Here is an idea that is certainly worth a bit. Maybe somebody will remember me & send me a check when it makes you loads of dough.
Hopefully, someone will be able to take this to the SMART or ACPI committee(s), or just introduce the feature and see it take off.
Why does “powersave” have to be binary? Consider technologies like Intel’s SpeedStep™ for their CPUs. Or consider the idea behind the Dr. Pepper Ten™ soft-drink. It doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing.
Today, we are faced with the following with HDDs:
* ON: full-speed, good performance; high heat & energy expenditure
* POWERSAVE: spun down, usually to a stop; wait several seconds before available on resume; mechanical aging due to overcoming inertia of stopped platters.
Why not have a state (call it IDLE), characterized by the following:
* Low-RPM maintenance…maybe 500RPM.
* R/W still must wait to spin up to operational speed
* spin-up times should be drastically reduced (less rotational inertia to overcome…still have some angular momentum)
* wear-and-tear on mechanics minimized (less stiction, less inertia, less torque, lower heat)
* significant power-savings versus full-on
* significant reduction in system heat & noise while IDLE
For desktop & server systems, this would be heaven-sent! Particularly for servers that are infrequently used, but require fast response.
This would also help close the power / performance gap with SSDs while maintaining your price advantage.
