1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to an adapter for connecting a portable memory unit to a host. In particularly, this invention is related to a memory device which includes a portable flash memory unit having SD/SATA interfaces and an adapter having two separate connectors for connecting with the SATA and power receptacles of the host respectively.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays, a variety of portable memory devices and peripherals are developed and widely used. For example, the portable memory device can be USB Flash Disk, Compact Flash Card (CF card), Memory Stick (MS card), Secure Digital (SD card), Multi-Media Card (MMC), xD Card, Micro Hard Disk which have either CF or USB interface, and a hard disk located at the external portable box which have USB or PCMCIA interface, etc. These portable memory devices enhance the convenience of user.
The conventional portable memory device includes a non-volatile memory array, a memory controller, and an I/O interface. The non-volatile memory array is used for storing the data and preserves the data without an external power supply. Therefore, the non-volatile memory array is usually made by a flash memory. Of course, the designer can replace the hard disk with the non-volatile memory array. The memory controller includes a circuit, a communication interface and a driving mechanism for driving and accessing the non-volatile memory array. The driving mechanism can be implemented by a hardware (command sequencer circuit) which executes corresponding micro-code or by micro-controller/micro-processor which executes corresponding firmware stored in the controller portable memory device. The communication interface of the portable memory device used a corresponding protocol to communicate with an external device.
Please refer to
In addition, various kinds of peripheral interfaces such like USB, IEEE-1394 (FIREWIRE), Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and etc. are provided by personal computers (PC) or computer notebooks. Among these “host provided” peripheral interfaces, only the USB interface includes a power supply terminal (i.e., the VDD/VBUS voltage signal). Neither the FIREWIRE interface nor the SATA interface provides such power supply terminal. Because the needs for higher speed of data transmission has become a trend of portable memory devices, it can be foreseen that the bandwidth of 480 Mbps of USB 2.0 will be definitely insufficient in the near future. The SATA interface having a bandwidth of 1.5 Gbps might be relatively adequate to our needs for high transmission speed of portable memory devices. However, the lack of power supply terminal will become a problem of the portable memory devices using SATA interface.
It is noted that, improvements of various peripheral interfaces of computers are always keeping developed by manufacturers to satisfy the requirements of high-speed data storage devices. For example, there is now an upgraded version of SATA which is named External SATA (eSATA) available on market. We can also expect that more advanced versions of USB or FIREWARE will come out very soon in the future. All these peripheral interfaces may be applicable to the claiming scope of the present invention.
It is therefore one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide an adaptor for connecting a portable memory unit to a host. The portable memory unit can access power supply from one interface of a host and transmit data via another interface of the same host by means of the adaptor.
It is another one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide a memory device that includes a multi-interface auto-switch flash memory card and an adaptor for receiving that flash memory card. The flash memory card has a memory card interface and a host interface. When the memory device is connected to a host, the flash memory card received inside the adaptor will automatically switch to use the host interface for communicating with the host as well as obtain power supply from the host.
It is yet another one of the objectives of the claimed invention to provide a multi-interface auto-switch circuit located at a portable memory unit. At the same moment, only one interface is activated, whereas the other interface is inactive. Since the inactive interface does not consume power, the total power consumption can be reduced.
In order to achieve aforementioned objectives, the present invention discloses an adapter for connecting a portable memory unit to a host. The adaptor comprises a first connector, a second connector, a third connector and a coupling circuit. The first connector is for connecting the portable memory unit for transmitting a power and data signals. The data signals are comply with a communication protocol which is readable by the host. The second connector is for connecting the host for transmitting the data signals. The third connector is for connecting the host for transmitting electric power. The coupling circuit connects the first and second connectors for transmitting the data signals, in addition, the coupling circuit also connects the first and third connectors for transmitting the electric power.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the portable memory unit is furnished with a multi-interface auto-switch circuit and is able to use either a memory card interface or a host interface to communicate with an external device, such like a host or a card reader. The multi-interface auto-switch circuit comprises a power detecting and supplying module and an interface switch circuit. The power detecting and supplying module detects and receives the voltage signal from the external device and generates a corresponding electrical signal. The interface switch circuit, which connects to the power detecting and supplying module, receives the corresponding electrical signal and is controlled to connect either the memory card interface or the host interface with the external device according to the corresponding electrical signal.
These and other objectives of the claimed invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
The details of the present invention will be more readily understood from a detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the following figures.
