Methods and apparatus for hard disk emulation
First Claim
1. A solid state apparatus for emulating a hard disk having a plurality of tracks per head and a plurality of sectors per track, comprising:
- a plurality of groups of solid state memory cells arranged in a plurality of banks,each emulated sector and head being represented by a memory cell group having a predetermined sector association, a predetermined head association, and a static address corresponding to said head association;
said memory cell groups having respective group serial buses and respective group clock buses, andmemory cell groups with a common sector association being members of a common bank, said respective group serial buses being interconnected to form a common bank serial bus, and said respective group clock buses being interconnected to form a common bank clock bus; and
an interface for communicating disk control signals and data with a hard disk control system, and for communicating serial and clock signals to said memory cells over, respectively, an emulator serial bus connected to said bank serial buses, and an emulator clock bus connected to said bank clock buses;
wherein at least one of said emulator serial bus and said emulator clock bus comprises a number of lines equal to the plurality of banks for communicating with a selected memory cell group that is within a bank corresponding to a hard disk sector.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A magnetic media hard disk is emulated in a solid state hard disk having a disk controller, a data buffer, a microcontroller, and a disk emulator section. The disk emulator section includes a disk emulator interface and a memory array. The architecture of the memory array includes a number of memory banks which typically correspond to respective sectors of the emulated hard disk, but could correspond to respective groups of sectors of the emulated hard disk. Each of the memory banks has its own serial data line and its own serial clock line, and include a number of serial memory devices that connect to the bank serial data line and bank clock line with respective serial data and clock lines. Each of the serial memory devices also has a static address corresponding to a head address of the emulated hard disk. At any given time, one of the memory banks is selected by activation of its clock line based on the sector addressed, and one of the serial memory devices in the bank responds based on a comparison of its static address with head address data communicated on the serial data line. Other features described include serial memory device start sequences and bad bit replacement.
164 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A solid state apparatus for emulating a hard disk having a plurality of tracks per head and a plurality of sectors per track, comprising:
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a plurality of groups of solid state memory cells arranged in a plurality of banks, each emulated sector and head being represented by a memory cell group having a predetermined sector association, a predetermined head association, and a static address corresponding to said head association; said memory cell groups having respective group serial buses and respective group clock buses, and memory cell groups with a common sector association being members of a common bank, said respective group serial buses being interconnected to form a common bank serial bus, and said respective group clock buses being interconnected to form a common bank clock bus; and an interface for communicating disk control signals and data with a hard disk control system, and for communicating serial and clock signals to said memory cells over, respectively, an emulator serial bus connected to said bank serial buses, and an emulator clock bus connected to said bank clock buses; wherein at least one of said emulator serial bus and said emulator clock bus comprises a number of lines equal to the plurality of banks for communicating with a selected memory cell group that is within a bank corresponding to a hard disk sector. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A solid state apparatus for emulating a hard disk having a plurality of tracks per head and a plurality of sectors per track, comprising:
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a plurality of serial memory devices, each having a serial bus and a clock bus; and an interface for communicating disk control signals and data with a hard disk control system, and for selecting among the respective pairs of serial buses and clock buses of said serial memory devices in accordance with hard disk sector information for communicating serial information and clock signals to a group of said serial memory devices. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A method for emulating a hard disk having a plurality of tracks per head and a plurality of sectors per track, comprising:
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arranging a plurality of solid state memory arrays into banks having respective sector associations, the banks having respective associated serial-clock bus pairs; assigning the solid state memory arrays respective head associations; activating a selected one of the serial-clock bus pairs to access the solid state memory arrays in a particular one of the banks; and transmitting a head identifier on the selected serial bus to access a particular one of the solid state memory arrays in the particular bank. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. An apparatus for emulating a hard disk having a plurality of tracks per head and a plurality of sectors per track, comprising:
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means for arranging a plurality of solid state memory arrays into banks having respective sector associations, the banks having respective associated serial-clock bus pairs; means for assigning the solid state memory arrays respective head associations; means for activating a selected one of the serial-clock bus pairs to access the solid state memory arrays in a particular one of the banks; and means for transmitting a head identifier on the selected serial bus to access a particular one of the solid state memory arrays in the particular bank.
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Specification