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:
Apr. 23, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 06, 2000
Fay Chong, Jr., Cupertino, CA (US);
William L. Grouell, San Ramon, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and methods are provided for interfacing a disk drive to a computer system without requiring conventional power and signal cables between the apparatus and the disk drive. An interface assembly comprises a set of power connectors and a set of signal connectors for receiving corresponding connectors of a disk drive. One or more of the assembly connectors (e.g., the power connectors) are translatable in at least one dimension so that the assembly is not limited to disk drives having a particular spacing between their power and signal connectors. The interface assembly may comprise two printed circuit boards (PCB) or backplanes—one for the power connectors and one for the signal connectors. In this configuration one of the PCBs defines a set of apertures through which the connectors of the other PCB protrude, and the other PCB is slidably or otherwise translatable along a portion of the length of the first PCB so that the protruding connectors are movable within the apertures. The two PCBs may be interconnected to provide a single connection point to the host computer system or, alternatively, each PCB may connect separately. An assembly may include power and signal connectors for interfacing one disk drive or multiple disk drives and may, additionally, be configured to accept multiple disk drives having multiple different spacings between their power and signal connectors.