Patent · US Expired

Dual interface for disk drives

US5434722A · kind A · utility

39Cited by
16References
14Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 18, 1994
Grant dateJul 18, 1995
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 18, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F3/0673
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A disk drive that can read from and write to both standard floppy disks and high capacity floppy disks. The present invention provides a single slot disk drive that can accept both standard floppy disks and high capacity floppy disks. After a floppy disk is inserted, physical cues on the floppy disk are used to inform the disk drive as to the nature (standard or high capacity) of the inserted disk. The disk drive incorporates two interfaces, a standard floppy disk controller and an IDE interface for high capacity disks. The disk drive is configured so that both interfaces can communicate with a host computer at all times, regardless of what type of disk is inserted in the disk drive. This allows the host computer to operate as if it had two separate disk drives available.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.