Abstract: Embodiments of the invention provide a disk drive that is capable of enhancing the storage capacity increase ratio while reducing the processing load for read/write operations. In one embodiment, a disk drive comprises a recording medium and a control section. The recording medium includes concentric or spiral data tracks. Each of the data tracks is provided with a plurality of circumferentially arranged sectors. The control section receives instructions for writing into a plurality of sectors, rearranges the data to be written into each sector into groups of N pieces of write data, and writes the data into N data tracks.

Abstract: Embodiments of the invention increase the convenience of a magnetic disk drive for portable use by shortening a period of time required to record a large amount of data, and by increasing the reproduction time, in the magnetic disk drive. In one embodiment, an area between servo data parts is interpolated by servo data parts, each of which stores a burst signal, so that the allocation density of a burst signal is made k times. At the time of write operation in which data is written, only the servo data parts are made use of to perform the servo control while a disk is driven at high rotational speed so as to reduce the recording time. At the time of read operation in which data is reproduced, the servo data parts are made use of to ensure the required precision of the servo control at low rotational speed that is 1/k of the rotational speed at the time of write operation. The reproduction at low rotational speed enables the reduction in power consumption.

Abstract: A suspension having a magnetic head assembly 1 mounted thereon is provided, wherein the magnetic head assembly comprises: a write head 1-2; a read head 1-1; and a resistive heating element 1-3 for controlling the flying heights of the magnetic heads, wherein the wires HTx and GTx for the resistive heating element is disposed such that they sandwich the wires RxX and RxY for the read head. The wires for the resistive heating element may be disposed between the wires for the write head and the wires for the read head. Furthermore, the waveform of the current or voltage to the resistive heating element has a time constant of 1 ?sec or more, the resistive heating element having wires disposed near the wires of the read head.

Abstract: A magnetic disk apparatus and a servo pattern recording method therefor, enabling writing of servo signal with high quality, without being affected with ill influences due to fluctuation on a rotation speed when conducting the self servo write operation, comprises: a magnetic disk 102; a head 103 having a write element for use of recording information onto the magnetic disk and a read element for reproducing information from the magnetic disk; and an actuator for moving said head to a desired radial position on the magnetic disk, wherein on the magnetic disk is recorded servo patterns 110 for positioning the head on a recording surface thereof, and within each of the servo patterns are recorded, a pattern sector marker 208a as a marker for detecting passage time of the head, a track ID code 209, and a burst pattern 210 for use of detection of the radial position of the head, following a preamble 207a for use of synchronization of time-base circuit, and further recorded and disposed a second preamble 207b and

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention efficiently format long sectors, without decreasing the performance, in a magnetic disk drive in which servo sectors are radially formed at regular intervals, and make full use of the ECC performance that is enhanced by the long sectors. In one embodiment, a data format in each zone on a magnetic disk is completed by a plurality of tracks N (N is an integer, which is 2 or more). The storage capacity per track of the outermost radius zone Z#1 is 150 kB. In this zone, long sectors each having a length of 32 kB are formatted with the number of tracks per format N#1=3. The storage capacity per track of the innermost radius zone Z#m is 80 kB. In this zone, long sectors each having a length of 32 kB are formatted with the number of tracks per format N#n=2.

Abstract: In a magnetic disk apparatus which is removably mounted or embedded to a host apparatus and intermittently accessed for recording/reproducing data, a RAM contained in the host apparatus is utilized for a portion or entirety of a buffer RAM for use in the intermittent access to accomplish a reduction in size and cost of the magnetic disk apparatus. In addition, the magnetic disk apparatus is controlled to rotate a magnetic disk at a variable rotational speed, and operated at a rotational speed at which the total power consumption is minimized in accordance with the capacity of the utilized buffer RAM and whether an access is made for recording or reproduction, thereby improving a power saving effect.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that thermally fixes a toner image, a power control unit that controls a power supply from an auxiliary power supply to the fixing unit, a job-turnaround-time predicting unit that predicts a job turnaround time for executing an image forming job, a charging-time predicting unit that predicts a charging time for charging the auxiliary power supply, and a control unit that controls a charging operation for the auxiliary power supply and execution of the image forming job based on the job turnaround time predicted and the charging time predicted, such that the job turnaround time for the image forming job is minimized.

Abstract: The present invention enables recovery of data reading, even when thermal asperities or defective media will make it impossible to increase the number of retries or to read the data, occur in the AGC/PLL part. In a device for writing and reading information, when an error occurs in the region of the recording media where the AGC/PLL signal is written, and if that information is written continuously to several sectors, then data reading is performed by using the AGC/PLL of the following sector, without performing a retry, or by performing a minimum number of retries.

Abstract: For the purpose of providing technique by which even when large skew of a disk or a head occurs due to a thermal shock, an outside shock, or the like, a servo signal area is not extended, and a performance loss caused by head change is not produced, a servo detection control system according to the present invention comprises: a learning means by head change including a servo sector interval measuring unit for measuring an interval of servo signal areas, which may occur at the time of head change among a plurality of heads; a time difference calculating unit for calculating head-change time difference from a value measured by the servo sector interval measuring unit; and a time difference storage unit for storing a result of calculation made by the time difference calculating unit; and a compensation and control means for compensating start timing of servo detection after head change using a stored value of the time difference storage unit.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming mechanism and an image fixing mechanism which includes a fixing member, a capacitor, a charger, a first heater, a second heater, a sensor, and a controller. The charger charges the capacitor with a first electric power. The first heater heats-the fixing member with the first electric power from the capacitor. The second heater heats the fixing member with a second electric power. The sensor detects a temperature of the fixing member. The controller controls the second electric power to control the second heater, determines whether the temperature is needed to be increased based on the temperature, and starts supplying the first electric power to the first heater from the capacitor when the second electric power is of a greatest value and when the temperature is needed to be increased.

