IDE disk drive arrangement that combines the capacity of a master drive and slave drive while hiding the presence of slave drive to a host computer
First Claim
1. A mass storage system for a host computer, connected to the host computer by an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) bus, said host computer sending a command to said mass storage system via said IDE bus, said mass storage system comprising,a master IDE disk drive comprising:
- receiving means forreceiving said command from said host computer via an IDE interface, anda master controller comprising means forselecting the proper execution sequence for said command; and
a slave IDE disk drive, connected to said master IDE disk drive by said IDE bus, said slave IDE disk drive comprising;
receiving means forreceiving said command from said host computer via said IDE interface, anda slave controller comprising meansfor selecting the proper execution sequence for said command, andfor hiding the presence of said slave IDE disk drive from said host computer.
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Abstract
The present invention comprises two IDE disk drives for connection to an IDE bus, configured as a master drive and a slave drive. In the present invention, both drives are capable of receiving commands from a host computer connected to the IDE bus. Depending on the type of conunand which is received, the drive which receives the command determines the appropriate response to the command and initiates a sequence which, in cooperation with the other drive, ensures that the command is executed properly. Thus, the host sends commands over the IDE bus thinking that only one drive is present, and the drives handle between themselves how to respond to the command in a way that mimics the response of a single drive.
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Citations
32 Claims
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1. A mass storage system for a host computer, connected to the host computer by an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) bus, said host computer sending a command to said mass storage system via said IDE bus, said mass storage system comprising,
a master IDE disk drive comprising: -
receiving means for receiving said command from said host computer via an IDE interface, and a master controller comprising means for selecting the proper execution sequence for said command; and a slave IDE disk drive, connected to said master IDE disk drive by said IDE bus, said slave IDE disk drive comprising; receiving means for receiving said command from said host computer via said IDE interface, and a slave controller comprising means for selecting the proper execution sequence for said command, and for hiding the presence of said slave IDE disk drive from said host computer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A method of handling a command issued by a host computer to a mass storage system, said mass storage system comprising a master Integrated Device Electronics(IDE) disk drive and a slave IDE disk drive, both drives connected to said host computer by an IDE bus, said host computer addressing said mass storage system using a logical address, said method comprising the steps of:
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hiding the presence of the slave IDE disk drive from the host computer, selecting the proper execution sequence for said command, mapping said logical addresses onto physical locations on said master IDE disk drive and said slave IDE disk drive, redundantly storing the first N-1 sectors of data on the slave IDE disk drive onto the master IDE disk drive, where N represents the maximum multiple size for the drives. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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Specification