Intellipower - misused or misunderstood marketing-speak?

F

Franc Zabkar

Here is an interesting claim:

Western Digital WD5000AAVS 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136230

RPM: 5400 to 7200 RPM

That said, I am aware that WDC uses "IntelliPower". Unfortunately WD's
public information on the technology is no better than
marketing-speak:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/greenpower/technology.asp

"For each drive model, WD may use a different, invariable RPM."

BTW, are there any drives that can operate at two different spin
speeds?

AIUI, a drive's heads fly on an air bearing generated by the spinning
platters. If the rotation speed were to vary, then so would the flying
height, leading to variations in read/write amplitude. Therefore the
heads are aerodynamically tuned to a particular speed, and that speed
is tightly controlled. I expect that Thermal Flying Height Control
(TFC) could compensate for minor changes, but it wouldn't make sense
to use it for wide speed variations. Maybe Intellipower utilises
moving aerodynamic devices. :)

BTW, I am aware that there are drives which spin at lower speeds
during power saving modes, but the heads are parked on a loading ramp
during such times. See the following white paper.

Power and Acoustic Management:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...340075B4DF/$file/WP_PowerAcoustic_25March.pdf

- Franc Zabkar
 
A

Arno

Franc Zabkar said:
Here is an interesting claim:
Click to expand...
Western Digital WD5000AAVS 500GB 5400 to 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136230
Click to expand...
RPM: 5400 to 7200 RPM
Click to expand...
That said, I am aware that WDC uses "IntelliPower". Unfortunately WD's
public information on the technology is no better than
marketing-speak:

"For each drive model, WD may use a different, invariable RPM."
Click to expand...
BTW, are there any drives that can operate at two different spin
speeds?
Click to expand...
AIUI, a drive's heads fly on an air bearing generated by the spinning
platters. If the rotation speed were to vary, then so would the flying
height, leading to variations in read/write amplitude. Therefore the
heads are aerodynamically tuned to a particular speed, and that speed
is tightly controlled. I expect that Thermal Flying Height Control
(TFC) could compensate for minor changes, but it wouldn't make sense
to use it for wide speed variations. Maybe Intellipower utilises
moving aerodynamic devices. :)
Click to expand...
BTW, I am aware that there are drives which spin at lower speeds
during power saving modes, but the heads are parked on a loading ramp
during such times. See the following white paper.
Click to expand...
Power and Acoustic Management:
http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/tech...340075B4DF/$file/WP_PowerAcoustic_25March.pdf
Click to expand...

"IntelliPower" also means that it may be set to park the
heads after 8 seconds, slowly killing the drive. The really
stupid design mistake here is that these drives do not
support the normal way of setting head parking and you
need a WD custom tool for it that WD a) lies about existing
and b) lies in that they claim using this tool can kill
you HDD. Posted here about this some time ago. By now
I expect this to be a major cause of WD GP failures.

Arno
 
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