Method and apparatus for automated analysis of hard disk drive performance
US7254525B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 17, 2002 |
| Grant date | Aug 7, 2007 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 30, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F11/3414
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus is provided which reduces the equipment and time requirements for hard disk drive performance testing during manufacturing. This invention executes self-contained performance testing code that resides within the drive's manufacturing firmware, rather than relying on external testers. The invention involves exercising the drive's enqueue, dequeue, and command execution firmware, as well as the physical process of reading and writing data by simulating the host interface in code. The invention enqueues commands that typify the desired workload, allows a command ordering algorithm to sort the commands for execution, and allows the drive side code to execute the commands just as if an external host interface were attached. The invention is advantageous because the performance testing can be done by only applying power to the drive. The present invention also lends itself to performance tuning that can be done in manufacturing, to reduce drive-to-drive performance variations.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.