Variable data interleaving size on hard disk drive

Abstract

The invention relates to a variable data interleaving size on a hard disk drive. Improved tools and techniques are used to configure a write head of a hard disk drive and / or to write data to a hard disk drive. A write face of a disk in the hard disk drive can be divided into a plurality of logical regions, each region having a different interleaving size. This solution can meet latency requirements for regions closer to the center of the write face while providing better error rate performance in regions further away from the center of the write face.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates generally to hard disk drives and controllers thereof, and more particularly, to techniques for interleaving data on a hard disk drive. Background Art

[0002] Interleaving data sectors in a hard disk drive (HDD) has been shown to improve error rate performance and thus improve areal density gains. This scheme breaks up cluster errors often seen on disk media and spreads them out over multiple user sectors (or blocks). Thus, it improves error correction capabilities and thus improves areal density. However, this scheme results in a suboptimal areal density across the disk: since radial velocities are relatively low, the interleaving size toward the radial center of the drive must be relatively small to achieve acceptable levels of read and write latency in that region. However, on the other hand, radial velocities in the outer regions are much higher, allowing potentially larger interleaving sizes without compromising latency requirements. A staggered scheme that can meet both of these goals is needed. Summary of the invention

[0003] In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to a device comprising: a circuit system for determining a first interleaving size for writing data to a first zone on a hard disk drive; a circuit system for determining at least one additional interleaving size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard disk drive; a circuit system for configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to the first zone, the first data being interleaved according to the first interleaving size; and a circuit system for configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to write additional data to the at least one additional zone, the additional data being interleaved according to the at least one additional interleaving size.

[0004] In another aspect, the present disclosure relates to a device comprising a hard disk drive, which is configured to: determine a first interleaving size for writing data to a first zone on the hard disk drive; determine at least one additional interleaving size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard disk drive; configure a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to the first zone, the first data being interleaved according to the first interleaving size; and configure the write head of the hard disk drive to write additional data to the at least one additional zone, the additional data being interleaved according to the at least one additional interleaving size.

[0005] In another aspect, the present disclosure relates to a device comprising logic, the logic comprising: logic for determining a first interleaving size for writing data to a first zone on a hard drive; logic for determining at least one additional interleaving size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard drive; logic for configuring a write head of the hard drive to write first data to the first zone, the first data interleaved according to the first interleaving size; and logic for configuring the write head of the hard drive to write additional data to the at least one additional zone, the additional data interleaved according to the at least one additional interleaving size. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] Figure 1 is a simplified plan view of a hard disk drive according to various embodiments.

[0007] Figure 2 A writing surface of a magnetic disk according to various embodiments is described.

[0008] Figures 3A to 3B Different interleaving schemes according to various embodiments are described.

[0009] Figures 4A to 4B A writing surface of a magnetic disk having multiple zones is shown according to various embodiments.

[0010] Figures 5A to 5E Various interleaving schemes involving block slices are described according to various embodiments.

[0011] Figure 6 and 7 is a graph showing the relative performance of various interleaving schemes with different slice sizes according to various embodiments.

[0012] Figure 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to various embodiments.

[0013] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating example components of an apparatus in accordance with various embodiments. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] Various embodiments provide tools and techniques to improve the areal density of hard disk drives, and therefore improve the performance of hard disk drives. As used herein, the term "hard disk drive" refers to a data storage device that employs one or more rotating platters ("disks"), typically coated with magnetic material, to store data, using one or more magnetic heads to read and write data. Thus, as used herein, the term "write head" means any device capable of writing data to the platters in a hard disk drive. Figure 1A simplified plan view of an exemplary hard disk drive 100 is illustrated showing a single disk 105 (although there may be multiple disks 105, typically stacked vertically). The hard disk drive includes a spindle 110 that rotates the disk 105 and a write head 115 (which may be part of an integrated read / write head in some embodiments) that traverses the disk 105 from an inner radius 120 to an outer radius 125. The position of the write head 115 is controlled by an actuator arm 130 connected to an actuator shaft 135, which in turn is moved by an actuator 140. The hard disk drive 100 may include a control device 145.

