Patent Application
20060117206
This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0093572, filed on Nov. 16, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to an interface between a host and a hard disk drive, and more particularly, to enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive is a secondary storage device that has an aluminum platter coated with a magnetic medium to store data thereon. Due to recent increases in packing density and reduction of the physical size of a hard disk drive, an interface delay between a host and the hard disk drive occurs which results in reduced work efficiency between the host and the hard disk drive. To solve these problems, an integrated circuit may be used only for the hard disk drive, but such an approach provides only limited improvement in the interface delay and work efficiency between the host and the hard disk drive.
The present invention provides a method of enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive.
The present invention also provides an apparatus for enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive, the method comprising: forming an application interface between the host and the hard disk drive to share an application included in the host or hard disk drive with each other; transmitting a first control code of a first application included in the host from the host to the hard disk drive through the formed application interface; and the hard disk drive controlling a process of the first application with the transmitted first control code.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive, the apparatus comprising: an application interface unit which forms an application interface to allow the host and the hard disk drive to share an application included in the host or hard disk drive; a first control code storage medium receiving a first control code of a first application included in the host from the host through the formed application interface and storing the first control code; and a first process controlling unit of the hard disk drive controlling a process of the first application with the stored first control code.
The above and other aspects of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
First, an application interface is formed to allow the host and the hard disk drive to share an application included in the host or the hard disk drive (operation 10).
Several types of applications such as a text editing application, a data searching application, a media player application, an MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3) player application, and the like are included in the host or the hard disk drive.
An interface allowing a host and a hard disk drive to share an application therebetween is referred to as an application interface. A network for sharing the application between the host and the hard disk drive can be formed by the application interface between the host and the hard disk drive.
Specifically, an open vendor command application program interface (OVC API) is set in the hard disk drive as the application interface. The OVC API is an interface for an application command which is uniquely defined by a manufacturer to allow sharing of the application between a host and a hard disk drive.
After operation 10, a first control code of a first application included in the host is transmitted to the hard disk drive through the application interface formed between the host and the hard disk drive (operation 12).
For example, one or more applications, among a text editing application, a data searching application, a media player application, and an MP3 player, which are included in the host, may be referred to as a first application. Further, a first control code is a command language which controls the first application. The first control code is an application object code. The application object code is a machine language code generated for a hard disk drive to control an application.
The first control codes included in the host can be grouped as a bundle and transmitted to the hard disk drive.
Meanwhile, in operation 12, a second control code of a second application included in the hard disk drive may be transmitted to the host through the application interface. For example, an application, such as a text editing application, a data searching application, etc., which is stored in a hard disk drive, may be referred to as a second application. Thus, the second control code is a command language which controls the second application. The second control code is an application object code similar to the first control code.
After operation 12, the hard disk drive controls a process of the first application by using the transmitted first control code (operation 14). In particular, the hard disk drive controls one of power managing, information searching, and data storing, which are processes of the first application, using the transmitted first control code. For instance, when receiving a first control code for the text editing application included in the host, the hard disk drive performs a control of the text editing application using the received first control code. Further, when receiving a first control code for the power managing application included in the host, the hard disk drive performs a control of the power managing application by using the received first control code. In addition, when receiving a first control code for the information searching application included in the host, the hard disk drive performs a control of the information searching application by using the received first control code. Also, when receiving a first control code for the data storing application included in the host, the hard disk drive performs a control of the data storing application by using the received first control code.
In the meantime, in operation 14, the host may control a process of the second application by using the second control code which is transmitted to the host. In particular, the host controls one of information searching and data storing, which are processes of the second application, using the transmitted second control code. For example, when receiving a second control code for the information searching application stored in the hard disk drive, the host performs a control of the information searching application by using the received second control code. Further, when receiving a second control code for the data storing application stored in the hard disk drive, the host performs a control of the data storing application by using the received control code.
The hard disk drive 100 is a machine device which controls storage and retrieval of data from the hard disk storage medium.
The application interface unit 110 forms an application interface which allows an application included in the host 200 or hard disk drive 100 to be shared between the host 200 and the hard disk drive 100.
The application interface unit 110 sets an open vendor command application program interface (OVC API) as an application interface so that an application program interface is formed between the host 200 and the hard disk drive 100.
The first control code storage medium 120 receives a first control code of a first application which is included in the host 200 from the host 200 through the application interface formed by the application interface unit 110 and stores the first control code. The first control code storage medium 120 stores an application object code as the first control code.
The first control code storage medium 120 stores a plurality of first control codes which are grouped as a bundle and transmitted from the host 200.
The first process controlling unit 130 controls a process of a first application of the host 200 using the first control code stored in the first control code storage medium 120. In particular, the first process controlling unit 130 controls one of text editing, power managing, information searching and data storing, which are processes of the first application, using the transmitted first control code.
The host 200 may be a general local computer, or a computer connected to a network.
The second control code storage medium 210 included in the host 200 receives the second control code of the second application included in the hard disk drive 100 from the hard disk drive 100 through the application interface formed by the application interface unit 110 and stores the second control code. In particular, the second control code storage medium 210 stores an application object code as the second control code.
The second process controlling unit 220 included in the host 200 controls a process of the second application by using the second control code which is stored in the second control code storage medium 210. Specifically, the second process controlling unit 220 controls one of information searching and data storing, which are processes of the second application, by using the transmitted second control code.
As described above, according to aspects of the present invention, a method and apparatus for enhancing work efficiency by sharing an application between a host and a hard disk drive allows the hard disk drive to share the workload of the host, or the host to share the workload of the hard disk drive.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2004-0093572 | Nov 2004 | KR | national |