Abstract: A magnetic disk apparatus and a servo pattern recording method therefor, enabling writing of servo signal with high quality, without being affected with ill influences due to fluctuation on a rotation speed when conducting the self servo write operation, comprises: a magnetic disk 102; a head 103 having a write element for use of recording information onto the magnetic disk and a read element for reproducing information from the magnetic disk; and an actuator for moving said head to a desired radial position on the magnetic disk, wherein on the magnetic disk is recorded servo patterns 110 for positioning the head on a recording surface thereof, and within each of the servo patterns are recorded, a pattern sector marker 208a as a marker for detecting passage time of the head, a track ID code 209, and a burst pattern 210 for use of detection of the radial position of the head, following a preamble 207a for use of synchronization of time-base circuit, and further recorded and disposed a second preamble 207b and

Abstract: A vehicle-mounted information processing apparatus such as a car-navigation system detects that a key switch of the vehicle has been set up at a Lock position (i.e., the engine is stopped). After that, the apparatus performs data reproduction of data files in an order from the oldest, then re-recording the reproduced data files with no change added thereto. Here, the above-described data files, which are stored within a magnetic disk device built in the apparatus, have been not updated for a constant time-period. This re-recording prevents a data loss caused by a thermal decay in the case where the magnetic disk device is mounted inside the vehicle that is likely to have existed under a high-temperature environment for a long time-period.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that thermally fixes a toner image, a power control unit that controls a power supply from an auxiliary power supply to the fixing unit, a job-turnaround-time predicting unit that predicts a job turnaround time for executing an image forming job, a charging-time predicting unit that predicts a charging time for charging the auxiliary power supply, and a control unit that controls a charging operation for the auxiliary power supply and execution of the image forming job based on the job turnaround time predicted and the charging time predicted, such that the job turnaround time for the image forming job is minimized.

Abstract: An image formation apparatus includes a fixing heater, and a zero-cross detector that detects zero-cross points of a frequency of an alternating current (AC) power supply connected to the heater. The image formation apparatus also includes a controller that controls light-on of the heater by pulse-width-modulation (PWM)-controlling the frequency of the AC power supply, that controls a duty width of a PWM control signal for the frequency of the AC power supply for a half period that corresponds to a period between the adjacent zero-cross points detected by the zero-cross detector, and that controls an amplitude of an input current from the AC power supply so that a waveform of the input current becomes a rough approximation of a sine wave.

Abstract: A suspension having a magnetic head assembly 1 mounted thereon is provided, wherein the magnetic head assembly comprises: a write head 1-2; a read head 1-1; and a resistive heating element 1-3 for controlling the flying heights of the magnetic heads, wherein the wires HTx and GTx for the resistive heating element is disposed such that they sandwich the wires RxX and RxY for the read head. The wires for the resistive heating element may be disposed between the wires for the write head and the wires for the read head. Furthermore, the waveform of the current or voltage to the resistive heating element has a time constant of 1 &mgr;sec or more, the resistive heating element having wires disposed near the wires of the read head.

Abstract: Data byte errors are detected by a comparator and classified into errors for respective interleaves, and the classified errors are counted by counters in an error count block. Further, at the time one sector has been read, comparators compare the counted values for the respective interleaves with an interleave threshold to detect whether nor not there are interleaves which have a number of errors exceeding the interleave threshold, and the detected results are counted by an error count block. The frequency of retries after an ECC is predicted from the counted value on the error count block and the total number of read sectors.

Abstract: A vehicle-mounted information processing apparatus such as a car-navigation system detects that a key switch of the vehicle has been set up at a Lock position (i.e., the engine is stopped). After that, the apparatus performs data reproduction of data files in an order from the oldest, then re-recording the reproduced data files with no change added thereto. Here, the above-described data files, which are stored within a magnetic disk device built in the apparatus, have been not updated for a constant time-period. This re-recording prevents a data loss caused by a thermal decay in the case where the magnetic disk device is mounted inside the vehicle that is likely to have existed under a high-temperature environment for a long time-period.

Abstract: In a magnetic disk apparatus which is removably mounted or embedded to a host apparatus and intermittently accessed for recording/reproducing data, a RAM contained in the host apparatus is utilized for a portion or entirety of a buffer RAM for use in the intermittent access to accomplish a reduction in size and cost of the magnetic disk apparatus. In addition, the magnetic disk apparatus is controlled to rotate a magnetic disk at a variable rotational speed, and operated at a rotational speed at which the total power consumption is minimized in accordance with the capacity of the utilized buffer RAM and whether an access is made for recording or reproduction, thereby improving a power saving effect.

Abstract: A signal processing circuit for a magnetic recording/reproducing apparatus, including at least an AGC, a PLL, a LPF, an equalizer circuit and a detection circuit, wherein a coefficient compensation circuit is formed by defining a constitution of the equalizer circuit, an error detection circuit is provided which operates by receiving input from the detection circuit, and the LSI is formed by a plurality of analog and digital chips, and the analog and digital chips are connected by current-output type D/A converters connected to at least the AGC and the PLL.

Abstract: An image formation apparatus includes a fixing heater, and a zero-cross detector that detects zero-cross points of a frequency of an alternating current (AC) power supply connected to the heater. The image formation apparatus also includes a controller that controls light-on of the heater by pulse-width-modulation (PWM)-controlling the frequency of the AC power supply, that controls a duty width of a PWM control signal for the frequency of the AC power supply for a half period that corresponds to a period between the adjacent zero-cross points detected by the zero-cross detector, and that controls an amplitude of an input current from the AC power supply so that a waveform of the input current becomes a rough approximation of a sine wave.