Patent · US Expired

Spatial display of disk drive activity data

US6924780B1 · kind B1 · utility

8Cited by
15References
50Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 9, 2000
Grant dateAug 2, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 3, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG09G3/32
  • WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Real time disk activity data for a disk drive is displayed on a multi-element display in which each display element corresponds to a respective address range or “activity bin” of the disk drive. When an access to the disk drive occurs, the display element associated with the corresponding address is illuminated, with the color of the illuminated element preferably indicating the type of the access (e.g., read versus write). The display thus spatially indicates the type of disk activity occurring. For example, a user can readily determine that a disk drive is being accessed sequentially by identifying that the display elements are being illuminated in sequence over time. In addition, the user can, in many cases, evaluate the operation of an array of disk drives by viewing and comparing the illumination patterns of the associated multi-element displays. For example, a user can easily confirm that one drive in mirroring another drive by verifying that their illumination patterns are synchronized. In a preferred embodiment, each multi-element display is an 8×8 matrix of multi-color display elements, and is viewable from outside of the computer cabinet in which the drive is housed. The …

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