JPS62129971A - Disk drive controller for magnetic recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the power consumption and to prevent a contacting accident by controlling the rotating speed of a spindle motor lower when read/write operation is off than in the read/write operation and moving a magnetic head to a specific position at the outer periphery 9 of a disk. CONSTITUTION:When the read/write operation is stopped temporarily and a ready state is entered, a host compuater outputs a power saving instruction signal P to a CPU 12. The CPU 12 outputs a rotating speed switching signal C to a rotational speed switching circuit 11 and a normal rotational speed instruction signal HV is switched to a low rotational speed instruction signal LV from a low rotational speed instruction circuit 14, so that the signal is outputted to a spindle motor control circuit 10. The circuit 10 controls the driving of the spindle motor to the specific low rotational speed instructed by the signal LV. Further, the CPU 12 outputs a carriage control signal A to a carriage control circuit 15 according to the signal P. The circuit 15 controls the driving of a carriage according to the signal A to move the magnetic head to a specific position nearby the outer periphery of the disk. Thus, the power consumption is reduced and the contacting accident is prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention particularly relates to a disk drive control device for a magnetic recording/reproducing device, which is a hard disk device.

[Technical Background of the Invention and Problems Therewith] Hard disk drives are used as external storage devices for information processing systems and are developing as important peripheral devices. For such hard disk devices,
In recent years, in addition to higher recording densities, there has been a strong demand for portable device bodies. In the portable device, it is necessary to reduce the size of the main body of the device and also to realize low power consumption because it is necessary to improve the efficiency of power consumption when, for example, a battery drive method is adopted.

However, in conventional devices, although the power is turned on and the device is in an operable state, data read/write operations are not actually executed, resulting in unnecessary power consumption.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to significantly reduce the power consumption required to drive the disk when it is in an operable state and not in read/write operation, thereby realizing lower power consumption of the entire device. The object of the present invention is to provide a disk drive control 8i mushroom for a magnetic recording/reproducing device that can perform the following functions.

[Summary of the Invention 1] The present invention includes a rotational speed switching control means for changing the rotational speed of a spindle motor that rotates a disk, and a carriage driving fee means for controlling a carriage driving means. The rotational speed switching control means executes rotational speed switching IIliO so that the rotational speed of the spindle motor is lower than during read/write operations when data is not read/written to the disk. Further, the carriage drive control means, when the read/write operation is not performed,
The carriage driving means is configured to be controlled so as to move the magnetic head to a predetermined position near the outer periphery of the disk.

With this configuration, when a read/write operation is not performed, power consumption due to driving the spindle motor can be reduced, and the magnetic head can be moved to a stable position on the disk.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure is a block diagram showing the configuration of a disk drive control device according to an embodiment. In FIG. 1, a spindle motor control circuit 10 is a circuit that drives a spindle motor that rotates a disk. The rotation speed switching circuit 11 is configured by a microprocessor (CPt
J) By the rotation speed switching signal C output from 12, the normal rotation speed instruction signal HV from the normal rotation speed instruction circuit 13 or the low speed rotation speed instruction signal LV from the low speed rotation speed instruction circuit 14.
One of them is selected and outputted to the spindle motor clamping circuit 10.

The CPU 12 outputs a rotation speed switching signal C and a carriage control signal Δ to the carriage control circuit 15 in response to a power saving instruction signal P from the host computer. When the carriage control circuit 15 receives the carriage control signal A, it drives and controls the carriage so as to move the magnetic head on the disk to a predetermined position on the outer periphery of the disk.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. First, under the control of the host computer, the output of the power saving instruction signal P is stopped while the magnetic head is performing data read/write operations on the disk. At this time, CP
The U 12 outputs a rotation speed switching signal C at the rLJ level to the rotation speed switching circuit 11, for example. Rotation speed switching circuit 11
selects the normal rotation speed instruction signal H■ from the normal rotation speed instruction circuit 13 and outputs it to the spindle motor control circuit 10.

The spindle motor control circuit 10 detects the rotation speed using a detection signal from a Hall sensor attached to the spindle motor, and controls the spindle motor so that the detected rotation speed matches the normal rotation speed indicated by the normal rotation speed instruction signal HV. This will control the drive of the spindle motor. As a result, the spindle motor rotates at a normal rotational speed and rotationally drives the disk.

Here, in a hard disk drive, during a read/write operation, the magnetic head executes the read/write operation while floating above the surface of the disk.