[0015] In one aspect, the control device 145 may include logic that controls various operations of the hard disk drive 100, including, but not limited to, the rotation of the disk 105, the movement of the write head 115 (e.g., by the actuator 140), and the read / write activity of the write head 115. In particular embodiments, the logic may include hardware and / or firmware circuitry. In some cases, the circuitry may include an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a system on a chip, programmable logic (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an erasable programmable logic device (EPLD), etc.), a processor (e.g., programmed with software instructions), a microprocessor or microcontroller, and / or any other suitable device. Additional examples of logic and circuitry are described below in Fig. 9 Although the control device 145 is shown as Figure 1 The control device 145 is integrated with the hard disk drive 100 in the embodiment, but this is not necessarily the case; in some embodiments, the control device 145 can be separated from the hard disk drive 145 and / or connected thereto.

[0016] In a particular embodiment, a hard drive is configured to interleave data as it is written using different interleave sizes based on the location on the disk to which the data is written. Figure 2 The arrangement of a typical magnetic disk 105 is illustrated. The write surface of the magnetic disk 105 includes a plurality of concentric tracks 205 extending from track 205a on the inner radius 120 to track 205b on the outer radius 125. As used herein, the term "write surface" means the entire area of ​​the magnetic disk 105 onto which data can be written, or in some cases, the entire area onto which the write head is configured to write (if less than the amount of magnetic disk 105 onto which data can be written). Each track is divided into a number of magnetic disk sectors 210 (referred to herein as "sectors"). The sector 210 generally defines the smallest unit of data that can be written to the magnetic disk 105, such as sector 210a in track 205a and sector 210b in track 205b. Widely used hard disk drive sector sizes are 512 bytes and 4 kilobytes. Note that, Figure 2The drawings are not to scale, and in a typical disk, the sectors per track will increase from the inner track to the outer track. Thus, since the tracks in the outer radius 125 are longer, the tracks 205b in the outer radius contain more sectors 210 than the tracks in the inner radius 120. It should be appreciated that Figure 2 It is simplified for explanation purposes and a typical disk will have Figure 2 Many more sectors and tracks are illustrated.

[0017] Each sector is divided into slices. The term "slice" refers to the segmented data in a sector. As used herein, the term "slice size" is the number of slices per sector, not the actual size of the slice in bytes. It should also be understood that there is a direct relationship between these two values, regardless of the units used. For convenience, the term "slice size" is generally used herein to refer to the number of slices per sector, rather than the actual size of the slice in bytes, in order to describe (below) certain advantages in terms of slices per sector.

[0018] As used herein, the term "interleaving" refers to the process of interleaving sector slices when writing data to a disk. For illustration, Figure 3A is a simplified view of a disk 300 in which data is written in a plurality of sectors 305. Figure 3A The interleaving scheme is 1:1 interleaving (ie, no interleaving), where the entire sectors 305 are written sequentially around the track 310 (as shown by the base numbers 1 to 16 showing the order in which the sectors are written). Thus, sector 1 305a is written, and sector 2 305b is written immediately thereafter, and so on.

[0019] Figure 3B Illustrate the same disk 300 with 1:2 interleaving (and a slice size of 2), where the sectors are interleaved. Thus, for example, sectors 305 are each divided into two slices 315. Slice 315a of sector 305a is written first (instead of the entire sector 305a), followed by slice 315b of sector 305b (instead of the entire sector 305b). Next, the second slice 315c of sector 305a is written, followed by the second slice 315d of sector 305b, and so on, until all slices from all sectors have been written to the disk. (For readability, Figure 3B The remaining sectors and slices are not marked with reference numbers, but the same principles apply).

[0020] Sector interleaving increases the sparsity of data (as written sequentially), with the data in the sector being written at dispersed locations rather than together, which avoids clustered media errors, thus improving error rates and enhancing disk performance. As referred to herein, the term "interleave size" means the number of sectors interleaved in the scheme. Thus, for example, Figure 3AThe scheme will have an interleave size of 1 sector (or no interleave), and Figure 3B The scheme will have an interleave size of 2 sectors.

