The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 20, 1998
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1994
Nicolas C Assouad, Boulder, CO (US);
David L Dyer, Boulder, CO (US);
Thomas G Adams, Longmont, CO (US);
Adaptec, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A single integrated circuit includes an on-board processor, a peripheral port, and a general purpose input/output (I/O) circuit that support both master mode and slave mode operations. In a master mode of operation, the integrated circuit functions as a disk drive microcontroller and seamlessly interfaces with a hard disk controller. The integrated circuit includes programmable circuitry for generating individual chip select signals for external random access memory (RAM) and external read-only memory (ROM); a fully programmable general purpose input/output interface; and a programmable bi-directional peripheral port. Each of these features are utilized in the master mode to control operation of the disk drive. In a slave mode of operation, the integrated circuit provides full motion control of the spin and tracking systems of a disk drive. In slave mode, the peripheral port is an interface to a host microcontroller or a host RISC processor, that is typically contained within the disk drive. The host microcontroller communicates with the integrated circuit through a set of mailbox registers within the peripheral port to configure the integrated circuit for full motion control and to receive information from the integrated circuit.