Hard Disk Drive Regions for Variable Rotational Speed

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Solution Overview

Problem

Higher rotational speed hard disk drives consume significantly more power, making it difficult to achieve both performance and power conservation in computing systems, and existing technology restricts variable-speed operations as data must be written and read at the same speed.

Innovation Solution

A hard disk drive with regions optimized for different rotational speeds, allowing data to be written and read at specific speeds, enabling variable-speed operation while maintaining data integrity and power efficiency.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Speed

If the rotational speed of the storage surface is increased to improve performance, then data access speed is improved, but power consumption increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improverotational speedVSAvoidpower consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

SpeedVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The storage surface is divided into multiple regions, each region being accessible at a specific rotational speed. This segmentation allows the system to operate at lower speeds for less frequently accessed data while maintaining high-speed access for frequently accessed data, thereby resolving the contradiction between performance and power consumption.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system dynamically adjusts the rotational speed based on which region is being accessed. The rotational speed is variable and changes according to the access pattern, allowing the drive to optimize between speed and power consumption in real-time based on workload requirements.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

2Use of energy by moving object

If the storage surface is divided into regions for different speeds, then power consumption is optimized, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepower consumptionVSAvoiddevice complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

Use of energy by moving objectVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

A single storage surface serves multiple functions by being accessible at different rotational speeds for different regions. The same physical storage medium performs both low-speed and high-speed operations without requiring separate drives, thereby managing complexity while achieving power optimization.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

3Use of energy by moving object

If variable-speed operation is implemented, then power efficiency is improved, but data integrity constraints are violated

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvepower efficiencyVSAvoiddata integrity

Core Design Contradiction:

Use of energy by moving objectVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

By segmenting the storage surface into regions with assigned rotational speeds, the system ensures that data written to a region at a specific speed is read back at the same speed. This segmentation strategy maintains data integrity while enabling variable-speed operation for power efficiency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS9286932B2Hard disk drive having regions corresponding to different speeds at which storage surface rotates

Publication Date: 2016.03.15 HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE DEV LP

AI summary

A hard disk drive includes a storage surface, a motor, a read/write had, and a number of regions into which the storage surface is divisible. Data is writable to and data is readable from the storage surface. The motor is to rotate the storage surface at a variable speed. The read/write head is to write data to and read data from the storage surface while the storage surface is rotated by the motor. Each region corresponds to a different speed at which the storage surface is rotated for the read/write head to write data to and read data from the region.