Conner CFS270A User manual

CFS270A
Intelligent Disk Drive
Product Manual
Production Release Per ECO 6379
P/N 20401000-001
Revision A
May 1995
3081 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95134-2128
[phone]

FCC Notice This equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and, if not installed
and used properly; that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer's
instructions, may cause interference to radio and television reception. It has
been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B computing
device in accordance with the specifications in Part 15 of FCC Rules, which are
designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference in a
residential installation. However, there is no guarantee that interference will
not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference
to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the
equipment on and off, you are encouraged to try to correct the interference by
one or more of the following measures:
• Reorient the receiving antenna.
• Relocate the computer with respect to the receiver.
• Move the computer into a different outlet so that the computer and receiver
are on different branch circuits.
If necessary, you should consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television
technician for additional suggestions. You may find the following booklet
prepared by the Federal Communications Commission helpful:
How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference Problems
This booklet (Stock No. 004-000-00345-4) is available from the U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.
Warning: Changes or modifications made to this equipment which have not
been expressly approved by Conner Peripherals, Inc. may cause radio and
television interference problems that could void the user's authority to operate
the equipment.
Further, this equipment complies with the limits for a Class B digital apparatus
in accordance with Canadian Radio Interference Regulations.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe B est conforme au Règlement sur le
brouillage radioélectrique, C.R.C., ch. 1374.
Conner and the Conner logo are registered trademarks of Conner Peripherals,
Inc. All other trademarks mentioned in this manual are property of their
respective owners.
Copyright 1994, Conner Peripherals, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Document No. 501-078 04/95

Important Information About this Manual
All information contained in or disclosed by this document is considered
proprietary by Conner Peripherals, Inc. By accepting this material, the recipient
agrees that this material and the information contained therein are held in
confidence and in trust and will not be used, reproduced in whole or in part, nor
its contents revealed to others, except to meet the purpose for which it was
delivered. It is understood that no right is conveyed to reproduce or translate
any item herein disclosed without express written permission from Conner
Peripherals, Inc.
Conner Peripherals, Inc. provides this manual "as is," without warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied
warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Conner
Peripherals, Inc. reserves the right to change, without notification, the
specifications contained in this manual.
Conner Peripherals, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the accuracy,
completeness, sufficiency, or usefulness of this manual, nor for any problem that
might arise from the use of the information in this manual.

Technical Reference Manual Page i
Table of Contents
1. Overview of the Drive 1
What is the Drive? 1
Features of the Drive 1
What the Drive is Composed Of 2
Mechanical Design Features 2
Drive Assembly Housing 2
Head Positioning Mechanism 2
Read/Write Heads and Disks 3
Data and Power Connections 4
Electrical Design Features 4
Pre-amplifier 4
Circuit Board 4
Firmware 4
2. Specifications 5
Specifications In This Chapter 5
Drive Capacity 6
Physical Configuration 6
Performance Characteristics 7
Read/Write Characteristics 8
Reliability 8
Power Requirements 9
Environmental Tolerances 9
Safety Standards 10
Physical Characteristics 11
3. How the Drive Operates 13
Functions of the Drive 13
Drive Operational Modes 13
Error Correction 13
Universal Translate Mode 14
Master/Slave Configuration 14
Cable Select 15
4. Installing the Drive 17
Take These Precautions 17
Installing the Drive 17
Attaching a Data Cable to the Drive 19
Attaching Power to the Drive 21
Mounting the Drive 22

Table of Contents Filepro CFS210A/CFS420A
Page ii Filepro CFS270A
5. Host Interface 23
About the Host Interface 23
Signal Conventions 23
Signal Levels 23
Signal Descriptions 24
ATA/CAM Master/Slave Reset Timing 26
Host PI0 16-Bit Timing Values 28
Host Demand Mode DMA 16-bit Interface Timing Values 29
6. Register Addresses and Functions 31
Host Address Decoding 31
Descriptions of the Registers 33
Data Register 33
Error Register 34
Features Register (formerly Write Precomp Register) 35
Sector Count 35
Sector Number 35
Cylinder Low 36
Cylinder High 36
SDH Register 37
Status Register 38
Alternate Status Register 39
Digital Output Register 40
Drive Address Register 41
Command Register 41
7. Command Set 45
Command Register 45
Conner Specific 46
Get Drive Feature word (00) 47
Read the Drive Switches (02) 48
Power Lock (08) 48
Power Unlock (09) 48
Execute Device Diagnostic 49
Format Track 50
Marked Bad Sector 50
Assign 50
Identify Device 52
Initialize Device Parameters 55
Power Commands 56
Read DMA 57
Read Multiple 58
Read Sector(s) 59
Read Sector Buffer 60
Read Verify Sectors 61
Recalibrate 61
Seek 62
Set Features (Set Look Ahead Read) 63
Set Multiple Mode 63
Write DMA 64
Write Caching 64
Write Multiple 65

Filepro CFS270A Table of Contents
Technical Reference Manual Page iii
Write Caching 66
Write Sector(s) 67
Write Caching 68
Write Sector Buffer 69
8. Error Reporting 71
Error and Status Detection 71
Error and Status Messages 71

Table of Contents Filepro CFS210A/CFS420A
Page iv Filepro CFS270A

Technical Reference Manual Page 1
Overview of the Drive
1
What is the Drive?
The Conner Filepro Series CFS270A is a high-performance, low-profile hard disk
drive that is designed to operate with an IBM PC/AT or equivalent host
computer system in translate mode.
Drive Model: Form Factor:
Capacity (formatted):
No. of disks/heads:
CFS270A inch high, 3.5 inch
270MB
1 disk/2 heads
Features of the Drive
The drive provides these features:
• can be installed in a wide range of host systems
• high-performance rotary voice coil actuator with embedded servo
• one-of-seven run-length limited code
• high shock resistance
• automatic actuator latch against inner stop upon power-down
• microprocessor-controlled diagnostic routines that are automatically
executed at start-up
• 32KB/64KB buffer with adaptive cache management
• Read Look Ahead and Write Caching
• automatic error correction and retries, ECC on the fly
• 512-byte block size
• emulates IBM Task File and supports additional commands
• allows daisy-chaining up to two drives on the AT interface
• Auto-Translate (Universal Translate)
• 4-byte ECC diagnostic check in read/write
• Supports the ATA (AT Attachment) Interface Standard

Chapter 1 Overview of the Drives
Page 2 Filepro CFS270A
What the Drive is Composed Of
The drive is composed of mechanical, electrical, and firmware elements.
Mechanical Design Features
The drive’s hardware includes the components described in the following
sections. Figure 1-1 shows some of these components.
Drive Assembly Housing
The drive assembly housing consists of an extruded aluminum base on which is
mounted a drawn aluminum cover. In addition, the aluminum cover has a
designed in breather filter and diffusion tube that prevents entry of
contaminants which might degrade head and media reliability. Aluminum tape
seals the joint between the base and cover. Critical drive components are
contained within this contaminant-free environment, which is commonly
referred to as the Head-Disk Assembly (HDA).
Drive Motor and Spindle
A brushless DC direct-drive motor assembly is mounted on the drive’s base. The
motor rotates the drive’s spindle at 3400 RPM. The motor/spindle assembly is
dynamically balanced to provide minimal mechanical runout to the disks. A
dynamic brake is used to provide a fast stop to the spindle motor and return the
heads to the landing zone when power is removed.
Head Positioning Mechanism
The read/write heads are supported by a mechanism coupled to a rotary voice
coil actuator.