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Feature Descriptions
6-2 Maxtor Atlas 10K III
• Advanced Ultra160 SCSI-LVD, Ultra320 SCSI-LVD, Ultra2-LVD, and
Ultra-SE with
68-pin wide connector or 80-pin SCA-2 connector
• Superior data integrity:
•352-bit Reed-Solomon quad-burst ECC provides fast on-the-fly
correction for small errors and robust software-based correction for
larger errors
•EDC internal protection from SCSI bus to media
Many of these features are described in this chapter.
The drive contains a large, segmented buffer in RAM that is used to maximize the
throughput for sequential read streams. This cache is organized as a number of separate
track line segments. Each track line segment can hold data from one complete track
on the media, temporarily assuming the identity of the track for all input/output
functions.
The buffer is also used to combine or coalesce I/O data on a track-by-track basis,
prior to accessing the disk media. Performance is greatly improved by gathering and
combining the data on a track basis rather than on a command basis. With this unique
system, multiple commands for a particular track are coalesced in the buffer before
accessing the media.
As a result, multiple I/O commands, that address a single track are logically combined
to avoid multiple disk accesses on multiple rotations. Since most reads and writes are
sequential, this greatly increases throughput for most applications.
The drive supports prefetch. After the controller has copied an entire media track into
a cache track line segment, a unique algorithm determines whether:
• The most recently used cache track line (track n) satisfies a read request;
• The cache memory also includes another track line (track n-1)
corresponding to the media track preceding the one that was just copied,
and;
• There is no other work currently waiting for service by the read/write
system.
If all three of these conditions are met, there is a high probability that the host will call
for data from the next media track (track n+1). So, the drive controller automatically
issues a read for that data and substitutes it for the information in the n-1 track line
segment in cache. This process, called prefetch, gives the drive a very high cache hit
rate for sequential reads.