[0021] As discussed in detail below, increasing the interleave size can have a significant impact on error rate performance. Nevertheless, the interleave size is usually limited by latency issues on the inner portion of the disk, because writing and reading individual sectors requires writing and reading the entire interleave. Certain embodiments recognize that the interleave size on the outer portion of the disk has a much smaller impact on hard drive latency because the linear velocity of the disk relative to the write head increases with the distance of the write head from the center of the disk. The linear velocity of the disk can be calculated as the angular velocity of the disk (in radians per second, revolutions per minute, etc.) multiplied by the distance from the write head to the center of the disk. Such embodiments treat the disk as multiple zones. Figure 4A An example is described in which the disk 400 is divided into an inner radius r0 defined as the writing surface of the disk and a specified radius r a The first (shaded) area 405 of the disk is defined as the writing surface of the disk. a A second (unshaded) region 410 is the area between the outer radius r1. Figure 4B The illustration is divided into five zones 405c to g defined by the inner and outer edges of the writing surface of the disk and corresponding to the radius r a to r d A cross-sectional view of the disk 400 from the boundary 410a to d. Figure 4A and 4B Some examples with relatively few zones are described, but various embodiments may employ as many zones as possible, with the theoretical maximum number of zones equal to the number of tracks on the disk.

[0022] According to some embodiments, the interleave size may be in the inner region of the disk (i.e., close to Figure 1 The inner radius 120 of the disk 105 is, for example Figure 4A 405a) and is smaller in the outer area of ​​the disk (i.e., close to Figure 1 In other embodiments, multiple different zones may have different interleaving sizes. For example, in Figure 4B In the above, regions 405c to g may each have a different interleaving size. In some cases, the interleaving size may increase (linearly or otherwise) from region 405c through regions 405d to f to region 405g, but this is not required.

[0023] The choice of slice size can also affect the sparsity of the data being written, and correspondingly affect the drive error rate performance. Figures 5A to 5EDifferent interleaving schemes with different interleaving and slice sizes are illustrated. These figures help to show the sparsity of written data across interleaved sectors and their slices (shown by the distribution of numbered data blocks (eg, data blocks with highlighted number 0)). Figure 5A An interleaving scheme is illustrated with an interleave size of 16 sectors (shown by the vertical axis) and a slice size of 15 (shown by the horizontal axis). The value in each cell represents the order in which the slices are written. Thus, for example, the data for block 0 is written to sector 1, slice 1; sector 2, slice 2; sector 3, slice 3, and so on. After block 0, the data for block 1 is written to sector 16, slice 1; sector 1, slice 2; sector 2, slice 3, and so on. The process continues until the data for block 15 is written to sector 2, slice 1; sector 3, slice 2; sector 4, slice 3; and so on. As illustrated, sector 1 is written sparsely into data blocks 0 through 14. The other sectors are similarly written sparsely interleaved. In general, larger slice sizes with fewer bytes in each slice result in a more refined interleaving scheme that can resolve shorter error clusters.

[0024] The common slice size may be used for multiple interleave sizes that are equal to or slightly larger than an integer multiple of the smallest interleave size among them. Figure 5B Description has an interleave size of 32 sectors ( Figure 5A In this case, the data in sector 1 is sparsely written to data blocks 0 to 28, which is approximately Figure 5A The error rate performance is almost the same as Figure 5C The slice size of 30 is just as good as that shown in Figure 6 Show, Figure 6 Description of the plot Figures 5A to 5C FIG6 is a graph 600 of track error rate (TER) versus track pitch (TP) for schemes of FIG6 . As shown, an interleave size of 32 sectors and a slice size of 15 exhibit better error rate performance than an interleave size of 16, and it is almost as good as a slice size of 30. Therefore, a slice size of 15 can be used to achieve the performance benefits of both interleave sizes 16 and 32. Furthermore, both smaller slice sizes and overall use of fewer different slice sizes (for different interleave sizes) can reduce circuit complexity, which is generally desirable.

[0025] On the other hand, some embodiments may include different slice sizes with different interleaving sizes. For example, Figure 5DAn interleaving scheme with an interleave size of 24 sectors and a slice size of 15 is illustrated. In this case, the data in sector 1 is written sparsely to data blocks 0 to 14, much less sparsely than the entire interleave of 24 sectors. Even with the higher interleave size of 24 sectors, the slice size of 15 still limits the interleaving scheme error rate performance. As shown by Figure 7 As shown, a slice size of 15 limits data sparsity and thus has similar error rate performance to an interleave size of 16 sectors, while a slice size of 24 ( Figure 5E The scheme described in ) can achieve much better error rate performance and is therefore desirable. Figure 7 Graph 700 illustrates that a slice size of 24 is better than a slice size of 15 and, in some cases, is desirable for the performance of the disk (lower TER for a given TP).

