ThinkWiki - User contributions [en]

Active Protection System

2010-11-29T16:30:58Z

Belu: (broken link & various comments on links)

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=== The Active Protection System ===
With the new series of ThinkPads IBM introduced the Active Protection System (APS) in 2003. The APS is a protection system for the ThinkPad's internal harddrive. A sensor inside the ThinkPad recognizes when the notebook is accelerated. A software applet then is triggered to park the harddisk. This way the risk of data loss in case of when the notebook is dropped is significantly reduced since the read/write head of the harddrive is parked and hence can't crash onto the platter when the notebook drops onto the floor.

The hardware sensor is capable of not only recognizing acceleration of the notebook, but also (to a certain degree) of its whole orientation in space, relative to gravity's axis. Furthermore, having the actual control put into software, its functionality is extendable and it gives chance to implement features like the "ignore minor shocks" feature which is present in the Windows based control applet. (This feature prevents the harddrive from parking in case of minor regular shocks such as occur when in a train or car.)

The measurements are physically performed by an [[Analog Devices ADXL320 accelerometer]] chip, managed by the [[Embedded Controller Chips|embedded controller]].
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* [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/aps2mst.pdf IBM Active Protection System Whitepaper]

==Hard-disk Support==

HD-APS requires a hard-disk with [http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/research/storage/hdi/loadunload.html head unload ramp technology] and also support on the hard-disk firmware to unload heads without flushing the disk cache. This is required, because as soon as the APS system detects a shock is imminent, the system has less than 500ms to prepare for the shock.

Unloading heads without flushing the cache is done using the [http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2003/e03120r5.pdf optional Unload Immediate feature of the IDLE IMMEDIATE ATA command]. It finishes whatever sector write is in-flight, and immediately moves the heads to the unload ramp. Without this command, hard-disk APS cannot be trusted, as disks with big caches can take a lot of time to write it all to disk.

So far, only hard-disks with IBM APS firmware, as well as the consumer Fujitsu HV2060AH/MHV2100AH/MHV2120AH HDs have been found to implement all the necessary functions. Head unload technology is reasonably common in modern laptop disks, but the APS firmware is very rare in regular consumer products. Please note that newer Apple notebooks also support APS, so it is somewhat likely that their disks also support unload immediate or a similar feature.

(Update: February, 2009) Meanwhile, other HDD manufacturers may have added the necessary support to their new products. E.g., [http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/3255FB0B917AEB69862574B400578C7F/$file/TS7K320_OEM_Specification.pdf Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 spec] does mention some 'Idle Immediate with Unload Option' command. The description reads pretty much like what's needed for APS, though I don't want to drop my almost new TP just to field-test it.

==Linux Support==
Linux support is in development.

This feature definitely depends on software and there is no hardware or BIOS-only way of making it work.
IBM made contradictory statements about their willingness to release the specifications of the hardware sensor and its API to the linux community or some developers. Although a lot of developers and other interested people from the OpenSource community actively contacted IBM to get the specs, in fact they never got them.

However, after first efforts of [http://www.kernelthread.com/software/ams/ Amit Singh on a PowerBook] and [http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/marksmith/tpaps.html Mark Smith on a ThinkPad], the [[HDAPS]] project was founded to produce a linux kernel driver for the acceleration sensor and a user space application to monitor it. Later, a kernel patch to enable harddisk parking followed.

See [[How to protect the harddisk through APS]] for instructions and [[Problem with APS harddisk parking]] for Troubleshooting.

Furthermore, a list of alternative applications like theft alarm and others can be found on the [[HDAPS]] driver page.

==Tilt detection field tests==
Using Perl code for WinXP:
<pre>
use Win32API::File qw(:ALL);
sub get_tilt {
my $file = createFile("//./ShockMgr", "r ke") or die "Can't get ShockMgr device";
DeviceIoControl($file, 0x733fc, [], 0, my($buf), 0x24, my($bytes), []);
my @data = unpack "x4s*", $buf;
return @data[1, 0];
}
</pre>
my T42 gives values of roughly 490 when at rest in normal upright position with base parallel to the ground. As I gently tilt the T42 through all possible x or y angles, the values range from about 335-645, meaning a resolution of about 155 units per Earth gravity. This seems to suggest that the operating range of the APS is actually about +-3 gs, although the ADXL320 is supposed to allow +-5 gs.

As the tilt angle is the arcsine of the normalized APS reading, the Thinkpad is most tilt sensitive when in a normal upright position with base parallel to the ground. In this position, the tilt resolution is about 0.35 - 0.4 degrees. At maximum tilt, the resolution is much worse, about 6.5 degrees.