At normal rotation speed, the disc rotates at a very high speed,
If the disk and magnetic head come into contact in this state, both may be destroyed. Therefore, the flying height of the magnetic head is designed so that the head and disk do not come into contact with each other at the innermost circumference, where the circumferential speed is lowest when the disk is rotating.

Incidentally, as shown in FIG. 2, the flying height of the magnetic head increases as the circumferential speed of the disk increases, and is approximately proportional. . The AE sensor shown in FIG. 2 is a sensor that converts vibrations generated when a magnetic head contacts or approaches a disk into an electrical signal. The larger the AE sensor output, the smaller the flying height of the magnetic head with respect to the disk, and the closer the magnetic head is to or in contact with the disk.

In FIG. 2, the magnetic head is in continuous contact with the disk until the circumferential speed of the disk reaches R1. The magnetic head discontinuously contacts protrusions formed on the disk (surface irregularities of the disk substrate) up to the circumferential speed R2 of the disk. For this reason, the minimum flying height 11Fi of the magnetic head is set so that it does not come into contact with any protrusions at the innermost periphery of the disk (the innermost periphery of the head flying area) where the circumferential speed of the disk is lowest, and the minimum flying height 11Fi of the disk at that time is The circumferential speed R1 of the inner circumference is the lowest circumferential speed determined by the normal rotation speed. At this time, the maximum circumferential speed Rn is the circumferential speed at the outermost circumference of the disk, and the flying height Fn of the head becomes maximum.

Next, when the read/write operation is temporarily stopped and becomes ready, the power saving instruction signal P is sent from the host computer to C.
It is output to P U 42. In response to this power saving instruction signal P, the CP tJ 12 outputs a rotation speed switching signal C at the rHJ level to the rotation speed switching circuit 11, for example. The rotation speed switching circuit 11 switches from the normal rotation speed instruction signal HV to the low rotation speed instruction signal LV from the low speed rotation speed instruction circuit 14 and outputs it to the spindle motor l1tll 11 circuit 10. The spindle motor a control circuit 10 controls the spindle motor to match a predetermined low rotation speed instructed by the low rotation speed instruction signal LV. As a result, the spindle motor rotates the disk at a slower speed than usual.

In addition, CP tJ 12 responds to the power saving instruction @P,
Outputs carriage system (company) message @A to the carriage control circuit 15. The carriage control circuit 15 drives and controls the carriage in accordance with the carriage control signal A to move the vl&air head to a predetermined position near the outer periphery of the disk. The predetermined position near the outer periphery is a position where the circumferential speed of the disk is relatively high and the flying height of the magnetic head from the disk is large. In this case, an area near the outer periphery from which protrusions on the disk have been specifically removed may be set as a predetermined position near the outer periphery.

Thereafter, when the read/write operation is started, the output of the power saving instruction signal P from the host computer is stopped. Thereby, the spindle motor control circuit 10 returns the rotational speed of the spindle motor to the normal rotational speed as described above. The magnetic head will seek from a predetermined position near the outer periphery to a read/write position.

In this way, when the device is in an operable state and no read/write operations are being performed, the rotational speed of the spindle motor that rotates the disk is controlled to be reduced. For this reason,
The supply of drive current required to drive the spindle motor can be reduced, and power consumption can be reduced.

Also, at this time, control is performed to move the magnetic head to a predetermined position near the outer periphery of the disk. This can prevent the magnetic head from being located near the inner circumference of the disk and coming into contact with the disk when the disk rotates at a low speed. That is, it is possible to prevent a situation where the magnetic head and the disk come into contact with each other due to the slow rotation of the disk, causing damage to both.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, in a hard disk drive, when the read/write operation is not performed in the operable state, the rotation speed of the disk is slowed down, and the magnetic head does not come into contact with the disk. can be moved to the desired location. Therefore, the power consumption required to drive the disk can be significantly reduced, and it is also possible to prevent the magnetic head from coming into contact with the disk and causing damage.

Therefore, as a result, it becomes possible to achieve efficient power consumption, and it is possible to realize lower power consumption of the entire device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a disk drive control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relationship between the flying height of the magnetic head and the circumferential speed of the disk in the same embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Spindle motor control circuit, 11... Rotation speed switching circuit, 12... Microprocessor, 15...
- Carriage control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a spindle motor that rotationally drives a disk, which is a magnetic recording medium; a carriage drive means that drives a carriage equipped with a magnetic head that performs a seek operation on the disk; rotational speed switching control means for controlling the rotational speed so that the rotational speed of the spindle motor is lower than during read/write operations; 1. A disk drive control device for a magnetic recording/reproducing device, comprising: carriage drive control means for controlling said carriage drive means so as to move the carriage to a certain position.