control circuit 10 turns off the switch 11, so that power supply to the head operation system 50 and the signal circuit system 60 is cut off. As a result, the disk storage device enters the mode 1 state in which the power consumption is reduced to about half, and the head operating system 50 moves the head 2 to the stepping motor 52 in this example.
It uses the function of maintaining the mover position to hold the position at the time of power interruption.

When the selection signal SL is received in the mode 1 state, the operation proceeds from step S1 to step S2, and the power supply control signal S is set to 0 to restore the power supply to the head operation system 50 and the like. Since the mode variable M is 1 at this time, the subsequent operation can jump from step S3 to step S5 and immediately start the read / write operation in step S6. Therefore, the user's computer side can access the disk storage device 80 with the same access time as when the head operation system 50 was not suspended.

If the selection signal SL does not arrive even after the elapse of the first time period T1, the value of the power supply control signal S is 1, so the operation goes from step S7 to step S11 to step S12, and the time variable t is from the second time period T2. Determine if it is small. Since the determination result comes out for a while after the first time period T1, the operation continues the addition operation to the time variable t unless the selection signal SL arrives at step S7. Further time passes and time variable t
Has reached the second time period T2, operation moves from step S12 to step S13.

The disk is stopped after the second time period T2 has passed. In a fixed disk device, it is desirable to place the head in the shipping zone before stopping the disk so that the data recording surface of the disk does not touch and scratch the head. Therefore, in step S13, the power supply control signal S is set to 0, and the head operating means 5
The power supply to 0 is restored once, the head is retracted to the shipping zone, and then the power supply control signal S is sent in the next step S14.
Set to 2 to cut off the power supply to the disk drive system 40 and the head operation system 50. As a result, only the processor 20, the interface circuit 23, and the data circuit system 70 in this example are supplied with power, and the state of the mode 2 in which the power consumption of the disk storage device is reduced to about 30% is entered.

Further, in this step S14, the mode variable M is set to 2 and the flow is returned to the first step S1.
Wait for the arrival of the selection signal SL in the operation loop returning from S1 through steps S7 and S11. When the operation is restarted when the selection signal SL arrives, the read / write operation is performed in step S6 after the timer operation in step S4 described above.

The method of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be implemented in various modes within the scope thereof. The configuration of the disk storage device shown in FIG. 1 and the operation flow shown in FIG. 2 are merely examples, and changes can be easily made depending on the case. Further, in mode 1, the power supply to the data circuit system 70 may be cut off, or the number of switches in the power supply control circuit 10 may be increased to reduce the power consumption, thereby enabling more detailed operation.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, in the method of the present invention, a power supply control circuit for controlling power supply is provided for each main circuit system in the disk storage device, and power is supplied to the head operation system after the first time period after interruption of the read / write operation. The power saving means for cutting off the power supply to the disk drive system after the lapse of the time period is built into the processor, and the head is held at the position at the time when the power supply to the head operation system was cut off during the first and second time periods. By doing so, it is possible to more finely reduce the power consumption of the disk storage device than before.

As described above, the reduction of the power consumption by the method of the present invention is about 50% in the mode 1 after the first time period and about 70% in the mode 2 after the second time period.

As mentioned above, the distribution of the time intervals for accessing the disk storage device while a computer is executing a job covers a wide range from the second unit to the minute unit, but the frequency distribution of the time interval is generally in the short time side of the second unit. Very high, the time interval in minutes is about 20-40% of the whole. Therefore, in the conventional method in which the motor is completely stopped after the lapse of a predetermined time period after the interruption of the read / write operation, it takes a long time to change the operation from the suspended state to the resumed state, and the average access time becomes long. Since there is no choice but to set it to around, only about 30% of the opportunities to reduce power consumption were used.

On the other hand, according to the method of the present invention, if the first time period is properly set, about 80% of the opportunities for power consumption reduction can be utilized as described above, and the opportunity of 50% of the difference between this and the conventional can be effectively utilized. However, in that case, about 50% of the power consumption of the disk storage device can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

The figures are all related to the present invention. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing the configuration of a disk storage device which implements the power save operation method according to the present invention. FIG. 2 shows the operation of the power save means constituting the present invention method. 4 is an exemplary flow chart. In the figure, 1: disk, 2: head, 10: power supply control circuit, 11, 12: transistor switch, 20: processor, 21: internal bus, 22:
Interface circuit, 23: external bus, 30: power saving means, 40: disk drive system, 41: spindle motor, 42: drive circuit, 50: head operation system, 51: carriage, 52: head operation motor, 53: drive circuit , 60: signal circuit system, 61: read / write circuit, 62: demodulation circuit, 63: signal processing circuit, 70: data circuit system, 80: disk storage device, M: operation mode variable,
S: power supply control signal, SL: selection signal, S1 to S14: operation steps of power saving means, T1: first time period, T2: second time period,
t: time variable, Δt: time unit, V: power supply voltage for power supply.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A driving method for saving power consumption when a read / write operation of a disk storage device is interrupted, and a power supply control circuit capable of controlling power supply for each main circuit system is provided in the disk storage device. At the same time, after the read / write operation is interrupted, power is supplied to the head operation system after the first time period has elapsed and power is supplied to the disk drive system after the second time period that is longer than the first time period has elapsed. Power saving means for disconnecting via a circuit is incorporated in the processor of the disk storage device, and the head operating system cuts off power supply to the head from after the first time period has elapsed until before the second time period has elapsed. A disk storage characterized in that it is kept at the position at that time, and the power supply control circuit and the processor are always supplied with power regardless of the elapse of the first and second time periods. Power-saving operation method of the location.