Shouldn't matter much, but my tests are at an elevation of about 60 meters above sea level.

===More field tests===
When placed on a reasonably flat and reasonably horizontal work surface my T43 provides readings of about x=503 and y=569. I wrote a command-line application in C# (using the .NET DllImport annotation to access the sensor.dll API) to log the sensor readings at some interval. With 150ms sampling I found the following extreme values: 335 to 654 for x, and 409 to 723 for y.

<pre>
x: 494.5 +/- 159.5
y: 566.0 +/- 157.0
</pre>

Based on the maximum and minimum x and y readings I calculated the above "zero" and range values in order to convert the sensor readings to degrees and wrapped this up in a small graphical application for Windows. My data, source code, executables and a complete description can be found [http://www.stanford.edu/~bsuter/thinkpad-accelerometer/ here].

== See also ==
* [[HDAPS]] - IBM Active Protection System Linux Driver. Shows various applications of APS.

==Related Links==
*[http://www.stanford.edu/~bsuter/thinkpad-accelerometer/ Sensor Data, Calibration, command-line and GUI executables for Windows and C# .NET source code] (link broken)
*[http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/johnston?entry=python_and_thinkpad Python and ThinkPad, a Python script for Windows to access the sensor data] (comments are spam fooded)
*[http://www.pc.ibm.com/presentations/us/thinkvantage/56/index.html?shortcut=aps& IBMs ThinkVantage™ Technologies Flash presentation - Active Protection System]
*[http://www.musatcha.com/software/LaptopTheftPrevention/ Motion-Sensitive anti-theft alarm for ThinkPads with APS]
*[http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-knockage.html?ca=dgr-lnxw01Knock-Knock IBM HDAPS/Linux HDAPS information page]
*[http://hdaps.sourceforge.net HDAPS project page]
*[http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum=hdaps-devel HDAPS-devel list archive]

==Models featuring this Technology==
*ThinkPad {{Edge 14"}}, {{Edge 15"}}
*ThinkPad {{L412}}, {{L512}}
*ThinkPad {{R50}}, {{R50p}}, {{R51}}, {{R52}}, {{R60}}, {{R61}}, {{R61i}}, {{R400}}, {{R500}}
*ThinkPad {{SL Series}}
*ThinkPad {{T41}}, {{T41p}}, {{T42}}, {{T42p}}, {{T43}}, {{T43p}}, {{T60}}, {{T60p}}, {{T61}}, {{T61p}}, {{T400}}, {{T410}}, {{T410i}}, {{T410s}}, {{T410si}}, {{T500}}, {{T510}}, {{T510i}}
*ThinkPad {{W Series}}
*ThinkPad {{X40}}, {{X41}}, {{X41_Tablet}}, {{X60}}, {{X60s}}, {{X60_Tablet}}, {{X61}}, {{X61s}}, {{X61 Tablet}}, {{X100e}}, {{X200}}, {{X200s}}, {{X200 Tablet}}, {{X201}}, {{X201i}}, {{X201s}}, {{X201 Tablet}}, {{X300}}, {{X301}}
*ThinkPad {{Z Series}}

[[Category:Glossary]]

Talk:Active Protection System

2010-11-29T16:16:34Z

Belu: Tilt and rotate detection can probably be implemented in the "tablet buttons" driver more easly

Hi, is it worth to contact ibm in some sort of conserted effort
to get this going?
----
Just found this thread, [http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0412.1/index.html#0544 http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0412.1/index.html#0544].

Of particular interest is [http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0412.1/0974.html some code] that got posted there. --[[User:Danguy|Danguy]] 05:28, 28 Apr 2005 (CEST)

== useless code ==

This (C#) code is useless.<br>
It does not read the actual sensors which gets done by a seperate device driver (shockprf.sys)

== IBM not interested ==

I have contacted IBM several times on the providing of specs for the APS. They are simply not interested. And yes, everybody within IBM may at any time experiment with Linux. But no, since there is no commercial interest for a Linux-port of this APS-feature, they are not doing it.

Gijs :-(

== discussion on the kernel mailing list ==

There has been some ongoing discussions about HDAPS on the linux kernel mailinglist: [http://groups.google.at/group/linux.kernel/browse_thread/thread/a8a47148efa90f49/cdfab5aa2155a8af?q=IBM+HDAPS+Someone+interested%3F+(Accelerometer)]

maybe something comes out of this,<br/>
tamer.
----

Today I recorded data from a ride home. The result is at http://thebe.orbit.homelinux.net/~alphaone/data.ps

Tools used to create it are in /util in my svn rep.

