Intelligent storage device controller

• US 20100153680A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Baum, Michael Edward, Montemorra, Mike, Touchton, Jim Joseph, Feldman, Timothy Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,645,641 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/173
• 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 storage device comprising:

a data storage medium; and

a controller adapted to;

receive environmental data from a plurality of environmental sensors, the environmental data related to an operating environment of the storage device;

receive state information related to the data storage medium from a plurality of firmware detectors;

weight the received environmental data and the received state information according to a pre-determined weighting table; and

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

2. The storage device of claim 1, wherein weighting the received environmental data and the received state information comprises assigning a relative importance to each data value with respect to other data values to determine when to adjust the at least one attribute.

3. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the received environmental data includes altitude information, wherein the received state information indicates that a power source is a battery, and wherein the controller is adapted to adjust at least one attribute based on a determination that the storage device is in use at a high altitude that is several miles above sea level.

4. The storage device of claim 3, wherein the 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 storage device is in use at the high altitude.

5. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the state information includes workload data related to an access activity level associated with the 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 to control performance of error correction operations.

6. The storage device of claim 5, wherein the controller is adapted to selectively perform a background scan operation on particular portions of the storage medium based on at least one of the access activity level, the data error rate and power source data.

7. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller further comprises an input weight adjustment controller to reduce a weight 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.

8. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller is adapted to log historical error data and to selectively apply a learning algorithm to the historical error data to adjust weights within the pre-determined weighting table for subsequent use.

9. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the received environmental data comprises at least one of rotational vibration data, temperature data, humidity data, and altitude data.

10. The storage device of claim 1, wherein the received state information 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.

11. The storage device of claim 1, 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.

12. A storage device comprising:

an interface responsive to a host system;

a first non-volatile storage medium;

a second non-volatile storage medium;

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

a plurality of firmware detectors adapted to monitor state information associated with accessing the first and second non-volatile storage media; and

a controller adapted to receive the state information, to weight environmental data from the plurality of environmental sensors, and to selectively adjust at least one attribute associated with the storage device based on the determined state information and the weighted environmental data.

13. The storage device of claim 12, wherein the at least one attribute comprises an adjacent track verification parameter.

14. The storage device of claim 12, wherein the state information comprises:

at least one of a host activity level associated with storage commands received from the host system;

data received at the interface;

a storage device activity level associated with access activity associated with at least one of the first and second non-volatile storage media; and

a data error rate associated with at least one of the first and second storage media.

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

adjust a weight associated with the data error rate to produce a marginalized data error rate based on a relative importance of state information from the plurality of firmware detectors; and

adjust an error correction attribute to selectively perform a background scan operation on at least one of the first non-volatile storage medium and the second non-volatile storage medium as a function of the marginalized data error rate, the host activity level, and the storage device activity level.

16. The storage device of claim 12, wherein the controller is adapted to:

receive the state information including a data error rate associated with read access and write access to the first and second non-volatile storage media and including market data associated with a type of electronic device with which the first and second non-volatile storage media are used; and

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 storage device.

17. The storage device of claim 16, wherein the environmental data comprises a rotational vibration, and wherein the controller is adapted to store received data at the first non-volatile storage media comprising a solid-state memory when one of a rotational vibration and the data error rate of the second non-volatile storage media exceeds a performance threshold.

18. The storage device of claim 16, wherein the market segment data comprises one of a portable computing device and a digital video recording device.

19. A storage device comprising:

an interface responsive to a host system to receive data and data storage commands;

a first non-volatile storage medium;

a second non-volatile storage medium;

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 storage device; and

a controller adapted to weight the environmental data and the state information and to adjust at least one attribute based on the weighted environmental data and the weighted state information.

20. The storage device of claim 19, wherein the environmental data comprises:

altitude data related to an operating altitude of the 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.

21. The storage device of claim 20, wherein the altitude data has a first weight with respect to the head clearance parameter, a second weighting with respect to the settle criteria parameter, and a third weighting with respect to the adjacent track verification parameter.

22. The storage device of claim 20, wherein the controller is adapted to adjust at least one of the head clearance parameter, the settle criteria parameter, and the adjacent track verification parameter in response to the altitude data.

23. The storage device of claim 19, wherein the environmental data includes at least one environmental measurement that is inconsistent with other measurement data, and wherein the controller is adapted to degrade a weighting associated with the at least one environmental measurement with respect to the other measurement data.

24. The storage device of claim 19, 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.

25. The storage device of claim 19, 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.

26. The storage device of claim 23, 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.