Intelligent storage device controller

• US 8,645,641 B2
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Issued: 02/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Baum, Michael Edward, Touchton, Jim Joseph, Feldman, Timothy Richard, Montemorra, Mike
• Primary Examiner(s): Li, Aimee
• Assistant Examiner(s): SIMONETTI, NICHOLAS J
• Application Number:
  US12/336,909
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153680A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,875 Days
• Field of Search: 710 8- 19
• US Class Current: 711/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1816 Testing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1062 Data buffering arrangements, e.g. recording or playback buffers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/455 said record carriers being in one device and being used as primary and secondary/backup media, e.g. HDD-DVD combo device, or as source and target media, e.g. PC and portable player
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/5565 system adaptation for compensation of variations of physical parameters, e.g. temperature

Abstract

In a particular embodiment, a storage device includes a controller that is adapted to receive environmental data from a plurality of environmental sensors, where the environmental data is related to an operating environment of the storage device. Further, the controller is adapted to receive state information related to the data storage medium from a plurality of firmware detectors, to weight the received environmental data and the received state information according to a pre-determined weighting table, and to dynamically manage at least one attribute of the storage device based on the weighted environmental data and the weighted state information.

Claims

1. A data storage device comprising:

a controller adapted to;

apply different weights to a same input quantity based on degrees of relevance of the same input quantity to corresponding different ones of a plurality of attributes of the data storage device; and

dynamically manage at least one of the plurality of attributes of the data storage device based on the weighted quantity,

wherein the different weights comprise at least three weights, and

wherein the same input quantity comprises environmental data from one of a plurality of environmental sensors in an operating environment of the data storage device or state data from one of a plurality of firmware detectors that receives state information related to the data storage device.

2. The data storage device of claim 1 and further comprising:

a data storage medium, and

wherein the state information related to the data storage device comprises state information related to the data storage medium.

3. The data storage device of claim 2, wherein the controller is further adapted to:

apply the different weights to both the environmental data and the state data; and

dynamically manage the at least one attribute of the data storage device based on the weighted environmental data and the weighted state data.

4. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the controller is further adapted to dynamically update the weights.

5. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the environmental data includes altitude information, wherein the state data indicates that a power source is a battery, and wherein the controller is adapted to adjust the at least one attribute based on a determination that the data storage device is in use at a high altitude that is several miles above sea level.

6. The data storage device of claim 5, wherein the data storage device comprises a disc media and a solid-state memory, and wherein the controller is adapted to:

dynamically adjust a memory partitioning attribute to store data at the solid-state memory; and

adjust a power attribute to reduce power to the disc media in response to determining that the data storage device is in use at the high altitude.

7. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the state data includes workload data related to an access activity level associated with the data storage medium, data error rate information and power source data from the plurality of firmware detectors, and wherein the controller is adapted to adjust a particular attribute of the plurality of attributes to control performance of error correction operations.

8. The data storage device of claim 7, wherein the controller is adapted to selectively perform a background scan operation on particular portions of the data storage medium based on at least one of the access activity level, the data error rate and power source data.

9. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the controller further comprises an input weight adjustment controller to reduce a weight, of the different weights, associated with a particular environmental parameter when the environment data associated with the particular environmental parameter is inconsistent with other environmental data from other sensors of the plurality of environmental sensors.

10. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the controller is adapted to log historical error data and to selectively apply a learning algorithm to the historical error data to adjust at least some of the different weights, within a weighting table, for subsequent use.

11. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the environmental data comprises at least one of rotational vibration data, temperature data, humidity data, and altitude data.

12. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the state data comprises at least one of a write retry rate, a read error rate, a bit error level, a workload detector, and a dynamic error recovery detector.

13. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the at least one attribute comprises at least one of a write threshold, a settle criterion, a seek profile, and a servo loop shape.

14. A data storage device comprising:

an interface responsive to a host system;

a first non-volatile storage medium;

a second non-volatile storage medium; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the interface, the first non-volatile storage medium and the second non-volatile storage medium, the controller adapted to;

apply different weights to a same input quantity based on degrees of relevance of the same input quantity to corresponding different ones of a plurality of attributes of the data storage device;

dynamically manage at least one of the plurality of attributes of the data storage device based on the weighted quantity,

a plurality of environmental sensors adapted to monitor a respective plurality of environmental parameters to produce environmental data;

a plurality of firmware detectors adapted to monitor state information related to the data storage device,

wherein the same input quantity is the environmental data from any one of the plurality of environmental sensors or the state information from any one of the plurality of firmware detectors, and

wherein the different weights comprise at least three weights.

15. The data storage device of claim 14, wherein the controller is further adapted to:

apply the different weights to both the environmental data and the state information; and

adjust the at least one attribute of the data storage device based on the weighted environmental data and the weighted state information.

16. The data storage device of claim 15 and wherein the controller is further adapted to dynamically update the weights.

17. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the environmental data comprises:

altitude data related to an operating altitude of the data storage device; and

wherein the altitude data is weighted with respect to multiple attributes including a head clearance parameter, a settle criteria parameter, and an adjacent track verification parameter associated with the second non-volatile storage media.

18. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the environmental data includes rotational vibration data, and wherein the controller is adapted to:

adjust a seek profile attribute and a memory partitioning attribute in response to the rotational vibration data; and

adjust a power profile attribute to reduce power to the second non-volatile storage medium.

19. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the state information comprises an indication that the power source is a battery, and wherein the controller is adapted to:

adjust a power attribute to reduce power to the second non-volatile storage medium; and

adjust a partitioning attribute to direct data received from the interface to the first non-volatile storage medium, wherein the first non-volatile storage medium comprises a solid-state memory device.

20. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the state information comprises:

a power level associated with a battery; and

wherein the controller is adapted to perform an intelligent background scan to fix data errors at the second non-volatile storage medium by servicing only sectors that have already been flagged for data errors, so that the intelligent background scan is limited to selected portions of the second non-volatile storage medium.

21. The data storage device of claim 15, wherein the state information includes a data error rate associated with read access and write access to the first and second non-volatile storage media and includes market data associated with a type of electronic device with which the first and second non-volatile storage media are used, and wherein the controller is adapted to selectively adjust a memory partition attribute to partition received data between the first and the second non-volatile storage media based on at least one of the weighted environmental data, the data error rate and the market segment data associated with a market of the data storage device.

22. A method comprising:

applying different weights to a same input quantity data based on degrees of relevance of the same input quantity data to corresponding different ones of a plurality of attributes of a data storage device; and

dynamically managing at least one of the plurality of attributes of the data storage device based on the weighted quantity,

wherein the different weights comprise at least three weights, and

wherein the same input quantity comprises environmental data from one of a plurality of environmental sensors in an operating environment of the data storage device or state data from one of a plurality of firmware detectors that receives state information related to the data storage device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the state information related to the data storage device comprises state information related to a data storage medium of the data storage device.

24. The method of claim 23 and further comprising:

applying the different weights to both the environmental data and the state data; and

dynamically managing the at least one attribute of the data storage device based on the weighted environmental data and the weighted state data.