Dual port serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) disk drive

• US 20050186832A1
• Filed: 11/12/2004
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies General IP PTE Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nemazie, Sam
• Granted Patent: US 7,526,587 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 439/378
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4022 using switching circuits, e.g. switching matrix, connection or expansion network G06F13/4009 takes precedence

Abstract

An embodiment of the present invention is disclosed to include a hard disk drive allowing for access by two hosts to a device. Further disclosed are embodiments for reducing the delay and complexity of the SATA disk drive.

Claims

1. A hard disk drive coupled to a plurality of host units for communicating thereto and comprising:

a) a first serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) port coupled to a first host unit;

b) a second serial ATA port coupled to a second host unit; and

c) an arbitration and control circuit for selecting commands from one of the first host or second host units whenever either one of the first or second host units sends commands for execution thereof.

2. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein said first serial ATA port includes a first host task file.

3. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein said second serial ATA port includes a second host task file.

4. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 3 wherein said first and second ports are level 4 ports.

5. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein said arbitration and control circuit causes concurrent access of the hard disk drive by the first and second host units.

6. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein the arbitration and control circuit includes a Tag/Sactive Mapping Circuit for mapping host commands to a device tag and inverse mapping of device tags to host commands for identifying a host unit and associated command.

7. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein either the first or the second host units sends a legacy queue command.

8. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein either the first or the second host units sends a native queue command for execution thereof.

15. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 1 wherein information, in the form of data, commands or setup, is transferred from the device to the first or second host units through the serial ATA switch and the information is modified by the serial ATA switch prior to being received by the first or second host units such that modified information rather than the information is received by the first or second host units.

16. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 15 wherein the information is referred to as “

TAG”

.

17. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 16 wherein the information is referred to as ‘

identity drive response’

.

9. A method of communications between a hard disk drive and a plurality of host units comprising:

a) coupling a first serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) port to a first host unit;

b) coupling a second serial ATA port to a second host unit; and

c) selecting commands from one of the first host or second host units whenever either one of the first or second host units sends commands for execution thereof.

10. A hard disk drive comprising:

a) a first serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) port for connection to a first host unit;

b) a second serial ATA port for connection to a second host unit; and

c) an arbitration and control circuit for selecting either the first host unit or the second host unit when either host units sends commands for execution by the device,

wherein while one of the first or second host units is coupled to the hard disk drive, the other one of the first or second host units sends a command to the hard disk drive for execution thereof.

11. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 10 wherein the hard disk drive includes a serial ATA switch.

12. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 10 wherein said first serial ATA port includes a first host task file.

13. A disk drive as recited in claim 12 wherein said second serial ATA port includes a second host task file.

14. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 11 wherein said arbitration and control causes concurrent access of the hard disk drive by the first and second host units.

18. A disk drive as recited in claim 11 wherein information, in the form of data, commands or setup, is transferred from the first or second host units to the device through the serial ATA switch and the information is modified by the serial ATA switch prior to being received by the device such that modified information rather than the information is received by the device.

19. A network device coupled between at least two host units and a device for communication there between comprising:

a. a first serial interface for coupling to a first host unit;

b. a second serial interface for coupling to a second host unit;

c. a serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) interface for coupling to a device; and

d. an arbitration and control circuit for selecting commands from either the first host unit or the second host unit when either host units send commands for execution by the device,

wherein either one of the host units queues commands to the network device for execution thereof.

20. A network device as recited in claim 19 wherein the network device is an intelligent switch capable of protocol conversion between first and second serial interfaces and the serial ATA interface.

21. A network device as recited in claim 20 wherein the network device is a bridge.

22. A network device recited in claim 19 wherein the arbitration and control circuit includes a Mapping Circuit for mapping host commands to a device tag and inverse mapping of a device tag for identifying a host unit.

23. A method of communication between at least two host units and a device, through a network device, comprising:

a. coupling a first serial interface to a first host unit;

b. coupling a second serial interface to a second host unit;

c. coupling a serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) interface to a device; and

d. selecting commands from either the first host unit or the second host unit when either host units send commands for execution by the device,

wherein either one of the host units queues commands to the network device for execution thereof.

24. A hard disk coupled to a plurality of host units for communicating thereto and comprising:

a switch including;

a) a first serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) link for coupling the hard disk drive to a first host unit;

b) a second serial ATA link for coupling the hard disk drive to a second host unit; and

c) an arbitration and control circuit for selecting one of the first host or second host units whenever either one of the first or second host units sends commands for execution thereof.

25. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 further including a disk drive controller wherein the disk drive controller includes a serial ATA interface coupled to the switch.

26. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein the switch further includes a first port coupled to the first link and a second port coupled to the second link.

27. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 26 wherein the first port is a serial ATA port and includes a first host task file.

28. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 27 wherein the second port is a serial ATA port and includes a second host task file.

29. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 28 wherein said first and second ports are level 4 ports.

30. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein said arbitration and control circuit causes concurrent access of the device by the first and second host units.

31. A disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein information, in the form of data, commands or setup, is transferred to the first or second host units through the switch and the information is modified by the switch prior to being received by the first or second host units such that modified information is received by the first or second host units.

32. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 31 wherein the information is referred to as ‘

identify drive response’

.

33. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 31 wherein the information is referred to as ‘

Tag’

.

34. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein information, in the form of data, commands or setup, is transferred from the first or second host units through the switch and the information is modified by the switch such that modified information rather than the information is received by the disk drive controller.

35. A disk drive as recited in claim 34 wherein the information is referred to as ‘

Tag’

.

36. A disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein the arbitration and control circuit includes a Tag/Sactive Mapping Circuit for mapping a host tag to a device tag and inverse mapping for identifying a host.

37. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein either the first or the second host units sends a legacy queue command.

38. A hard disk drive as recited in claim 24 wherein either the first or the second host units send a native queue command for execution thereof.

39. An active switch coupled between a plurality of host units and a device for communicating there between and comprising:

a command queuing circuit for queuing commands associated with a first host units;

a command queuing circuit for queuing commands associated with a second host units; and

an arbitration, control and mapping circuit for selecting commands from either the first host unit or the second host unit when either host units send commands for execution by the device,.

40. An active switch as recited in claim 39 including a serial ATA interface for coupling to the device.

41. An active switch as recited in claim 40 wherein the device causes execution of native queue commands, the native queue commands having associated therewith a device tag.

42. An active switch as recited in claim 41 wherein the device tag values are partitioned into a first range for the first host unit and a second range for the second host unit.

43. An active switch as recited in claim 42 wherein the device tag values are dynamically assigned to the first and second host units.

44. An active switch as recited in claim 43 wherein the command queue circuit has associated therewith a queue depth reported as the host queue depth.