International Business Machines Corporation

James E Donaldson

Steven A Schmitt

Gregory G Floryance

A data storage disk drive array is synchronized using drives wherein each has an onboard oscillator assembly which is connected either for independent operation of each drive or synchronization of all or any selected drives of the array using a common or slave sync line that can supply an index signal to all or any portion of the drives of the array and is capable of using the oscillator assembly of any drive in the synchronized array as the source of the common precision index signal. The system can also be partitioned in subarrays with synchronization of the entire system, of individual subarrays or any mix of subarray combinations while retaining the capability for any drive of the system to function independent of the synchronization of any group of drives within the system.

Disk drive spindle synchronization apparatus and method

A controller device interfacing method and a low level device interface are provided for use between at least one controller and a plurality of devices in a direct access storage device. Message and command and data information are received and transmitted between the controller and the device. Responsive to a received predetermined read data command, read data function hardware transmits the requested data to the controller. Responsive to a received predetermined write data command, write data function hardware writes the received data from the controller to a device. Received message information is blocked from received data information so that message information is transmitted at any time within and between data information transmissions. The low level device interface supports two wire serial data transfer and provides improved data rate performance.

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Rochester, MN, United States of America

James E Donaldson