Basic Knowledge of Firmware

1. Hard drive is a microcomputer

The development trend of hard drive has always been greater capacity,
more advanced technology and more complex functionalities. Nowadays,
hard drive is no just a simple peripheral, but a complex smart device. In
fact, modern hard drive has complete CPU and memory, with firmware
adopting the management program similar to operating system.
Therefore, it can totally be seen as a microcomputer except the fact that
it is dedicated for data storage, which doesn’t need to be connected
with keyboard or mouse for operation. So it can be seen as a computer
for specific application.

2. Firmware structure of hard drive

Since hard drive is a special-purpose computer, there must be software
to run it. The "software" is different from the user software stored in
hard drive and used on PC. Internal software that ensures the proper
work of hard drive is transparent to upper-level device and operating
system. To distinguish it from user software, we usually call it
"firmware." Firmware is internal software of hard drive and run by CPU
of hard drive. So, if we see hard drive as a standalone computer,
firmware is like Windows operating system, and a series of programs
installed in it.
Since firmware is the lowest-level software, it depends on specific
hardware. Firmware used by different manufactures differ in structure.
It is like the differences between Windows and Linux operating systems.
However, various firmware have something in common, so we can
divide firmware into several parts. Firmware system used by most hard
drive manufacturers will generally follows the same design principles.
Generally speaking, it can be divided into the following parts:
(1) Servo subsystem. When we install printer, scanner, or network cards
etc. for PC, we need to install corresponding drivers, printer driver,
scanner driver and network card driver etc. Computer needs driver to
make corresponding hardware work. This is also true for hard drive. As
for hard drive, spindle motor and head assembly are both important
components. They also need drivers to work. Servo subsystem in
firmware can be understood as driver of head and motor. Servo
subsystem drives motor to rotate, and controls head to seek. Typically, it
needs servo adaptive parameters to work. If this part of the firmware is
damaged, hard drive motor and head will be unable to work properly.
Since this part of the firmware is the closest to hardware level.
Therefore sometimes the symptom of servo firmware damage appears
like that of hardware damage (such as motor does not rotate or head
clicks).
(2) Read/write subsystem. In the firmware design of most hard drives,
servo subsystem usually uses the lowest-level physical parameters to
drive head. At this time, there is no concept of track. The task of
read/write subsystem is to establish the concept of track and sector to
provide CHS and LBA addressing for upper level. Read/write subsystem
is very complicated. There are two types of data that are most important
to ensure read/write subsystem work properly. They are ZONE table
(also called zone allocation table) and defect list (such as G-List and P-
List), which can be collectively referred to as read/write parameters.
(3) Main firmware. This part plays a role of integrated management and
task scheduling, similar to the core of operating system. It makes all
parts of firmware work together effectively.
(4) Various function routines. These programs are various, just like those
installed on computer. The common ones are low-level formatting
routine, self-test routine etc. They are called by main firmware.
(5) Interface / Shell program. This is the topmost part of firmware. It is
responsible for communication of SATA interface, terminal COM
interface etc. They are the bridge of communication between hard disk
and host.

Firmware is designed to be layered. The upper layer depends on the

function of lower layer, and the lower layer serves the upper layer.
Damaged low-level firmware can cause upper layer unable to work.
Damage in different parts of firmware manifests as different symptoms.
Therefore, understanding the hierarchical structure of firmware can help
understanding the mechanism of disk fault and locating it. Firmware
level of hard disk can generally be shown in the following figure:
 ATA Interface Terminal Serial Interface

Main Firmware
Various Function
Routines

Read/Write Parameters Read/Write Subsystem

Servo Parameters Servo Subsystem

Hardware

3. Physical storage location of firmware

In hard drives of early stage, firmware is stored in ROM chip on PCB.
As hard disk develops to be more and more complicated with bigger and
bigger firmware, ROM chip can no longer store complete firmware. In
modern hard drives, firmware is generally divided into two parts for
storage: The most important basic firmware is stored in ROM chip on
PCB, while the other part is stored in service area (SA) of disk platter.
According to the design, tracks on platter are divided to user area and
system area. Tracks of user area can be accessed by operating system
while tracks of system area are transparent to operating system.
4. Boot process of disk firmware.
Same as boot of PC, there is boot process of hard drive. Then what are
the procedures after hard drive powered on? Now let’s explain from the
perspective of firmware.
(1) After powered on, Boot Loader acquires control first. Boot Loader is a
program solidified in main control chip of hard drive. In embedded
devices, typically Boot Loader is responsible for booting the system and
loading programs of ROM to memory. In most documents, ROM of hard
drive is compared as BIOS of PC. Actually, in terms of computer
architecture, what acts as BIOS is Boot Loader – It gains control as soon
as hard drive is powered on, executes initialization of early stage and
loads "operating system". However, Boot Loader is much simpler than
BIOS. The most important task of Boot Loader is to load code in ROM
chip to memory, and then hand over control to ROM code.
(2) After ROM program is loaded, main firmware begins to execute its
boot process. The first activated is servo subsystem. At this time, spindle
motor begins to rotate, heads begin to fly, and makes preparation for
seeking.
(3) Then read/write subsystem is activated. At this time, ZONE allocation
table is loaded. Main firmware will initialize to establish a "minimum
read/write subsystem". Minimum read/write subsystem can access
physical tracks of hard disk and service area on the platter, but cannot
access user sectors because P-List or the address decoder module has
not been loaded.
(4) Then main firmware will call read/ write subsystem to access SA
tracks on platter and load peripheral firmware on SA tracks to memory.
The peripheral firmware typically consists of APP code, address decoder
module and SMART module etc. All are top-level features. When address
decoder module is loaded, minimum read/write subsystem becomes
complete read/write subsystem, with the ability to access user sectors
and convert LBA linear address.
(5) When all firmware is loaded, the boot of hard drive is completed. It
becomes ready and waits for command sent by host.
Appendix:
Two important firmware modules of Seagate F3 HDD
1. Address decoder module
As there is no possibility that modern manufacturing techniques can
produce platters with no defects, each platter has some defects when
leaving factory. Manufacturers recorded these defects to defect list, and
skip these defects by using software in firmware, so as to produce the
space with no logical defects. Since defects have been ruled out in
logical address and the underlying servo system only receives physical
address with defect, read/write subsystem needs to perform the
conversion from logical address to physical address. To accomplish this
conversion, read/write subsystem must load address decoder module.
Address decoder module of Seagate contains a lot of data, among which
the most important is integrated defect list. This list records all the
defect sectors of platter. If address decoder module is damaged, user
sectors can no longer be read.
The figure below shows the situation where there are defects in sectors.
Usually we call the original physical sector address PBA, and the logical
address with defects ruled out is called LBA. After all, operating system
uses LBA to address sectors.

PBA (Physical Block Address)

LBA (Logical Block Address)

2. SMART module
SMART module is used for automatic detection, analysis and report of
hard drive. In short, it records the log information when hard drive is
working so as to send some alarm when the hard drive is about to go
wrong. Typically, the boot count, operating temperature of hard drive
are also recorded in SMART information. As SMART module is actually
running log, which is frequently written and modified, it has greater
chance of reporting error than other modules. Much operation in hard
drive can trigger the SMART mechanism, and write data to SMART
module. Therefore, if SMART module is damaged, hard drive cannot
work.