--[[User:Daniel Willmann|Daniel Willmann]] 18:41, 5 Jul 2005 (CEST)

== Table of latch data from the (experimental) hdaps driver ==
I moved that table to the talk page in case someone still needs it. I think it's not needed anymore, and it never belonged on this page anyways. [[User:Wyrfel|Wyrfel]] 04:33, 17 April 2006 (CEST)

{| cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="1"
|- style="text-align:left;"
!ThinkPad!!bios firmware!!latch!!flip!!Value at 1.75 radians (see below)!!Value at 0.75 radians !! Value at rest !!boxers!!hdd-type
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{R50}} || || || || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{R50p}} || || || || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{R51}} || 1VET64WW || 01 || reversed || (110,75)||(-36,-10) || || || IC25N040ATMR04_0-ATA-DISK-drive
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{R52}} || || 01 || reversed || || || || || HTS541060G9AT00_SATA-DISK-drive
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T41}} || || 01 || reversed || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T41p}} || || 03 || OK || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T42}} || || 01 || reversed || || || || || HTS548080M9AT00
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T42p}} || || 03 || OK || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T43}} || || 01 || reversed || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{T43p}} || || 03 || OK || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{X40}} || || || || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{X41}} || || || || || || || ||
|- style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"
| {{X41T}} || 75ET30WW || || || (550, 300) || (410, 484) || (480, 400) || || HTC426040G9AT00
|}

For the value at 1.75 radians, and value at 0.75 radians, we want the data from the pivot application (included in the driver tgz) at SE and NW, with North being straight away from the
user and West being to the left. In other words, SE is "tilt the laptop toward you and to the right" and NW is "tilt the laptop away from you and to the left".
----
What do all the parameters in the table mean?

'Thinkpad' is obvious. Perhaps 'Model' makes more sense.

'bios firmware' is also obvious, but the output of {{cmdroot|biosdecode}} calls it 'BIOS Build ID'. It should probably say how to determine the firmware version.

What are 'latch' and 'flip'?

'Value at 1.75' is explained below. How useful is it that the tilt be ''exactly'' 1.75 radians (and not 1.74 for example). Also, 1.75 radians between what and what? Between a flat surface and the keyboard? Or between a flat surface and the LCD when the LCD is perpendicular to the keyboard?

Same question for 'Value at 0.75'

I just added 'Value at rest'. By that, I mean when the tablet is resting on its base on a flat surface. LCD position is immaterial. Keyboard - flat-surface angle is 0.

What is 'boxers'?

'hdd-type' I believe HDD model number from {{cmdroot|hdparm -I /dev/sda}}. It should be clarified.

In the second table, 'firmware', I believe, refers to the HDD firmware. This is the result of the 'Firmware Revision' value from {{cmdroot|hdparm -I /dev/sda}}

As for 'parked', there probably is a way to tell whether or not it gets parked. I haven't looked into it.
----
Does the information in that table help anyone at all? It seemed good for development of the hdaps driver, but that's already in the kernel. Do we need that table? Otherwise I'd remove it soon.

And I'd move the harddisk firmware table to the [[Problem with APS harddisk parking]] page, then.

[[User:Wyrfel|Wyrfel]] 17:24, 16 April 2006 (CEST)
----

== Tilt Detection and Display Rotation? ==

Guess the iPhone commericialized in a big way first. Would be great if a ThinkPad display driver could detect rotation of the laptop and optionally rotate the display accordingly. Great for long wiki pages! ;-)

Actually, it is not the display driver that needs to do that, just the "tablet buttons" driver. I guess it would be more easy

Talk:IBM Integrated Bluetooth IV with 56K Modem (BMDC-3)

2007-10-07T14:05:09Z

Belu:

Any idea where to buy this item ?

[[Anonymous]]

----

The Wiki page pointed in the See Also section is missing.

Search is not functioning right now, so I didn't simply delete the section as I cannot verify if the MIA page was simply renamed.

Anyone knows about what happened to that page?

[[User:Hmh|hmh]] 2006-02-21, 15:10 UTC

----
Just fixed the Link. The original page was moved some time ago.

[[User:Wyrfel|Wyrfel]] 13:29, 27 February 2006 (CET)
----
I did a Google search with the VID/PID. Most of the info was in Japaneese. How do I know if it has A2DP and EDR+ ?
[[User:Belu|Belu]] 2007-10-7, 15:51 (CET)

Talk:IBM Integrated Bluetooth IV with 56K Modem (BMDC-3)

2007-10-07T14:03:53Z

Belu: