Nexcom Technology, Inc.

Other

Force10 Networks, Inc.

Integrated Silicon Solution Incorporated

Nexflash Technologies, Inc.

David K Wong

Robin John Jigour

Nagesh Challa

Asim A Bajwa

Michel E Gannage

Michael E Gannage

A modular system uses point-to-point communication between field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) on a control module and each port module, respectively, to manage basic module functions, such as power, environmental monitoring, and health checks on the modules and their components. This allows a chassis to be managed without fully powering each card first, frees processors on the modules from having to perform health checks, allows dedicated resources to rapidly monitor the health of each card, and prevents one bad card from disabling management of all cards.

Intelligent chassis management

A low power recording devices permits various flexible power options, including a no-battery option in which the recording device satisfies its entire power requirements from the telephone wall socket and from the RS-232 socket of a computer, and a no-battery option in which the recording device satisfies its entire power requirements from the power source for the mobile telephone. Neither no-battery option exerts a significant additional load on the power source. Voice signals are digitized and stored in low power non-volatile memory. Facsimile signals either are digitized and stored in low power non-volatile memory, or are decoded and stored in low power non-volatile memory. An audio recording and playback capability through an integrated speaker-microphone pair is provided.

Method of receiving a facsimile message

Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (,and,) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (,and,) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (,and,) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required. In particular, a small number of durable contact pads form the contact arrays (,and,) on the digital media devices, which in conjunction with corresponding contact pads mounted into a suitable socket provide for easy and convenient insertion and removal and for robust and reliable electrical contact over a long insertion lifetime. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family incorporate flash memory, which permits low voltage operation, low power consumption, and high capacity non-volatile data storage. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family are fabricated using surface mount techniques (,and,) or particularly inexpensive &ldquo;Chip on Board&rdquo; techniques (,and,). The digital media devices interface to the host either directly or through adapters. Access is handled either by a dedicated controller or other logic residing in the adapter or on the host, or by software running on the host.

Insertble and removable digital memory apparatus

Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required. In particular, a small number of durable contact pads form the contact arrays (314, 324, 334, 344, 354 and 364) on the digital media devices, which in conjunction with corresponding contact pads mounted into a suitable socket provide for easy and convenient insertion and removal and for robust and reliable electrical contact over a long insertion lifetime. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family incorporate flash memory, which permits low voltage operation, low power consumption, and high capacity non-volatile data storage. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family are fabricated using surface mount techniques (310 and 320) or particularly inexpensive 'Chip on Board' techniques (330, 340, 350 and 360). The digital media devices interface to the host either directly or through adapters. Access is handled either by a dedicated controller or other logic residing in the adapter or on the host, or by software running on the host.

Insertable and removable high capacity digital memory apparatus and

Each device of a family of removable digital media devices (310, 320, 330, 340, 350 and 360) may be plugged into a host to permits the host to store data in it or to retrieve data from it. The form factors of the digital media devices in the family and the connector system used by the digital media devices are compact for minimizing the volume of space occupied in portable devices and for easy storage. Some embodiments (310, 320, 330, 350 and 360) provide an elongated compact form factor that provides easy and firm grasping for insertion and removal. The digital media devices of the family have respective body portions (312, 322, 332, 342, 352 and 362) preferably of a rigid or semi-rigid material. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family use serial memory requiring few power and signal lines, so that few electrical contacts are required. In particular, a small number of durable contact pads form the contact arrays (314, 324, 334, 344, 354 and 364) on the digital media devices, which in conjunction with corresponding contact pads mounted into a suitable socket provide for easy and convenient insertion and removal and for robust and reliable electrical contact over a long insertion lifetime. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family incorporate flash memory, which permits low voltage operation, low power consumption, and high capacity non-volatile data storage. Preferably, the digital media devices of the family are fabricated using surface mount techniques (310 and 320) or particularly inexpensive 'Chip on Board' techniques (330, 340, 350 and 360).

Insertable/removable digital memory apparatus and methods of operation

A computer system includes a computing device such as a microcontroller and a memory device. The memory device is illustratively a serial device connected to the serial port of the microcontroller. The memory device includes a page latch load circuit which provides serial I/O to the microcontroller and transfers I/O bits in a predetermined order to/from the page latches. Page latches are connected over many bit lines to a memory cell array. The page latches not only supports programming and reading of sectors in the memory cell array, but also provides one or more of the following functions: directly accessible to the microcontroller as an SRAM scratch pad, directly loadable from the memory cell array to facilitate single byte 'read-modify-write' operations, and loadable during programming operations to support real time applications.

Non-volatile programmable memory having a buffering capability and

Recording apparatus and method having low power consumption

Adapter for interfacing an insertable/removable digital memory apparatus

A computer system includes a computing device such as a microcontroller and a memory device. The memory device is illustrtively a serial device connected to the serail port of the microcontrollerThe memory device includes a page latch load circuit which provides serial I/O to the microcontroller and transfers I/O bits in a predetermined order to/from the page latches. Page latches are connected over many bit lines to a memory cell array. The page latches not only supports programming and reading of sectors in the memory cell array, but also provides one or more of the following functions: directly accessable to the microcontroller as an SRAM scratch pad, directly loadable from the memory cell array to facilitate single byte 'read-modify-write' operations, and loadable during programming operations to support real time applications.

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

David K Wong