Device power control

• US 10,379,595 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2015
• Issued: 08/13/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Stenfort, Ross John
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Kim
• Assistant Examiner(s): Neveln, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US14/854,005
• Publication Number:
  US 20160004294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,429 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3268 Power saving in hard disk drive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3275 Power saving in memory, e.g. RAM, cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0625 Power saving in storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0688 Non-volatile semiconductor memory arrays
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

In various embodiments and/or usage scenarios, device power control, such as relating to one or more power control commands, requests to transition operation to a specific power mode, and/or device power management commands, is advantageous and improves one or more of: performance, reliability, unit cost, and development cost of one or more devices, such as storage devices (e.g. a Solid-State Disk (SSD)) or systems including same.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

while operating a device in accordance with a current operating power state, receiving a power control command from a host connected to the device;

in response to receiving the power control command, dynamically modifying mapping information in the device based on the power control command, the mapping information comprising mappings between device power management commands and device operating power states;

receiving a device power management command to transition the operation of the device to a specified operating power state;

based on the specified operating power state in the device power management command and the mapping information, determining a new operating power state for the device; and

operating the device in accordance with the new operating power state, wherein the new operating power state is different than the specified operating power state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified operating power state is a higher-power state than the current operating power state, and the new operating power state is identical to the current operating power state.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the power control command prioritizes decreased power over increased performance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the device power management commands comprising the mapping information comprise one or more of an IDLE command, a STANDBY command, and a SLEEP command.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the device operating power states comprising the mapping information comprise one or more of a High Performance power state, an Active power state, a Low Power power state, an Idle power state, a Standby power state, and a Sleep power state.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the device power management command is a second command, the method further comprising:

receiving at the device, before the receiving of the second command, a first command; and

commencing by the device processing of the second command while the first command is outstanding.

7. A non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having a set of instructions stored therein that when executed by a processing element cause the processing element to perform and/or control operations comprising:

while operating a device in accordance with a current operating power state, receiving a power control command from a host connected to the device;

in response to receiving the power control command, dynamically modifying mapping information in the device based on the power control command, the mapping information comprising mappings between device power management commands and device operating power states;

receiving a device power management command to transition the operation of the device to a specified operating power state;

based on the specified operating power state in the device power management command and the mapping information, determining a new operating power state for the device; and

operating the device in accordance with the new operating power state.

8. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the specified operating power state is a higher-power state than the current operating power state, and the new operating power state is identical to the current operating power state.

9. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 8, wherein the power control command prioritizes decreased power over increased performance.

10. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the device power management commands comprising the mapping information comprise one or more of an IDLE command, a STANDBY command, and a SLEEP command.

11. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the device operating power states comprising the mapping information comprise one or more of a High Performance power state, an Active power state, a Low Power power state, an Idle power state, a Standby power state, and a Sleep power state.

12. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the device power management command is a second command, the non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having further instructions stored therein that cause the processing element to perform and/or control operations comprising:

receiving, before the receiving of the second command, a first command; and

commencing processing of the second command while the first command is outstanding.

13. A storage device comprising:

logic circuitry enabled, while operating the storage device in accordance with a current operating power state, to receive a power control command from a host connected to the storage device;

logic circuitry enabled, in response to receiving the power control command, dynamically modify a device power management command map in the storage device based on the power control command, the device power management command map comprising mappings between device power management commands and device operating power states;

logic circuitry enabled to receive a device power management command to transition the operation of the storage device to a specified operating power state;

logic circuitry enabled, based on the specified operating power state in the device power management command and the device power management command map, to determine a new operating power state for the storage device; and

logic circuitry enabled to operate the storage device in accordance with the new operating power state.

14. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the specified operating power state is a higher-power state than the current operating power state, and the new operating power state is identical to the current operating power state.

15. The storage device of claim 14, wherein the power control command prioritizes decreased power over increased performance.

16. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the device power management commands comprising the device power management command map comprise one or more of an IDLE command, a STANDBY command, and a SLEEP command.

17. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the device operating power states comprising the device power management command map comprise one or more of a High Performance power state, an Active power state, a Low Power power state, an Idle power state, a Standby power state, and a Sleep power state.

18. The storage device of claim 13, wherein the device power management command is a second command, the storage device further comprising:

logic circuitry enabled to receive, before the receiving of the second command, a first command; and

logic circuitry enabled to commence processing of the second command while the first command is outstanding.