Automatic acoustic management (AAM) is a method for reducing acoustic emanations in
AT Attachment
Parallel ATA (PATA), originally , also known as IDE, is a standard interface designed for IBM PC-compatible computers. It was first developed by Western Digital and Compaq in 1986 for compatible hard drives and CD or DVD drives. The connectio ...
(ATA)
mass storage
In computing, mass storage refers to the storage of large amounts of data in a persisting and machine-readable fashion. In general, the term is used as large in relation to contemporaneous hard disk drives, but it has been used large in relati ...
devices for
computer data storage
Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers.
The central processing unit (CPU) of a comput ...
, such as ATA
hard disk drives
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magn ...
and
ATAPI
ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) is a protocol that has been added to Parallel ATA and Serial ATA so that a greater variety of devices can be connected to a computer than with the ATA command set alone. It carries SCSI commands and responses through t ...
optical disc drive
In computing, an optical disc drive is a disc drive that uses laser light or electromagnetic waves within or near the visible light spectrum as part of the process of reading or writing data to or from optical discs. Some drives can only r ...
s. AAM is an optional feature set for ATA/ATAPI devices; when a device supports AAM, the acoustic management parameters are adjustable through a software or firmware
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
.
Details
The ATA/ATAPI sub-command for setting the level of AAM operation is an 8-bit value from 0 to 255. Most modern drives ship with the vendor-defined value of 0x00 in the acoustic management setting. This often translates to the max-performance value of 254 stated in the standard. Values between 128 and 254 (0x80 - 0xFE) enable the feature and select most-quiet to most-performance settings along that range. Though hard drive manufacturers may support the whole range of values, the settings are allowed to be banded, so many values could provide the same acoustic performance.
Although there is no definition of the function implemented to provide acoustic management in the ATA standard, most drives use power control of the head-positioning servo to reduce vibration induced by the head positioning mechanism. Western Digital calls this IntelliSeek™ which uses only enough head acceleration to position the head at the target track and sector "just in time" to access data. Previous seek mechanisms used maximum power and acceleration to position the head. This operation induced the familiar clicking vibration emanating from a seeking hard drive. Western Digital provides a demonstration flash movie illustrating just-in-time head positioning on their web site.
To provide best acoustic performance, some drive manufacturers may limit the maximum seek velocity of the heads for AAM operation. This degrades performance by increasing the average seek time: some head movements are forced to wait an additional disk rotation before accessing data because the head was unable to move to the target position during the first rotation due to velocity limits. For example, benchmark tests with SiSoftware Sandra Lite on a Samsung HD154UI (1.5TB, SATA300, 3.5", 5400rpm, 32MB Cache) hard drive showed no measurable performance impact for an AAM setting of 190, but the drive did become noticeably more quiet than the disabled setting (0). Selecting the most-quiet setting (128) caused average random access time to increase about 10% while quieting improved noticeably over the middle setting. On this drive, some quieting is available without performance impact, and even more quieting is available if some performance degradation is acceptable.
AAM operates independently of
advanced power management
Advanced power management (APM) is an API developed by Intel and Microsoft and released in 1992 which enables an operating system running an IBM-compatible personal computer to work with the BIOS (part of the computer's firmware) to achieve po ...
settings. However, selecting lower head acceleration (quieter operation) uses less power, so energy-conscious users might prefer the most-quiet setting (128) for power management purposes.
History
INCITS
The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), (pronounced "insights"), is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization composed of Information technology developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCITS. ...
(formerly NCITS) first standardized AAM in the
ATA/ATAPI-6 specification.
AAM is no longer available for Seagate and Western Digital drives. In 2008, Seagate removed AAM capabilities from all its drives because Convolve alleged that one of its patents
US Patent No. 6,314,473covers AAM technology. Western Digital began doing the same in 2011, without making any official announcements, nor updating their product documentation. The product specification sheets continue to claim (in March 2012) that there are different seek modes on their drives. However the hardware that is now manufactured does not allow control over AAM.
See also
*
Device configuration overlay
Device configuration overlay (DCO) is a hidden area on many of today's hard disk drives (HDDs). Usually when information is stored in either the DCO or host protected area (HPA), it is not accessible by the BIOS (or UEFI), OS, or the user. Howeve ...
*
International Committee for Information Technology Standards
The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), (pronounced "insights"), is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization composed of Information technology developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCITS ...
*
Quiet PC
A quiet, silent or fanless PC is a personal computer that makes very little or no noise. Common uses for quiet PCs include video editing, sound mixing and home theater PCs, but noise reduction techniques can also be used to greatly reduce the noi ...
*
Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T., often written as SMART) is a monitoring system included in computer hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state drives (SSDs). Its primary function is to detect and report various indicat ...
References
Information Technology - AT Attachment with Packet Interface - 6 (ATA/ATAPI-6), Revision 1e 26 June 2001. Accessed on 1 April 2009.
External links
Control Noise Level of the HDD.
Argus Monitor Comprehensive tool for HDD monitoring, includes functions for AAM parameter tuning (Windows). Accessed on 27 April 2011.
HDDScan an AAM tool for Windows. Accessed on 1 April 2009.
quietHDD freeware Windows application for managing AAM and APM features. Accessed on 17 March 2012.
hdparm a Linux tool for reading and changing ATA drive parameters. Accessed on 1 April 2009.
hdparm for WindowsAccessed on 1 April 2009.
Accessed on 1 April 2009.-->
*Wegel, Alex
"Set Automatic Acoustic Management level on hard drives."MacOSXHints.com. 14 October 2004. Accessed on 1 April 2009.
Flash demo of variable seek acceleration in hard drivesaccessed on 18 February 2010.
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AT Attachment