JPH03201261A - Power saving operation system for disk storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the power consumption by shutting off only a head operation system after the elapse of a first period and shutting off a disk driving system, as well after the elapse of a second period. CONSTITUTION:The disk driving system 40 including a spindle motor 41 and its driving circuit 42 is provided for driving of a disk 1, and a head operation system 50 including a carriage 51 carrying a head, a head operation motor 52 tightly mechanically coupled to this carriage, and its driving circuit 52 is provided for the position operation of a head 2 corresoponding to each face of the disk 1. Power supply control circuits 11 and 12 are provided which control the power supply to respective main circuit systems in the device, and a power saving means 30 which stops the power supply to the head operation system 50 at the lapse of the first period T1 after the interruption of read/write operation and stops that to the disk driving system 40 at the lapse of the second period T2 after this interruption is built in a processor. The head is held in the position for the stop of power supply to the head operation system 50 during the period between the first period T1 and the second period T2. Thus, the power consumption of the device is finely saved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a power-saving operation method for a disk storage device such as a fixed disk device suitable for a laptop-type computer powered by a battery.

[Conventional technology]

In order to use the above-mentioned laptop computer as a portable personal computer, it is necessary to supply power with a battery, and it is required to reduce power consumption as much as possible in order to extend the life of the battery or the usable time after charging. As is well known, computer systems consume more power in peripheral devices than in the main unit. In particular, disk storage devices, which are essential external storage devices, use motors to drive the disks and operate the heads, so even small devices consume less power. There is a power consumption on the order of IOW, and there is a demand for its compression.

The simplest solution to this problem has conventionally been to enter commands into the keyboard of a computer to start and stop the operation of the disk storage device as needed.

In another conventional technique, if a disk storage device is not accessed by a computer within several minutes, the motor is automatically stopped, and when the computer accesses the device again, the motor is restarted and restarted.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, with the above-described conventional means in which the user manually starts and stops the disk storage device, it is difficult in practice to precisely reduce power consumption because keyboard input is time-consuming. In addition, conventional technology that automatically stops the motor when not accessed has a much higher power consumption reduction effect than this, but it usually takes at least 10 seconds to restart the motor from an interrupted state to a restarted state. Therefore, the average access time becomes extremely long, especially in applications where disk storage devices are accessed intermittently.For this reason, the time until the motor automatically stops must be set to several minutes as described above. Therefore, it cannot necessarily be said that it is possible to precisely reduce power consumption.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a power-saving operation method for a disk storage device that can reduce power consumption more precisely than in the past.

[Means to solve the problem]

According to the present invention, a power supply control circuit capable of controlling power supply for each of its main circuit systems is provided in the disk storage device, and power supply to the head operation system is stopped after a first time period has elapsed after the read/write operation is interrupted. , a power saving means for cutting off power supply to the disk drive system after the expiration of a second time period that is longer than the first time period is incorporated into the processor of the disk storage device, from after the first time period elapses until before the second time period elapses. During this period, the head operation system holds the head in the position it was in when the power supply was cut off, thereby achieving the above purpose. Note that, as a matter of course, it is assumed that the power supply control circuit and the processor are constantly supplied with power regardless of whether the first and second time limits have elapsed.

Under normal usage conditions of the computer, it is preferable to set the first time limit in the above configuration to about several seconds and the second time limit to about several minutes.

In addition, as mentioned in the above configuration, in order to hold the head in the position at the time when the power supply was cut off by the head operation system from after the first time limit has passed until before the second time limit has passed, the head operation system must be operated. Although it is generally reliable to provide a mechanical locking mechanism even if the head operating system has a simple structure, if the head operating system itself has a function to maintain its current position, such a mechanism is especially recommended. Of course, it is not necessary to provide such a stepper motor.In particular, since the stepping motor has a function of holding the movable element position even when the power supply is stopped, it is advantageous to use this motor as the head operation motor.

The circuit system that cuts off the power supply after the first time limit has passed includes a signal circuit system that handles read/write signals in addition to the head operation system in the above configuration, and a data circuit system that handles read/write data. This is advantageous in reducing consumption. On the other hand, if there is an interface circuit for connecting the processor to the computer, the circuit that must constantly maintain power supply must of course include, in addition to the above-mentioned power supply control circuit and processor, if there is an interface circuit that connects the processor to the computer.

[Effect]

In the method of the present invention, power consumption is also reduced by automatically stopping the disk drive and head operation motors when a read/write operation is interrupted. divided into a second period of the same degree,
By stopping only the head operating system after the first time limit has elapsed, and also stopping the disk drive system after the second time limit has elapsed, power consumption is reduced compared to conventional methods by the amount of stopping the head operating system after the first time limit has elapsed. In addition, it is possible to immediately return to the operating state from the interrupted state of operation after the first time limit.

