Removable mother/daughter peripheral card

• US 6,981,068 B1
• Filed: 12/11/2003
• Issued: 12/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: SanDisk Corporation (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Harari, Eliyahou, Guterman, Daniel C., Wallace, Robert F.
• Primary Examiner(s): HUYNH, KIM NGOC
• Application Number:
  US10/734,667
• Time in Patent Office: 747 Days
• Field of Search: 710 2- 3, 710/62, 710 73- 74, 710/305, 710/13, 710/8, 711/100, 711/103, 711/104, 711/2, 711/5
• US Class Current: 710/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/4068 Electrical coupling
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07741 comprising a first part operating as a regular record carrier and a second attachable part that changes the functional appearance of said record carrier, e.g. a contact-based smart card with an adapter part which, when attached to the contact card makes the contact card function as a non-contact card
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/0265 of PCMCIA type
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 5/0282 Adapters for connecting cards having a first standard in receptacles having a second standard

Abstract

A peripheral card having a Personal Computer (“PC”) card form factor and removably coupled externally to a host system is further partitioned into a mother card portion and a daughter card portion. The daughter card is removably coupled to the mother card. In the preferred embodiment, a low cost flash “floppy” is accomplished with the daughter card containing only flash EEPROM chips and being controlled by a memory controller residing on the mother card. Other aspects of the invention includes a comprehensive controller on the mother card able to control a predefined set of peripherals on daughter cards connectable to the mother card; relocation of some host resident hardware to the mother card to allow for a minimal host system; a mother card that can accommodate multiple daughter cards; daughter cards that also operates directly with hosts having embedded controllers; daughter cards carrying encoded data and information for decoding it; and daughter cards with security features.

Claims

1. An electronic system utilizing a host device and removable memory, comprising:

a first electronic circuit card having first and second electrical connectors thereon and including a controller function therein that is operable to control a memory when the memory is connected to the second connector and to interface with the host when the host is connected to the first connector,

a second electronic circuit card without the controller function and including non-volatile reprogrammable memory therein connected to a third electrical connector that mates with the second electrical connector of the first card for control thereof by the controller function within the first card,

a first receptacle within the host that mates with the first electrical connector of the first card,

a second receptacle within the host that mates with the third electrical connector of the second card, and

the host additionally includes the controller function connected to the second receptacle to control the memory of the second card when the third connector mates with the second receptacle but without the controller function of the host being connected to the first receptacle,

whereby the second card containing memory may be connected directly with the host by insertion into the second host receptacle or indirectly by connection with the first card containing the controller function that is in turn inserted into the first host receptacle.

2. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein an interface at the mating first host receptacle and first connector of the first card is a standard PCMCIA interface.

3. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein the host includes a personal computer.

4. The host of claim 1, wherein the first receptacle is configured not to receive the second circuit card and the second receptacle is configured not to receive the first circuit card.

5. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein the memory within the first and second cards includes reprogrammable non-volatile semiconductor memory.

6. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein the first and second circuit cards have different sizes and the first and second host receptacles have different configurations to mate with the respective first and second cards.

7. The electronic system of claim 6, wherein the second card is smaller than the first card in all of width, length and thickness.

8. The electronic system of claim 1, wherein the first card does not exceed 54 mm in width and 90 mm in length.

9. An electronic host for utilizing non-volatile reprogrammable memory of a type that uses a controller function to operate the memory and interface it with the host, comprising:

a first receptacle adapted for receiving a first circuit card containing the controller function for interfacing with the host and operating non-volatile reprogrammable memory,

a second receptacle adapted for receiving a second circuit card containing non-volatile reprogrammable memory without the controller function, and

wherein the host contains the controller function connected to the second receptacle to control the non-volatile reprogrammable memory within the second card and interface it with the host when the second receptacle receives the second card but without the controller function of the host being connected to the first receptacle.

10. The host of claim 9 wherein the electronic host includes a personal computer.

11. The host of claim 10, wherein the host communicates through the first receptacle according to a PCMCIA interface.

12. The host of claim 9, wherein the non-volatile reprogrammable memory with which the host is adapted to utilize includes semiconductor flash memory.

13. The host of claim 9, wherein first and second receptacles have different configurations to mate with respective first and second circuit cards of different sizes.