Quantum Corporation

Joshua Lindsay

William G Moon

Thomas R Stone

Bruce R Peterson

William N Thanos

Michael D Leis

Joel N Harrison

Philip W Rich

A network storage device having a network controller card and a data storage device is described herein the card and storage device are either enclosed in a small from factor unit or assembled together to fit within a standard hard disk drive bay in a computer. The combination of a controller card and storage device is designed to transfer files from and to a network using standard network file protocols. As the network storage device does not process the files, much of the computational overhead of a network server can be eliminated, resulting in a simpler device capable of faster file exchange.

Mass storage device with network interface

A bistable magnetic/electromagnetic latch sub-assembly for releasably latching a disk file actuator in order to park data transducer heads at a predetermined location of a data storage disk rotatably mounted to a base within a fixed disk data storage subsystem, comprises a mounting flange for mounting to the base in operative proximity to the disk file actuator, a latch body rotatably mounted to the mounting flange, the latch body including a permanent magnet and an actuator engagement latch. Plural detent pins extend from the mounting flange and limit rotational displacement of the latch body. The pins coact with the permanent magnet to hold the latch body at a release detent position and also to hold the latch body at an armed detent position wherein the actuator engagement latch is positioned to engage and latch the actuator. An electrical coil is fixed to the mounting flange in operative proximity to the permanent magnet and generates latch position switching fluxes for switching the latch body between the armed detent position and the release detent position in accordance with the direction of an intermittent actuation current flow.

Bistable magnetic/electromagnetic latch for disk file actuator

A micro-Winchester disk drive subsystem includes a data block sequencer, cache memory and interface for a host computing machine. The drive includes a base and a plurality of non-removable directly rotated disks forming data storage surfaces. A balanced rotary head transducer actuator is mounted to the base for a plurality of data transducer heads among a multiplicity of concentric data tracks formed on each data storage surface of each of the disks. The track following servo system includes a position encoder coupled between the actuator structure and the base, prerecorded data track centerline information at a radially outermost region and at a radially innermost region of each data surface, and a temperature sensor for sensing temperature of the base at the vicinity of the position encoder. An actuator driver circuit is connected to supply electrical driving current to the actuator structure; and, a single, time divided multi-tasked digital including an analog to digital converter is connected to receive the position information from the position encoder, centerline information from the disk surfaces read by the data transducer and temperature sensed by the temperature sensor during a calibration operation in one phase of its operational cycle, the other phase being devoted to supervision data block handling functions of disk drive data block sequencer cache memory and interface. During track following operations, centerline information is derived from information obtained in the calibrate operation. The temperature sensor is periodically checked and recalibration is carried out when drive temperature changes.

Head position control system for fixed drive including position encoder,

A micro-Winchester disk drive subsystem includes a data block sequencer, cache memory and interface for a host computing machine. The drive includes a base and a plurality of non-removable directly rotated disks forming data storage surfaces. A balanced rotary head transducer actuator is mounted to the base for a plurality of data transducer heads among a multiplicity of concentric data tracks formed on each data storage surface of each of the disks. The track following servo system includes a position encoder coupled between the actuator structure and the base, prerecorded data track centerline information at a radially outermost region and at a radially innermost region of each data surface, and a temperature sensor for sensing temperature of the base at the vicinity of the position encoder. An actuator driver circuit is connected to supply electrical driving current to the actuator structure; and, a single, time divided multi-tasked digital including an analog to digital converter is connected to receive the position information from the position encoder, centerline information from the disk surfaces read by the data transducer and temperature sensed by the temperature sensor during a calibration operation in one phase of its operational cycle, and other phase being devoted to supervision data block handling functions of disk drive data block sequencer cache memory and interface. During track following operations, centerline information is derived from information obtained in the calibrate operation. The temperature sensor is periodically checked and recalibration is carried out when drive temperature changes.

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Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Joshua Lindsay