[0026] In some aspects, it may be advantageous to use a common slice size for multiple interleave sizes in different regions, especially when the interleave sizes are roughly multiples of the smallest interleave size therein, as indicated by Figure 6 The trajectory shown in Figure 6 Show by Figure 5B The described scheme (interleave size of 32 sectors and 15 slices per block) shows significant performance advantages over the scheme of 5A (interleave size of 16 sectors, slice size of 15) in terms of TER and TP. Figure 5A Compared with the scheme, given Figure 5B This is expected given the relative sparseness of data in the scheme. In certain embodiments, different zones (with different interleave sizes) may have the same slice size. While changing the slice size to correspond to the different interleave sizes in different zones may be done in some embodiments (in order to improve TER as much as possible), Figure 6 This illustrates that selecting a slice size that works relatively well for multiple interleaving sizes can maintain acceptable performance. In addition, attempting to use different slice sizes for different regions can lead to unnecessary complexity. Therefore, other embodiments maintain the same slice size for multiple regions, regardless of whether the interleaving size is changed.

[0027] In some embodiments, tracks contain various numbers of sectors, which are typically not integer multiples of the nominal interleave size. Some interleave blocks contain more or fewer sectors than the nominal interleave size, so that all sectors in a track are covered by sector interleave. In this case, the effective or dominant interleave size can be considered the average interleave size in a track, the dominant interleave size for most sectors in a track, or the interleave size in the track that has the most significant error rate performance impact.

[0028] Of course, it should be recognized that these examples of different interleaving and slice sizes are provided for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered limiting. Therefore, various other interleaving schemes (with different interleaving sizes and slice sizes) fall within the scope of various embodiments.

[0029] Exemplary Implementation

[0030] Certain exemplary implementations are described below. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that each of the described embodiments may be implemented alone or in any combination. Therefore, a single embodiment or combination of embodiments should not be considered limiting.

[0031] Some embodiments provide a device. An exemplary device may include circuitry (and / or other logic) for determining a first interleaving size for writing data to a first zone on a hard drive and circuitry (and / or other logic) for determining at least one additional interleaving size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard drive. The device may further include circuitry (and / or other logic) for configuring a write head of the hard drive to write the first data to the first zone; in one aspect, the first data may be interleaved according to the first interleaving size. The device may include circuitry (and / or other logic) for configuring a write head of the hard drive to write additional data to at least one additional zone; in another aspect, the additional data may be interleaved according to at least one additional interleaving size.

[0032] In some cases, the device may be the control device described above and / or any other suitable device. In such cases, the hard drive may include the device, and the device may be an external device in communication with the hard drive. In other cases, the device may be the hard drive itself.

[0033] In some embodiments, the first interleave size may be one sector, and / or the second interleave size may be greater than the first interleave size. In other embodiments, the first interleave size may be no greater than 16 sectors. Alternatively and / or in addition, the at least one additional interleave size may include one or more interleave sizes of no less than 24 sectors and no greater than 48 sectors.

[0034] As described above, in some cases, the disk may have more than two zones; for example, the at least one additional zone may include at least two additional zones, such as a second zone and a third zone. In such cases, the at least one additional interleave size may include a second interleave size and a third interleave size. In these cases, the additional data may include the second data and the third data, and the device may further include logic for configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write the second data to the second zone at the second interleave size and / or logic for configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write the third data to the third zone at the third interleave size.

[0035] In some aspects, the second interleaved area may be external (i.e., further from the center of the disk) than the first interleaved area on the write surface of the hard drive, and the third interleaved area may be external compared to the second interleaved area on the write surface of the hard drive. In other aspects, the second interleaved size may be larger than the first interleaved size and / or the third interleaved size may be larger than the second interleaved size. Thus, the at least one additional area may include at least two areas. On the other hand, as described above, embodiments are not limited in this regard, and there may be many additional areas, each of which may have its own interleaved size. By way of example only (and not limitation), some embodiments may have at least 24 additional areas.