The present invention discloses an adapter for connecting a portable memory unit to a host. The portable memory unit is furnished with a multi-interface auto-switch circuit and is able to use either a memory card interface or a host interface to communicate with an external device, such like a host or a card reader. The multi-interface auto-switch circuit comprises a power detecting and supplying module and an interface switch circuit. The power detecting and supplying module detects and receives the voltage signal (VDD/VBUS) from the external device and generates a corresponding electrical signal. The interface switch circuit, which connects to the power detecting and supplying module, receives the corresponding electrical signal and is controlled to connect either the memory card interface or the host interface with the external device according to the corresponding electrical signal.
Because neither the SATA interface nor the FIREWARE interface of host (computer) provides the VDD/VBUS voltage signal, the adaptor of the present invention employs a third connector to connect with a power supply receptacle of the host to obtain the VDD/VBUS voltage signal, in the mean time, the adaptor also employs a second connector to connect with the SATA or FIREWARE interface of host, and a first connector to connect with the portable memory unit. Since the voltage signal obtained from the host is 5.0 Volts which is higher than the ordinary operating voltage 3.3 Volts of most flash memory cards (such as SD, MMC and etc), the power detecting and supplying module of the present invention will be able to determine which interface (either the host interface or the memory card interface) to use by simply comparing the input voltage signal with a predetermined voltage value, for example, 4.2 Volts or any other value between 3.3˜5.0.
Please refer to
In the first preferred embodiment shown in
When the portable memory unit 20 is received and connected to the card connector 41 of the adaptor 40, at least some part of the portable memory unit 20 would be exposed outside the adaptor 40 for allowing the user to pull out or to exchange the card connector 41. In another embodiment, the adaptor 40 can also be furnished with an additional card-ejecting mechanism (not shown in figures) for removing the portable memory unit 20 from the adaptor 40.
Please refer to
In another embodiment of the present invention, the USB connector 42 of the adaptor 40 can be any kind of connector that is comply with an interface whose operating voltage is different from the ordinary operating voltage 3.3 Volts of flash memory card. Or, the USB connector 42 can also be any kind of power connector that can be connected to a power supply whose output voltage is different from the ordinary operating voltage 3.3 Volts of flash memory card. In addition, the SATA connector 44 can also be exchanged easily by other kinds of interfaces, such like FIREWARE, eSATA, IDE and etc. Moreover, the USB connector 42 and SATA connector 44 of the adaptor 40 can also be integrated into one single connector that can connect to both the power supply connector and SATA connector of the host by using a specially designed cable (e.g., one plug on the adaptor side and two plugs on the host side) for transmitting both voltage signal and data signal.
As shown in
The size of the body 21 fits the size of the flash memory card. In this embodiment, the portable memory unit 20 is a Secure Digital Card (SD). The connection pins 22 are also fit the size of the SD. The portable memory unit 20 of this invention can also be, but not limit to, the Multimedia Card (MMC), Compact Flash (CF), Memory Stick (MS), xD Card, etc.
The connection pins 22 are located on the frontal margin of the body 21 and are exposed externally. Through the connection pins 22, the portable memory unit 20 of this invention can electrically connect to and communicate with an external device 90. The external device 90 can be a card reader, a digital camera, a PDA, a printer, a host (computer) or the adaptor 40 of this invention. The connection pins 22 comprise a supply voltage pin 221 (VBUS/VSS), a plurality of the shared pins 222, and a plurality of the non-shared pins 222. The supply voltage pin 221 (VBUS/VSS) is for receiving the power supply signal. The plurality of the shared pins 222 are for both interfaces. The plurality of the non-shared pins 222 are for only one interface.
The memory unit 23 is implanted in the body 21. The memory unit 23 is composed of a non-volatile memory array for storing data. For example, in the embodiment, the memory unit 23 comprises at least one flash memory. It can also be a read only memory (ROM) or other type of memories.
The control unit 24 is implanted in the body 21 and connected to the memory unit 23. The control unit 24 can drive the memory unit 23, read the data from the memory unit 23, write data into the memory unit 23, and communicate with the external device 90 through the connection pins 22. In this embodiment, the control unit 24 also comprises a controller 241, a control logic circuit 242, a cache memory 243, and a memory interface 244. The controller 241 and the corresponding firmware control the data transporting and processing. The control logic circuit 242 connects between the controller 421 and the interface switch circuit 32. The data from the interface switch circuit 32 is processed by the control logic circuit 242 and, then, is stored in the memory unit 23 through the memory interface 244. The data stored in the memory unit 23 can also be processed by the controller 241 and, then, transported to the pins 22 through the interface switch circuit 32. The cache memory 243 can speed up the data processing.
