US Patent No: 5,297,067

Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000

Electronic hot connection of disk drive module to computer peripheral bus

Stats

ATTORNEY / AGENT: (SPONSORED)
 

Importance

Loading Importance Indicators... loading....

Abstract

A mass storage subsystem is connectable to a host computer via a host adapter and includes a subsystem bus extending from the host adapter to at least one base unit and a removable disk drive cartridge for use with the base unit. A control signal path extends between the base unit and the removable disk drive cartridge when it is installed and connected within the base unit. The disk drive cartridge includes a housing, at least one storage disk rotatably mounted within the housing, at least one data transducer head within the housing and positionable by a head positioner at selected concentric data storage tracks defined on a storage surface of the storage disk. A bus interface circuit is provided for directly connecting to the subsystem bus when the cartridge is installed and connected within the base unit, and a cartridge controller is provided for controlling operations of the bus interface circuit and the head positioner and for communicating with the base unit via the control signal path. The base unit comprises a disk cartridge receiving structure for receiving and connecting the disk drive cartridge, a stand-in interface circuit connected to the subsystem bus means for presenting an active and "drive not ready" disk cartridge appearance to the subsystem bus when the disk drive cartridge is not installed and connected within the base unit, and a base unit controller including a cartridge control for controlling operations of the disk cartridge receiving structure, and a stand-in interface control for communicating with the cartridge controller via the control signal path and for thereupon controlling stand-in operation of the stand-in interface circuit.

Loading the Abstract Image... loading....

First Claim

Related Publications

Loading Related Publications... loading....

Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddressTotal Patents
MAXTOR CORPORATIONMILPITAS, CA1131

International Classification(s)

  • [Classification Symbol]
  • [Patents Count]

Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Appelbaum, Jeffery H San Mateo, CA 4 60
Blackborow, Richard J Strasbourg, FR 7 358
Brooks, John Los Angeles, CA 16 247
Dani, Faheem San Jose, CA 1 54
Glassburn, Tim R Milpitas, CA 5 196
Yeung, Garrick Cupertino, CA 2 114

Cited Art

Patent Info (Count) # Cites Year
 
MAXTOR CORPORATION (2)
5,005,089 High performance, high capacity micro-winchester disk drive 63 1988
5,041,924 Removable and transportable hard disk subsystem 143 1988
 
BULL HN INFORMATION SYSTEMS ITALIA S.P.A. (1)
5,157,771 Apparatus for hot removal from/insertion to a connection bus of a non removable media magnetic recording unit 42 1989
 
TANDON CORPORATION (1)
4,833,554 Hard disk drive module and receptacle therefor 92 1987
 
OTHER [CHECK PATENT PROFILE FOR ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION] (1)
4,941,841 Adapter and a removable slide-in cartridge for an information storage system 274 1989

Patent Citation Ranking

Forward Cites

Patent Info (Count) # Cites Year
 
QUANTUM CORPORATION (7)
6,957,291 Removable disk storage array emulating tape library having backup and archive capability 87 2001
7,493,430 Data flow control and bridging architecture enhancing performance of removable data storage systems 0 2005
7,779,220 Password-based media cartridge authentication 0 2007
7,620,755 Data flow control and bridging architecture enhancing performance of removable data storage systems 0 2008
7,831,753 Data flow control and bridging architecture enhancing performance of removable data storage systems 0 2009
8,041,862 Data flow control and bridging architecture enhancing performance of removable data storage systems 0 2010
8,281,044 Data flow control and bridging architecture enhancing performance of removable data storage systems 0 2011
 
INTEL CORPORATION (6)
5,515,516 Initialization mechanism for symmetric arbitration agents 14 1994
5,604,873 Circuitry for controlling power application to a hot docking SCSI SCA disk drive 87 1994
5,581,782 Computer system with distributed bus arbitration scheme for symmetric and priority agents 76 1995
6,061,599 Auto-configuration support for multiple processor-ready pair or FRC-master/checker pair 12 1996
5,862,350 Method and mechanism for maintaining integrity within SCSI bus with hot insertion 57 1997
5,901,297 Initialization mechanism for symmetric arbitration agents 4 1997
 
ADAPTEC, INC. (4)
5,659,690 Programmably configurable host adapter integrated circuit including a RISC processor 42 1992
5,564,023 Method for accessing a sequencer control block by a host adapter integrated circuit 13 1994
5,838,950 Method of operation of a host adapter integrated circuit 49 1995
5,748,806 Deskew circuit in a host interface circuit 22 1995
 