[0036] As described above, the first zone may include a zone between an inner radius of the writing surface of the hard drive and a specified radius. Thus, at least one additional zone may include a zone between the specified radius and an outer radius of the writing surface of the hard drive. In such cases, the device may include circuitry (or other logic) for determining the specified radius (or radii if there are more than two zones).

[0037] In some cases, the device may include circuitry (or other logic) for determining at least one slice size for writing data to the hard drive and / or logic for configuring a write head of the hard drive to interleave data according to the at least one slice size. As described above, in some embodiments, the at least one slice size is a single slice size for interleaving data written to all zones of the hard drive. In some embodiments, the single slice size is selected to balance the sparsity of data across all zones of the hard drive. By way of example only, the first and second interleave sizes and the slice size may be selected so that both interleave sizes correspond approximately to multiples of the slice size.

[0038] In some cases, the device may further include a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded and executable by the one or more processors. In such cases, the logic may include such instructions. Alternatively and / or in addition, the device may include hardware or firmware circuitry, and some or all of the logic may include instructions encoded in and / or executable by the hardware or firmware circuitry, with or without cooperation with a processor (if present in the device).

[0039] According to another set of embodiments, a device may include a hard drive. In some cases, the device may be the hard drive itself; in other cases, the device may be another device that includes a hard drive, such as a vehicle, a computing system, and / or the like. The device may be configured to determine a first interleave size for writing data to a first zone on the hard drive and / or to determine at least one additional interleave size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard drive. Thus, the device may be configured to configure a write head of the hard drive to write the first data (interleaved according to the first interleave size) to the first zone and / or configure a write head of the hard drive to write additional data (interleaved according to at least one additional interleave size) to at least one additional zone.

[0040] Another set of embodiments provides methods, including (but not limited to) methods that can be performed by various devices and systems provided by other embodiments. Figure 8 An exemplary method 800 is illustrated. One exemplary method includes determining two or more interleaving sizes for writing data to two or more zones of a hard drive (block 805). Similarly, at block 810, the method may include determining a slice size for interleaving data in each zone. In some cases, the method may include determining one or more boundaries of one or more zones (e.g., one or more radii defining such boundaries).

[0041] In some cases, this may include determining a first interleave size and / or slice size for writing data to a first zone on the hard drive and determining at least one additional interleave size and / or slice size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard drive. In some cases, there may be many different zones, and the method may include determining an interleave and / or slice size for each of those zones. As described above, some zones may have different interleave sizes and the same slice size.

[0042] Determining values ​​or parameters such as zones, zone boundaries (e.g., a radius or radii defining a zone), an interleaving size for a zone, and / or a slice size may include any operation that notifies the device of such parameters so that the device can write data accordingly. By way of example only, the device may store data identifying different zones of the write surface of the disk, such as in a register, in storage software, or otherwise in hardware or firmware. This identification may indicate a track number that is a zone boundary, a radius defining a zone boundary from the center of the disk, or any other type of indication that may be used by the logic of the device to define the boundaries of each zone for the write head. The device may also store an indication of the interleaving size and / or slice size that should be used in each zone in a similar manner. This data may be stored as a table that lists the zone boundaries and the corresponding interleaving rate for each zone or using any other data structure that enables the device to determine the interleaving size used at any given zone of the write surface. Thus, for example, in some embodiments, determining one or more of these parameters may include looking up the parameters at any location, receiving the parameters from another source, operating according to these stored parameters, and / or the like.

[0043] The method may further include configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to each zone interleaved according to the interleave size and / or slice size of the zone (block / 815). For example, the method may include: configuring the write head to write data to a first zone, the first data interleaved according to a first interleave size (and / or a first slice size); and configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to write additional data to at least one additional zone, the additional data interleaved according to at least one additional interleave size (and / or at least one additional slice size). Configuring the write head may include instructing the write head, controlling the write head, and / or any other operation that causes the write head to write data specified by the determined zones, interleave sizes, and / or slice sizes.

[0044] The method 800 may further include writing data to each zone, as specified by the configuration of the write head (block 820). By way of example only, the method may include: writing first data to a first zone; and writing additional data to the zone. In some embodiments, the writing of data is performed in a conventional manner, except that the data is interleaved differently depending on the zone to which it is written. Similarly, depending on the configuration of the write head, the slice size of the data being written may vary (but does not necessarily need to vary) in different zones.