The power detecting and supplying module 31 connects to the supply voltage pin 221 of connection pins 22. The power detecting and supplying module 31 can receive and detect a voltage comes from the supply voltage pin 221 and generate an electrical signal in corresponding to the received voltage from the supply voltage pin 221. In this embodiment, the power detecting and supplying module 31 can compare the received voltage with a predetermined value and transfer the received voltage signal into either a first power signal A or a second power signal B according to the result of the comparison. The electrical signal mentioned previously is either the first power signal A or the second power signal B.
Generally speaking, the supply voltage of the USB interface is 5.0 voltage, whereas the supply voltage of the memory card such as SD and MMC is 3.3 voltage or lower. This invention sets a value between 3.3 and 5.0 as the predetermined value for the power detecting and supplying module 31. For example, the predetermined value is set as 4.2 or as other value between 3.3 and 5.0. Thus, by comparing the supply voltage comes from the supply voltage pin 221 with the predetermined value, which is 4.2 in this case, whether the external device 90 uses the USB interface (e.g., host interface) or other memory card interface can be detected. In other words, if the supply voltage form the supply voltage pin 221 is greater than the predetermined value, the external device 90 is connected to the USB interface.
The interface switch circuit 32 connects to the power detecting and supplying module 31, and serially connects between the control unit 24 and the connection pins 22. The interface switch circuit 32 can receive the first power signal A and the second power signal B, which are also known as the electrical signal, and switch to connect either the first communication interface or the second communication interface to the control unit 24 and to communicate with the control unit 24 through the connection pins 22. In this embodiment, the first communication interface is the computer interface (also referred as host interface hereinafter), examples of such host interface can be but not limited to be a FIREWARE interface, IDE interface, SATA interface, eSATA interface, USB interface, and etc., whereas the second communication interface is the memory card interface, examples of such memory card interface can be but not limited to be the interface of SD, MMC, CF, MS, xD, and etc.
As shown in
In this embodiment, the first power signal A also supplies the power to the first communication interface circuit 323. The second power signal B also supplies the power to the second communication interface circuit 324. Therefore, at any moment, only one of the first communication interface circuit 323 or the second communication interface circuit 324 is supplied the power and is driven. At this moment, the other communication interface circuit is grounded. In other words, the power detecting and supplying module 31 not only provides the control signal to control the operation of the first switch 325 and the second switch 326, but also provides the power to drive only one of the first communication interface circuit 323 and the second communication interface circuit 324. The communication interface circuit which is not driven is grounded. Thus, the power consumption of the portable memory unit 20 can be reduced.
As shown in
In the following embodiments, most of the components and steps are the same as or similar to the embodiments described previously. Therefore, the same or similar components or steps will be named the same and the detail descriptions will not be repeated.
Please refer to
In the second preferred embodiment shown in
Step 61 is the initializing step. In this step, the portable memory unit 20 of the invention which contains the multi-interface auto-switch circuit is connecting with, or plugging in, an external device 90 and receiving an input voltage (VBUS/VDD) from the external device 90.
In step 62, the received input voltage is checked to determine if it is greater than a predetermined value. If it is greater than the predetermined value, the step 63 is then executed. If it is not greater than the predetermined value, the step 67 is then executed.
In step 63, the SATA bus is selected and the power is supplied to the SATA bus. In other words, the first switch 325 is turned on and power is supplied to the first communication interface circuit 323.
In step 64, the SATA bus is ready.
In step 65, it is checking if there is any SATA control signal inputted. If it is, the step 66 is then executed. If it is not, the step 64 is then executed.
In step 66, the SATA control signal is processed and the operation the portable memory unit 20 of the invention responds to the SATA control signal.
In step 67, the SD bus is selected and the power is supplied to the SD interface. In other words, the second switch 326 is turned on and power is supplied to the second communication interface circuit 324.
In step 68, the SD bus is ready.
In step 69, it is checking if there is any SD control signal inputted. If it is, the step 70 is then executed. If it is not, the step 68 is then executed.
In step 71, the SD control signal is processed and the operation the portable memory unit 20 of the invention responds to the SD control signal.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, that above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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094101383 | Jan 2005 | TW | national |