EMC CORPORATION (3)
6,018,433 Disk cartridge and data storage device with incompatible disk cartridge insertion protection 18 1997
6,144,526 Disk cartridge for use with a removable cartridge data storage drive 3 1998
7,155,552 Apparatus and method for highly available module insertion 1 2004
 
GEO WORLDWIDE LLC (3)
5,809,520 Interchangeable cartridge data storage system for devices performing diverse functions 117 1996
6,587,304 Interchangeable cartridge data storage system for devices performing diverse functions 3 2001
6,785,091 Interchangeable cartridge data storage system for devices performing diverse functions 2 2003
 
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION (3)
5,454,080 Removable hard disk drive system with circuit for hot insertion and removal responsive to contacts of zero-insertion-force connector on the lateral side of the drive 85 1992
6,449,725 Method and computer program product for diagnosing and handling non-responsive device in a computer system 7 2001
7,085,859 Method, apparatus and program storage device for automatically presenting status from a host bus adapter until an error is detected 0 2003
 
MICROSEMI CORPORATION (3)
5,592,123 Frequency stability bootstrapped current mirror 5 1995
5,635,852 Controllable actice terminator for a computer bus 21 1995
5,608,312 Source and sink voltage regulator for terminators 35 1995
 
QUAD RESEARCH (3)
6,260,155 Network information server 69 1998
7,263,476 High speed information processing and mass storage system and method, particularly for information and application servers 5 2000
6,799,224 High speed fault tolerant mass storage network information server 14 2000
 
DELL USA, L.P. (2)
5,579,491 Local proactive hot swap request/acknowledge system 165 1994
5,664,119 Local proactive hot swap request/acknowledge system 117 1996
 
MICROSOFT CORPORATION (2)
5,923,897 System for adapter with status and command registers to provide status information to operating system and processor operative to write eject command to command register 14 1996
6,249,826 System and method for media status notification 10 1997
 
RPX CORPORATION (2)
5,625,800 SCB array external to a host adapter integrated circuit 21 1994
5,684,982 Synchronization circuit for clocked signals of similar frequencies 7 1995
 
GOOGLE INC. (1)
6,052,341 Device element allocation manager and method for a multi-library system for multiple host connections 48 1997
 
KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA (1)
6,996,667 Method and apparatus for rewriting program executed in disk drive 4 2003
 
LENOVO (SINGAPORE) PTE LTD. (1)
5,948,092 Local bus IDE architecture for a split computer system 21 1997
 
LSI LOGIC CORPORATION (1)
6,873,948 Method and apparatus for emulating a device within a data processing system 0 1998
 
MACROLINK INC. (1)
5,586,271 In-line SCSI bus circuit for providing isolation and bi-directional communication between two portions of a SCSI bus 47 1994
 
MAXTOR CORPORATION (1)
6,051,990 Asymmetric current mode driver for differential transmission lines 7 1997
 
MICRONET TECHNOLOGY, INC. (1)
5,875,063 Housing for removable mass-storage drives 17 1997
 
MYLEX CORPORATION (1)
6,192,481 Structure and method for power sequencing of disk drives in a computer system 28 1998
 
NEC ELECTRONICS CORPORATION (1)
5,475,814 Self diagnosis of a SCSI controller through an I/O port for data transmission/data reception modes of operation 37 1993
 
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. (1)
5,581,716 IDE type CD-ROM drive interfacing circuit 13 1994
 
SEJUS CORPORATION (1)
5,761,033 Open computer system with externally interconnected peripheral modules 160 1996
 
SONY CORPORATION (1)
6,188,571 High density RAID subsystem with highly integrated controller 51 1997
 
SYCAMORE NETWORKS, INC. (1)
6,557,101 Methods and apparatus for upgrading programmable control logic without disturbing network traffic flowing through functional elements controlled by the control logic 2 1999
 
TOSHIBA AMERICA INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC. (1)
5,590,376 Apparatus and method for detecting and updating status of removable storage system using shared interrupt and software flag 21 1992
 
TRANSPACIFIC AVARTAR, LLC (1)
5,758,103 Circuit for replacing a peripheral device of a computer system and method therefor 22 1996
 
WU, VICTOR CHUAN-CHEN (1)
6,859,854 Universal storage interface bus 66 2001