[0045] Fig. 9 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a device 900 that can function as described herein, including but not limited to acting as a controller, microcontroller, hard drive, or computer system (or components thereof) according to various embodiments and / or performing the methods described herein. It should be noted that Fig. 9The components shown in the should not be considered as necessary or required for every embodiment. For example, many embodiments may not include a processor and / or may be fully implemented in hardware or firmware circuit systems. Similarly, many embodiments may not include input devices, output devices, or network interfaces.

[0046] As a preface, Fig. 9 900 may include a bus 905. The bus 905 includes one or more components that enable wired and / or wireless communications among the components of the device 900. The bus 905 may include a bus 905 that can communicate with the device 900. Fig. 9 Two or more components of are coupled together, for example, via an operative coupling, a communicative coupling, an electronic coupling, and / or an electrical coupling.

[0047] The device 900 may also include a processor 910, which may include a central processing unit, a graphics processing unit, a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), programmable logic (e.g., a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an erasable programmable logic device (EPLD) or the like), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a system on a chip (SoC), and / or another type of processing component. The processor 910 may be implemented in hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware, firmware, and / or software. In some embodiments, the processor 910 includes one or more processors that can be programmed to perform one or more operations or processes described elsewhere herein. For example, the device 900 may include a non-volatile storage device 915 for instructions (e.g., an operating system, an application, an object code, an assembly, a binary, etc.) used to program the processor 910 in this manner. In some cases, the storage device may be a hard drive according to various embodiments. This storage device 915 may be a non-volatile memory, a hard drive, etc. that stores instructions. In a particular set of embodiments, the instructions are stored as hardware instructions, such as encoded in hardware and / or firmware (eg, hardware circuitry 950 discussed below).

[0048] In some embodiments, device 900 may include input components 920 and / or output components 925. Input components 920 may enable device 900 to receive input, such as user input and / or sensed input. For example, input components 920 may include a touch screen, a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a button, a microphone, a switch, a sensor, a global positioning system sensor, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and / or an actuator. Output components 925 may enable device 900 to provide output, such as via a display, a speaker, and / or a light emitting diode.

[0049] The device 900 may also include a communication interface 930, which may enable the device 900 to communicate with other devices via a wired (electrical and / or optical) connection and / or a wireless connection. For example, the communication interface 930 may include a receiver, a transmitter, a transceiver, a modem, a network interface card, and / or an antenna. In some cases, the communication interface 930 may include a plurality of I / O ports, each of which may be any facility that provides communication between the device 900 and other devices, and in particular embodiments, such ports may be network ports, such as Ethernet ports, fiber optic ports, etc. Other embodiments may include different types of I / O ports, such as serial ports, pin-outs, and / or the like.

[0050] In some embodiments, the device 900 may include logic. This logic may be any kind of code, instructions, circuitry, or the like that may cause the device 900 to operate in accordance with the embodiments herein (e.g., to perform some or all of the processes and / or operations described herein). By way of example only, the device 900 may include an operating system 940 and / or other instructions 945 may be loaded (e.g., from storage device 915) into a working memory 935 (e.g., to perform the operations and methods described herein). In some implementations, execution of the instructions 945 by the one or more processors 910 causes the one or more processors 910 and / or the device 900 to perform such operations.

[0051] Alternatively and / or in addition, logic may include circuitry 950 (e.g., hardware or firmware) that may operate independently or in cooperation with any processor 910 that the device 900 may or may not have. (As described above, in some cases, the circuitry 950 itself may be considered a processor 910.) In such cases, some or all of the logic that implements or causes the performance of some or all of the operations described herein may be encoded in hardware or firmware circuitry (e.g., circuitry 950) and executed directly by that circuitry, rather than being loaded into working memory 935 and run by processor 910. Thus, unless the context indicates otherwise, the embodiments described herein are not limited to any specific combination of hardware, firmware, and / or software.

[0052] in conclusion

[0053] In the foregoing description, for the purpose of explanation, many details are stated to provide a thorough understanding of the described embodiments. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other embodiments may be practiced without some of these details. In other examples, for the sake of clarity, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form without all the details. Several embodiments are described herein and various features are attributed to different embodiments at the same time, it should be understood that the features described with respect to one embodiment may also be combined with other embodiments. However, for the same reason, a single feature or several features of any described embodiment should not be considered to be necessary for each embodiment of the present invention, because other embodiments of the present invention may omit such features.

[0054] Thus, the foregoing description provides an illustration and description of some features and aspects of various embodiments, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the implementation to the precise form disclosed. Those skilled in the art will recognize that modifications may be made in light of the above disclosure, or may be derived from practice of the implementation, all of which may fall within the scope of the various embodiments. For example, as described above, the methods and processes described herein may be implemented using software components, firmware, and / or hardware components (including but not limited to processors, other hardware circuitry, custom integrated circuits (ICs), programmable logic, etc.), and / or any combination thereof.

[0055] Furthermore, although for ease of description, the various methods and processes described herein may be described with respect to specific structural and / or functional components, the methods provided by the various embodiments are not limited to any specific structural and / or functional architecture but may instead be implemented in any suitable hardware configuration. Similarly, although some functionality is attributed to one or more system components, this functionality may be distributed throughout various other system components according to several embodiments unless the context indicates otherwise.

[0056] Likewise, while the procedures of the methods and processes described herein are described in a particular order for ease of description, various procedures may be reordered, added, and / or omitted according to various embodiments unless the context indicates otherwise. Furthermore, procedures described with respect to one method or process may be incorporated into other described methods or processes; similarly, system components described according to a particular structural architecture and / or with respect to one system may be organized into alternative structural architectures and / or incorporated into other described systems. Thus, while those embodiments are described with or without certain features for ease of description and to illustrate aspects of various embodiments, various components and / or features described herein with respect to specific embodiments may be substituted, added, and / or subtracted from other described embodiments unless the context indicates otherwise.

[0057] As used herein, the term "component" is intended to be broadly understood as hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and software. It should be understood that the systems and / or methods described herein can be implemented in different forms of hardware, firmware, and / or a combination of hardware and software. The actual dedicated control hardware or software code used to implement these systems and / or methods does not limit the implementation scheme unless explicitly cited in the following claims. Therefore, when the operation and behavior of the system and / or method are described herein without reference to specific software code, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that software and hardware can be used to implement the system and / or method based on the description herein.

[0058] In the present disclosure, when an element is referred to herein as being "connected" or "coupled" to another element, it is understood that an element may be directly connected to another element or that there may be an intermediary element between the elements. Conversely, when an element is referred to as being "directly connected" or "directly coupled" to another element, it is understood that there are no intermediary elements in the "direct" connection between the elements. However, the presence of a direct connection does not exclude other connections in which there may be intermediary elements. Similarly, although the methods and processes described herein may be described in a particular order for ease of description, it is understood that unless the context indicates otherwise, the intermediary process may occur before and / or after any portion of the described process, and as described above, the described procedures may be reordered, added, and / or omitted according to various embodiments.

[0059] In this application, unless otherwise expressly stated, the use of the singular includes the plural, and unless otherwise indicated, the use of the term "and" means "and / or". Moreover, as used herein, the term "or" when used in a series is intended to be inclusive and also interchangeable with "and / or", unless otherwise expressly indicated (for example, when used in conjunction with "any" or "only one of..."). In addition, the use of the term "including" and other forms such as "includes and included" should be considered non-exclusive. Moreover, unless otherwise expressly stated, terms such as "element" or "component" cover both elements and components that make up one unit and elements and components that make up more than one unit. As used herein, the phrase "at least one of..." preceding a series of items separated by the terms "and" or "or" modifies the list as a whole, rather than each member of the list (i.e., each item). The phrase "at least one of..." does not require selection of at least one of each of the listed items; rather, the phrase allows for a meaning that includes at least one of any one item and / or at least one of any combination of items. By way of example, the phrase "at least one of A, B, and C" or "at least one of A, B, or C" refers to only A, only B, or only C, respectively; and / or any combination of A, B, and C. In instances where selection of "at least one of each of A, B, and C," or alternatively "at least one of A, at least one of B, and at least one of C," is intended, it is explicitly described as such.

