Seagate Cheetah ST3146854, User Manual

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Cheetah 15K.4 SCSI Product Manual, Rev. D 13
[2] Assumes no errors and no sector has been relocated.
[3] Assumes system ability to support the rates listed and no cable loss.
4.3 Start/stop time
After DC power at nominal voltage has been applied, the drive becomes ready within 20 seconds if the Motor
Start Option is disabled (i.e., the motor starts as soon as the power has been applied). If a recoverable error
condition is detected during the start sequence, the drive executes a recovery procedure which may cause the
time to become ready to exceed 20 seconds. During spin up to ready time the drive responds to some com-
mands over the SCSI interface in less than 3 seconds after application of power. Stop time is 30 seconds from
removal of DC power.
If the Motor Start Option is enabled, the internal controller accepts the commands listed in the SCSI Interface
Product Manual less than 3 seconds after DC power has been applied. After the Motor Start Command has
been received the drive becomes ready for normal operations within 20 seconds typically (excluding an error
recovery procedure). The Motor Start Command can also be used to command the drive to stop the spindle
(see the SCSI Interface Product Manual).
There is no power control switch on the drive.
4.4 Prefetch/multi-segmented cache control
The drive provides prefetch (read look-ahead) and multi-segmented cache control algorithms that in many
cases can enhance system performance. “Cache” as used herein refers to the drive buffer storage space when
it is used in cache operations. To select prefetch and cache features the host sends the Mode Select command
with the proper values in the applicable bytes in Mode Page 08h (see the SCSI Interface Product Manual).
Prefetch and cache operation are independent features from the standpoint that each is enabled and disabled
independently via the Mode Select command. However, in actual operation the prefetch feature overlaps
cache operation somewhat as is noted in Section 4.5.1 and 4.5.2.
All default cache and prefetch Mode parameter values (Mode Page 08h) for standard OEM versions of this
drive family are given in Table 19.
4.5 Cache operation
In general, 7,077 kbytes of the physical buffer space in the drive can be used as storage space for cache oper-
ations. The buffer can be divided into logical segments (Mode Select Page 08h, byte 13) from which data is
read and to which data is written. The drive supports a maximum of 64 cache segments. The drive maintains a
table of logical block disc medium addresses of the data stored in each segment of the buffer. If cache opera-
tion is enabled (RCD bit = 0 in Mode Page 08h, byte 2, bit 0. See SCSI Interface Product Manual), data
requested by the host with a Read command is retrieved from the buffer (if it is there), before any disc access
is initiated. If cache operation is not enabled, the buffer (still segmented with required number of segments) is
still used, but only as circular buffer segments during disc medium read operations (disregarding Prefetch
operation for the moment). That is, the drive does not check in the buffer segments for the requested read
data, but goes directly to the medium to retrieve it. The retrieved data merely passes through some buffer seg-
ment on the way to the host. On a cache miss, all data transfers to the host are in accordance with buffer-full
ratio rules. On a cache hit the drive ignores the buffer-full ratio rules. See explanations associated with Mode
page 02h (disconnect/reconnect control) in the SCSI Interface Product Manual.
The following is a simplified description of a read operation with cache operation enabled:
Case A - A Read command is received and the first logical block (LB) is already in cache:
1. Drive transfers to the initiator the first LB requested plus all subsequent contiguous LBs that are already in
the cache. This data may be in multiple segments.
2. When the requested LB is reached that is not in any cache segment, the drive fetches it and any remaining
requested LBs from the disc and puts them in a segment of the cache. The drive transfers the remaining