Importance

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Abstract

A disk drive system includes a disk controller system having separate head positioning and data transfer subsystems and supporting up to four disk drives, two of which may be removable and two of which may connect through a standard ST506 interface. The system provides a read and write protected cylinder for removable drives, a read only cylinder for removable drives which may store a unique serial number as well as other write protected data, and a high capacity, high speed sector buffer which allows continuous transfers of data to or from noninterleaved sectors and supports concurrent disk and system accesses. The system provides communication between enhanced disk controllers and enhanced disk drives over a standard ST-506 interface whereby command and status signals greater in number than those normally transmitted over the dedicated lines of the ST-506 interface are communicated between the enhanced disk controller and enhanced disk drive. Standard ST-506 drives ignore, with no effect, the communication protocol of the enhanced communication mode.

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First Claim