Method and apparatus to enable docking/undocking of a powered-on bus to a docking station
US5875307A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 14, 1997 |
| Grant date | Feb 23, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 14, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F13/4081
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Hot-insertion/removal, herein used interchangeably with hot-docking/undocking, would enable the connection or disconnection of a fully powered bus to an expansion device with no damage or data loss to either device. Previous docking solutions typically require the docking bus to be placed into a power-off or power-managed state, which means the user would have to consciously place the system into a power-off or power-managed state before an insertion or removal could occur. The hot-docking/undocking invention is completely transparent to the end user, so it would provide tremendous flexibility and seamless insertions and removals. Hot-docking/undocking is composed of three elements: a detection of a docking/undocking situation; a placement of the docking bus into a static state; and a system reconfiguration. The present invention places the docking bus into an static state through the use of a special handshaking protocol and clock and reset signals on the expansion device. The entire mechanism can be applied in both the insertion and removal of a power-on bus to and from an expansion device.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.