ATA device control via a packet-based interface
First Claim
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1. A packet-to-ATA bridge device, comprising:
- an interface receiving a packet comprising an Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) command block for executing ATA register transactions, wherein the command block includes a signature field identifying the command block as an ATA command block and a subcommand field indicating an extended or nonextended register addressing scheme associated with the ATA register; and
an ATA adapter identifying the register addressing scheme according to a predefined value in the subcommand field, addressing an ATA device with the extended or a nonextended register addressing scheme corresponding with the command block extended or nonextended register addressing scheme identifier in the subcommand field, executing either extended or nonextended ATA commands in the command block, and conducting the ATA register transactions in the ATA device addressed according to the identified register addressing scheme.
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Abstract
ATA devices, such as mass storage units, have increasingly larger storage sizes that use larger configuration register sizes. A command block format allows the USB/ATA bridge circuit to be used with ATA devices with larger registers and at the same time operates with earlier ATA command block formats.
40 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A packet-to-ATA bridge device, comprising:
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an interface receiving a packet comprising an Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) command block for executing ATA register transactions, wherein the command block includes a signature field identifying the command block as an ATA command block and a subcommand field indicating an extended or nonextended register addressing scheme associated with the ATA register; and an ATA adapter identifying the register addressing scheme according to a predefined value in the subcommand field, addressing an ATA device with the extended or a nonextended register addressing scheme corresponding with the command block extended or nonextended register addressing scheme identifier in the subcommand field, executing either extended or nonextended ATA commands in the command block, and conducting the ATA register transactions in the ATA device addressed according to the identified register addressing scheme. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of operating a packet-to-ATA bridge circuit, comprising:
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receiving a packet comprising an ATA command block, wherein the command block includes a signature field identifying the command block as an ATA command block and a subcommand field indicating a register addressing scheme; executing either extended or nonextended ATA commands in the command block, wherein executing the ATA commands comprises; identifying the register addressing scheme in the ATA command block according to predefined values in the signature field and the subcommand field; addressing an ATA device having the extended or nonextended register addressing scheme; parsing the command block into a sequence of register operations according to the extended or nonextended register addressing scheme; and sending the sequence of register operations to the ATA device addressed. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A host, comprising:
a processor generating a command block containing register access information for executing Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) register-delivered transactions, the command block including fields for a signature field identifying the command block as an ATA command block, a subcommand field indicating a register addressing scheme associated with the ATA register-delivered transactions, a most significant ATA register address field and a least significant ATA register address field, and either extended or nonextended ATA commands, wherein the same command block designates the extended or nonextended register addressing scheme and contains the extended or nonextended ATA commands for performing the associated extended or nonextended ATA register transactions. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
Specification