[0060] Unless otherwise indicated, all numbers used to express quantity, size, etc. herein should be understood to be modified by the term "about" in all examples. As used herein, the article "a and an" is intended to include one or more items and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". Similarly, as used herein, the article "said" is intended to include one or more items quoted in conjunction with the article "said" and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". As used herein, the term "group" is intended to include one or more items (such as related items, unrelated items, combinations of related and unrelated items and / or the like), and can be used interchangeably with "one or more". In the case of only wishing one item, the phrase "only one" or similar terms are used. Moreover, as used herein, the term "has, have, having" or the like is intended to be an open term. In addition, unless otherwise explicitly stated, the phrase "based on" is intended to mean "based at least in part". In the foregoing description, "satisfying a threshold" may refer to a value being greater than a threshold, greater than or equal to a threshold, less than a threshold, less than or equal to a threshold, equal to a threshold, and / or the like, depending on the context.

[0061] Although specific combinations of features are cited in the claims and / or disclosed in the specification, these combinations are not intended to limit the disclosure of the various embodiments. In fact, many of these features can be combined in a manner that is not explicitly cited in the claims and / or disclosed in the specification. Therefore, although each dependent independent claim listed below may directly depend on only one claim, the disclosure of the various embodiments includes each dependent claim combined with each other claim in the claim group. Unless explicitly described as such, the elements, actions, or instructions used herein should not be interpreted as being critical or essential.

Claims

1. A device comprising: circuitry for determining a first interleave size for writing data to a first zone on a hard disk drive; circuitry for determining at least one additional interleave size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard disk drive; circuitry for configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to the first area, the first data being interleaved according to the first interleave size; and Circuitry for configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to write additional data to the at least one additional zone, the additional data being interleaved according to the at least one additional interleave size. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the device is a system on chip (SoC).

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the hard disk drive comprises the device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interleave size is one sector. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a second interleave size is larger than the first interleave size.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first interleave size is no greater than 16 sectors.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional interleave size comprises an interleave size of no less than 24 sectors and no greater than 48 sectors.

8. The device according to claim 1, wherein: The at least one additional region includes a second region and a third region; The at least one additional interleave size includes a second interleave size and a third interleave size; The additional data includes second data and third data; and The device further comprises: circuitry for configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to write the second data to the second area according to the second interleave size; and A circuit system is used to configure the write head of the hard disk drive to write the third data to a third area according to the third interleave size.

9. The device according to claim 8, wherein: The second interleaved area is outside the first interleaved area on the writing surface of the hard disk drive; The third interleaved area is outside the second interleaved area on the writing surface of the hard disk drive; The second interleave size is greater than the first interleave size; and The third interleave size is greater than the second interleave size.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one additional region comprises at least 24 regions.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the first zone comprises a zone between an inner radius of a writing surface of the hard drive and a specified radius, and wherein the at least one additional zone comprises a zone between the specified radius and an outer radius of the writing surface of the hard drive.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising circuitry for determining the specified radius.

13. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: circuitry for determining at least one slice size for writing data to the hard disk drive; and Circuitry for configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to interleave data according to the at least one slice size.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one slice size is a single slice size for interleaving data written to a plurality of zones of the hard disk drive having different interleaving sizes.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the single slice size is selected to balance data sparsity across multiple zones of the hard drive having different interleave sizes.

16. A device comprising a hard disk drive, the hard disk drive being configured to: determining a first interleave size for writing data to a first zone on the hard disk drive; determining at least one additional interleave size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard disk drive; configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to the first area, the first data being interleaved according to the first interleave size; and The write head of the hard disk drive is configured to write additional data to the at least one additional area, the additional data being interleaved according to the at least one additional interleave size.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the device is the hard disk drive.

18. The device of claim 16, wherein the device is a computing device.

19. An apparatus comprising logic comprising: logic for determining a first interleave size for writing data to a first zone on a hard disk drive; logic for determining at least one additional interleave size for writing data to at least one additional zone on the hard disk drive; logic for configuring a write head of the hard disk drive to write first data to the first area, the first data being interleaved according to the first interleave size; and Logic is provided for configuring the write head of the hard disk drive to write additional data to the at least one additional zone, the additional data being interleaved according to the at least one additional interleave size.

20. The device of claim 19, further comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium, wherein at least some of the logic comprises instructions encoded on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by the one or more processors.

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