Storage Technology Corporation

Other

Robert F Walsh

John H Bowers

George A Rudeseal

Robert H Dunphy, Jr

Stephen S Selkirk

Jay S Belsan

Robert J Miosek

Roger A Lopez

A direct access storage system includes at least one disk and a controller. The at least one disk physically may be partitioned into at least one first access performance partition and at least one other access performance partition. The controller may be configured to process I/O accesses to the first access performance partition without regulation and regulate I/O accesses to the at least one other access performance partition.

System and method for quality of service management in a partitioned storage device or subsystem

The data storage subsystem is implemented using an array of data storage elements which vary in data storage characteristics and/or data storage capacity. Control apparatus automatically compensates for any nonuniformity among the data storage elements by selecting a set of physical characteristics that define a common data storage element format. The selected set of physical characteristics may not match any of the disk drives but each disk drive can emulate these selected characteristics. This capability enables the disk drives in the data storage subsystem to be replaced by nonidentical disk drives in a nondisruptive manner to provide continuous data availability.

Disk drive array memory system using nonuniform disk drives

A method and apparatus for mounting mated floating, electrical connectors is disclosed. Floating connectors are used to isolate the component parts of the connectors from the vibrations of devices which are semi-rigidly mounted with respect to one another and to which the connectors are movably mounted. The floating connector of the present invention provides a high degree of freedom to float both side to side and up and down. The connector has flanges extending over the walls of an opening into which the connector is movably mounted. This allows the connector a wide range of freedom to float. Both a snap-in and a twist-in connector design are shown. A flexible wiring circuit attached to the floating connector provides both electrical connections to an associated device as well as a spring bias tension to further retain the connector within the receptacle. Obscured (often called 'blind') connections are simplified by the connector because the high degree of float permits a wide range of misalignment as the floating connector mates with another connector. This easy to assemble connector apparatus allows for inexpensive, reliable, floating, blind connections between devices.

Apparatus and method for floatable electrical connection of semi-rigidly

The disk drive memory of the present invention uses a large plurality of small form factor disk drives to implement an inexpensive, high performance, high reliability disk drive memory that emulates the format and capability of large form factor disk drives. The plurality of disk drives are switchably interconnectable to form redundancy groups of N+M parallel connnected disk drives to store data thereon. The N+M disk drives are used to store the N segments of each data word plus M redundancy segments. In addition, a pool of R backup disk drives is maintained to automatically substitute a replacement disk drive for a disk drive in a redundancy group that fails during operation. The number N of data segments in each data redundancy group can be varied throughout the disk drive memory to thereby match the characteristics of the input data or operational parameters within the disk drive memory. Furthermore, a group of U unassigned disk drives can be maintained as a stock of disk drives that can be powered up as needed and assigned to either a redundancy group or to the pool of backup disk drives.

Disk drive memory

The disk drive memory of the present invention uses a large plurality of small form factor disk drives to implement an inexpensive, high performance, high reliability disk drive memory that emulates the format and capability of large form factor disk drives. The plurality of disk drives are switchably interconnectable to form parity groups of N+1 parallel connected disk drives to store data thereon. The N+1 disk drives are used to store the N segments of each data word plus a parity segment. In addition, a pool of backup disk drives is maintained to automatically substitute a replacement disk drive for a disk drive in a parity group that fails during operation.

A device for preparing and reseeding small bare spots in a lawn is in the form of a telescoping tubular member having upper and lower, relatively slidable tubes, with the storage hopper for the grass seeds being provided in the upper tube, and wherein a valve means is provided at the connection between the upper and lower tubes for controlling the flow of seeds from the storage hopper through the lower tube to the bare spot on the ground. The valve means preferably comprises a caged ball secured within the upper tube, and an actuating means secured to the lower tube. Spring biasing means are provided to maintain the tubular member in its extended position, with the valve means being closed. The lower end of the lower tube is formed with teeth for initially scoring the bare spot. Next, the tubular member is compressed along its axial length, thereby momentarily actuating the ball valve to enable a measured amount of grass seed to fall through the tubular member for deposit on the ground. In its fully compressed position, the ball closes off the hopper so as to prevent additional seed from falling through the seeder, and when the tubular member is released, the spring means telescopes the tubes so as to again close off the ball valve. A screen may be provided in the lower tube for aiding in the uniform distribution of the seeds.

Growing community of inventors

Boulder, CO, United States of America

Robert F Walsh