Note that the distribution of time intervals at which a computer accesses a disk storage device while executing a certain job can range over a wide range from seconds to minutes, but in the present invention, the first time period described above is used as a large part of the frequency distribution. For example, by setting the 80% time interval to be longer than that, for example, to a few seconds,
The head operation system can be automatically stopped frequently to precisely reduce power consumption.

However, if the disk is stopped during the first time limit, it will take at least IO seconds to return to a read/write state as described above, resulting in a very long access time. Since the disk is stopped after moving to a so-called shipping zone, extra time is required for the reciprocating movement of the head, including the time of return.

Therefore, in the present invention, the power supply to the disk drive system is cut off only when a second time period, which is longer than the first time period, for example, several minutes, has elapsed, and further, as in the above configuration, after the first time period has elapsed. By maintaining the head position as it was when the power supply to the head operation system was cut off, the normal operating state can be returned immediately without taking the extra time required for the above-mentioned reciprocating movement of the head. do.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, specific embodiments 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 implementing a power saving operation method according to the present invention.

The disk storage device f80 shown in FIG. 1 is a fixed disk device with a built-in controller, and a disk drive system 40 including a spindle motor 41 and a drive circuit 42 for driving the disk 1 as usual. A head operation system 5 includes a carriage 51 for carrying the head 2, a head operation motor 52 closely mechanically coupled to the carriage 51, and a drive circuit 53 for the head operation motor 52 for positionally operating the head 2 corresponding to each surface of the disk 1.゜ is provided. In this embodiment, it is assumed that a spindle motor is used as the head operation motor 52.

A power supply control circuit 1o constituting the system of the present invention controls the supply of power supply voltage V to these disk drive system 40 and head operation system 5o, and in this embodiment includes a processor including two transistor switches 11 and 12. Reference numeral 20 is for interconnection with the computer and for overall control of the disk storage device, and the power saving means 30 constituting the present invention is incorporated as software, and the power supply control signal S of the 2-bit structure is transmitted as described above. It is given to the power supply control circuit IO.

The signal circuit system 60 is for processing read/write signals to the disk 1, and has a read/write circuit 61 connected to all the heads 2 as usual, a demodulation circuit 62 for read signals, and data separation and encoding/decoding functions. Signal processing circuit 63
In this embodiment, power is supplied to the head operating system 5.
It is designed to be controlled simultaneously with 0. The data circuit system 70 is a small data-dedicated processor that has a mutual conversion function between read/write signals and read/write data.

Note that 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-mentioned power supply control circuit IO, and also controls the internal bus 21 and the interface circuit 2.
2 and an external bus 23 to a computer (not shown), and together with the interface circuit 22, power is supplied to the operating room of the disk storage device without going through the power supply control circuit 10. Further, although it is generally preferable that power be supplied to the data circuit system 70 at all times, in some cases, the power supply thereto may be controlled at the same time as the head operation system 50, similar to the signal circuit system 60.

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

The interface circuit 23 sees the selection signal SL coming from the computer on the external bus 24 and selects the disk storage device 8.
When the selection signal SL designating 0 arrives, the internal bus 21 is connected to the external bus 23, so the power saving means 30 in the processor 20 receives this in the first step s1,
In the following step S2, the power supply control signal S is set to O in this example, thereby turning on both the switches 11 and 12 of the power supply control circuit 1o. As a result, all circuit systems within the disk storage device 80 are supplied with power.

In the next step S3, the operation is divided 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 first time period has elapsed, the operation proceeds to step S5. If the value is 2 indicating that the second time limit has passed, the process moves to step s4.

In step S4, if the previous state is after the second time limit has elapsed and the power supply to the disk drive system 40 has been cut off, the power supply in step S2 causes the disk l, which had been stopped until then, to return to a normal rotating state. This is a timer operation step for waiting for the time until the read/write operation becomes possible. After the time set in advance in this timer, for example, from several seconds to 10 seconds has elapsed, the operation moves to step S4. In this step S5, a time variable t for a timed operation, which will be described later, is set to O.

The next step S6 is a step of performing a read/write operation specified by the computer side in conjunction with the selection signal SL,
This includes the usual operation of moving the head 2 to a predetermined track and reading data from it and sending it to the computer, or conversely writing data sent from the computer to it. After the operation of step S6 is completed, the flow of operation is returned to the first step Sl, and in response, the interface circuit 20 enters the state of waiting for the arrival of the selection signal SL again.

However, on the power saving means 30 side, the operation moves from step Sl to step S7, and the power feeding control signal S is compared with 1. Since its value immediately after the end of the read/write operation is 0, the operation proceeds to step S8, where it is determined whether the time variable t is smaller than the first time limit T1. At first, this is of course true, and the operation moves to step S9, where the time unit Δt is added to the time variable t, and 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 limit T1 as a result of the sequential addition in step S9, the operation moves from step S8 to step SIO, and the power supply control signal S to the power supply control circuit 10 is is set to 1, and at the same time, the mode variable M is also set to l. As a result, power supply control circuit 1
0 turns off the switch 11, so the head operation system 5
0 and the power supply to the signal circuit system 60 is cut off. As a result, the power consumption of the disk storage device is reduced by about half in Mode 1.
In this state, the head operating system 50 maintains the head 2 at the position at the time of power supply interruption by using the movable element value l maintenance function of the stepping motor 52 in this example.

