Re: Western Digital "Purple" hard drives.

Postby SDirickson � Sat May 17, 2014 1:22 am

Do a web search for "ATA streaming commands":

"The Streaming feature set is an optional feature set that allows a host to request
delivery of data
within an allotted time, placing a priority on the time to transfer the data rather
than the integrity
of the data. This feature set is defined to satisfy the requirements for AV type
applications."
The idea is that for certain applications like recording surveillance video, it's
more important to
keep up with the flow rate than to have absolutely every byte on the disk be
perfect; a bad spot on
one frame is OK, but 5 seconds of lost recording while the drive retries the
operation is not. The
Streaming Command Set enables applications to tell drive that maintaining the
transfer rate is the #1
priority; if a sector read returns an error or a read-after-write verification
fails (or just can't be
completed in time), the drive is to ignore the error and keep transferring the data
anyway:
"The Read Continuous bit (RC) in the READ STREAM commands (see 7.40.3.3) specifies
that the device shall
transfer the requested amount of data to the host within the time specified by
Default CCTL or CCTL even
if an error occurs. The data sent to the host by the device in an error condition
is vendor specific....
The Write Continuous bit (WC) in the WRITE STREAM commands (see 7.81.3.2) specifies
that the device shall
transfer the requested amount of data from the host within the time specified by
Default CCTL or CCTL even
if an error occurs. If the device is unable to resolve an error within the time
specified by Default CCTL
or CCTL, the erroneous section on the media may be unchanged or may contain
undefined data. A future read
of this area may not report an error, even though the data is erroneous."
Purples have the same warranty and URE rate as Reds, half the guaranteed LCC, and
the data sheet doesn't
list an MTBF at all.

Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:32 pm