Seek Control Circuit Power Latency Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data storage devices, such as hard disc drives, face challenges in reducing operational power consumption while maintaining target command completion times and input/output operations per second, leading to high energy usage and increased carbon footprint and total cost of ownership.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a seek control circuit that adjusts power to actuators based on command age-related measurements, allowing for the splitting of commands into queues to be serviced by multiple actuators, thereby reducing seek and spindle power usage by slowing down some seeks and speeding up others, and providing 'head room' to achieve lower average power consumption without reducing top performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If power to actuators is reduced to lower average power consumption, then energy efficiency improves, but command completion time may increase and performance degrades
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts actuator power levels based on real-time conditions. The seek control circuit monitors command queue characteristics and adjusts seek power dynamically - using higher power when commands are aging or performance thresholds are at risk, and lower power when the queue is manageable, thus resolving the contradiction between power reduction and performance maintenance
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes operational parameters (seek power levels, seek speeds) based on command age and queue depth measurements. By adjusting these parameters adaptively, the system achieves lower average power consumption while ensuring command completion times remain within acceptable thresholds
2Use of energy by moving object
If seek power is reduced by slowing down seeks, then energy consumption decreases, but command completion time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic seek power adjustment where seek speed is not fixed but adapts based on command characteristics. Older commands or those approaching performance thresholds receive higher seek power for faster completion, while newer commands can use lower power, achieving the contradiction resolution between energy savings and seek speed
Solution Approach 2:
Different seek operations receive different power levels based on their specific needs. Instead of uniform power reduction, the system applies localized power adjustments - high power for critical seeks, low power for non-critical ones - thereby reducing overall seek power while maintaining necessary seek speeds for performance-sensitive operations
3Productivity
If multiple actuators are deployed to service commands in parallel, then throughput increases, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the command queue into multiple sub-queues, with each actuator servicing specific segments. This segmentation enables parallel processing and increased throughput while keeping each actuator's control logic relatively simple, managing the complexity through structured division of labor
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple actuators are designed with identical or similar control logic, making them universal and interchangeable. This multi-functionality approach allows the system to scale throughput by adding identical units rather than designing increasingly complex single-actuator systems, managing complexity through standardization
Data Source
AI summary
A data storage device includes at least one data storage medium having a plurality of tracks. The data storage device also includes at least one actuator that supports at least one head that is configured to interact with different tracks of the plurality of tracks on the at least one data storage medium to service commands from a host. The data storage device further includes a seek control circuit communicatively coupled to the at least one actuator. The seek control circuit is configured to store the commands from the host in at least one queue for execution by the at least one actuator. The seek control module is also configured to adjust power provided to the at least one actuator for seek operations to the different tracks of the plurality of tracks based on command age-related measurements of the commands from the host.