When the selection signal SL is received in this mode 1 state, the operation proceeds from step Sl to step S2, and the power supply control signal S is set to 0, thereby restoring 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 jumps from step S3 to step S5 and can immediately start reading and writing operations at step S6. Therefore, the computer, which is the user, can access the disk storage device 80 in the same access time as when the head operation system 50 was not temporarily stopped.

If the selection signal SL does not arrive even after the first time period T1 has elapsed, the value of the power supply control signal S is 1, so the operation proceeds to step S.
7, the process goes to step 312 via step Sll, and it is determined whether or not the time variable t is smaller than the second time limit T2. Since the determination result remains valid for a while after the first time period Tl, the operation enters step S7 and continues adding to the time variable t unless the selection signal SL arrives. When further time elapses and the time variable t reaches the second time limit T2, the operation enters step 313 from step 312.

After this second time period ↑2 has elapsed, the disk is stopped. However, in fixed disk drives, the head is placed in the shipping zone before the disk stops so that the data recording surface of the disk does not come into contact with the head and be damaged. Therefore, in step S13, the power supply control signal S is set to 0, the power supply to the head operating means 50 is temporarily restored, the head is evacuated to the shipping zone, and then, in the next step S14, the power supply control signal S is set to 2. As a result, only the processor 20, the interface circuit 23, and in this example the data circuit system 70 are supplied with power, reducing the power consumption of the disk storage device by 30%.
Enters Mode 2, which is reduced to a certain degree.

Furthermore, in this step S14, the mode variable M is set to 2, and the flow returns to the first step Sl. Thereafter, the arrival of the selection signal SL is waited in an operation loop that returns from this step 31 through steps S7 and Sll.

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 system of the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be implemented in various B ways within the scope of the invention. The configuration of the disk storage device shown in FIG. 1 and the flow of operation shown in FIG. 2 are merely examples, and can be easily modified depending on the situation. Furthermore, in mode 1, the power supply to the data circuit system 70 can be cut off, or the number of switches in the power supply control circuit IO can be increased to perform more detailed operations in order to reduce power consumption.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the system of the present invention, a power supply control circuit is provided to control the power supply for each main circuit system in the disk storage device, and the power supply to the head operation system is stopped after the first time period after the read/write operation is interrupted. A power saving means is built into the processor to cut off the power supply to the disk drive system after each time period has elapsed, and during the first and second time periods, the head is held in the position at the time when the power supply to the head operation system was cut off. By doing so, the power consumption of the disk storage device can be reduced more precisely than in the past.

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

As mentioned above, the distribution of time intervals for accessing the disk storage device while executing a zip with a compiler ranges over a wide range from seconds to minutes, but the frequency distribution of time intervals generally ranges from seconds to minutes. It is high on the time side, and the time interval in minutes is about 20 to 40% of the total. Therefore, with the conventional method that completely stops the motor after a predetermined time period has elapsed after interrupting reading/writing operations, it takes a long time to resume operation from the interrupted state, and the average access time becomes long, so the automatic stop time limit is set to several minutes. This means that only about 30% of the opportunities to reduce power consumption were utilized.

In comparison, in the method of the present invention, if the first time limit is set appropriately, approximately 80% of the opportunity to reduce power consumption can be utilized as described above, and 50% of the opportunity can be effectively utilized, which is the difference between this and the conventional method. However, at that time, the power consumption of the disk storage device is reduced to 50%.
% can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figures all relate to the present invention; FIG. 1 is a configuration circuit diagram showing an example of the configuration of a disk storage device that implements the power saving operation method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the operation of the power saving means that constitutes the method of the present invention In figure 0 which is an illustrative flowchart, 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, 5
0: 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, 5l-314: Operation step of power saving means, T
I = first time period, Tl second time period, t: time variable, Δt
: Time unit, V: Power supply voltage, 8 Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] This is an operation method for saving power consumption when a read/write operation of a disk storage device is interrupted.A power supply control circuit that can control the power supply for each of the main circuit systems is provided in the disk storage device, and the read/write operation is interrupted. After the first time period has elapsed after the interruption, the power supply to the head operation system is switched back to the first time period.
A power saving means is built into the processor of the disk storage device to cut off the power supply to the disk drive system via the power supply control circuit after a second time period which is longer than the first time period has elapsed. Until the second time period elapses, the head operation system holds the head in the position it was in when the power supply was cut off, and the power supply control circuit and processor are notified of the elapse of the first and second time periods. A power-saving operation method for a disk storage device characterized by constantly maintaining power supply regardless of the situation.