Patent ID: 6832041
Filing Date: 2004-12-14
Classification: G11B,H03M,H04N

Abstract:
A method of transferring a non-time-critical, error-intolerant data segment stored or to be stored on a disk drive, which is responsive to a set of data transfer commands generated by a host processor and which is operating in a mode optimized for transferring time-critical, error-tolerant streaming data segments stored or to be stored on the disk drive, the method comprising:sending a sequence of data transfer commands generated by the host processor to the disk drive to transfer a respective sequence of time-critical, error-tolerant streaming data segments at a required data transfer rate; selectively interposing a first data transfer command into the sequence of data transfer commands, the first data transfer command initiating a first transfer of the non-time-critical, error-intolerant data segment; transmitting a data transfer error signal generated by the disk drive to the host processor, the data transfer error signal having a state that indicates whether any data transfer errors have occurred with respect to the first transfer of the non-time-critical, error-intolerant data segment; and selectively initiating host-processor-resident error recovery in response to the state of the data transfer error signal to achieve an accuracy required for the non-time-critical, error-intolerant data segment while maintaining the required data transfer rate of the sequence of time-critical, error-tolerant streaming data segments.