Advanced Logic Research, Inc.

Advanced Research Logic, Inc.

Thomas Shu

Vic Sangveraphunsiri

Felix Pinai

Cameron Spears

An interface allows a given CPU (Central Processing Unit) to communicate concurrently with a large number of disk drives in a high-performance, low-cost system. Plural seek operations can be performed concurrently, to serve a common processor. Also, heterogeneous physical drives--of any physical or logical configuration (storage capacity, number of heads, and so forth)--can be combined into one or more 'logical' drives as seen by a host operating system. An 'on-board' embodiment provides an 'enhanced' IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) disk drive that is an extension of the industry-standard IDE drives, allowing an arbitrary number of independently seeking IDE drives on a conventionally single-seeking, two-drive-maximum bus. In a 'paddle board' embodiment, low-cost IDE drives of arbitrary physical size, storage capacity and geometry, can be combined simply and inexpensively into a high-performance storage device. For example, a 3.5' 80 MB (megabyte) drive can be transparently combined with a 2.5' 60 MB drive. The inventive concept can thus be embodied with either a 'paddle board' controller (with standard IDE drives), or with no additional controller (employing 'enhanced' IDE drives).

On-board interface for concurrent seeks of multiple disk drives of a

Paddle board interface for concurrent seeks on multiple disk drives of a

An interface allows a given CPU (Central Processing Unit) to communicate concurrently with a large number of disk drives in a high-performance, low-cost system. Plural seek operations can be performed concurrently, to serve a common processor. Also, heterogeneous physical drives--of any physical or logical configuration (storage capacity, number of heads, and so forth)--can be combined into one or more 'logical' drives as seen by a host operating system. An 'on-board' embodiment provides an 'enhanced' IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) disk drive that is an extension of the industry-standard IDE drives, allowing an arbitrary number of independently seeking IDE drives on a conventionally single-seeking, two-drive-maximum bus. In a 'paddle board' embodiment, low-cost IDE drives of arbitrary physical size, storage capacity and geometry, can be combined simply and inexpensively into a high-performance storage device. For example, a 3.5'80 MB (megabyte) drive can be transparently combined with a 2.5' 60 MB drive. The inventive concept can thus be embodied with either a 'paddle board' controller (with standard IDE drives), or with no additional controller (employing 'enhanced' IDE drives).

Growing community of inventors

Lake Forest, CA, United States of America

Thomas Shu