Patent Application
20070205667
The present invention generally relates to a SATA cable, and more specifically to a SATA cable with light display feature.
Since the emergence of IBM's PC/AT, PC or laptop computer has become ubiquitous. The AT attachment (ATA) or the ATA packet interface (ATAPI) between AT and devices has become the most popular device interface. For example, more than 90% of the hard disks use ATA interface, and the remaining uses SCSI interface. In addition, the majority of CD-ROM uses ATAPI, and the majority of PCMCIA and CFA mass storage devices also use ATA or ATAPI interface.
Serial ATA (SATA) is the newest version of the ATA interface. SATA can support the conventional parallel ATA interface for the internal disk drives inside the PC or laptop computer. In additionally, the Serial ATA interface is well suited for external applications with its simple connector and hot-plug feature. The SATA cables, which connect the host and its peripherals, are lacking of a capability/feature to visibly distinguish the status of the connection. For example, with a connection status light attached to a SATA cable, it would be easier to verify/confirm the readiness of the communication when the SATA cables are physically connected.
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an enhanced SATA cable with light display feature, such that when the two plug-in ends of the SATA cable are connecting the host and a peripheral device, the light display capability of the plug-in ends facilitates users with an obvious status indicator for the connectivity status of the SATA cable.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an enhanced SATA cable with light display feature, such that the feature is activated as long as the SATA cable is connected to a computer socket. Driven by the power from the computer plug-in sockets, the enhanced SATA cable does not need extra battery or external power supply for the new light display feature, and provides great advantages of usage convenience.
Alternatively, the light display feature of an enhanced SATA cable according to the present invention can be designed in varieties in terms of the color as well as the light emitting pattern of the emitting light. For examples, there can be SATA cables with red display lights; or with flashing display light, or with any other light display patterns, etc.
With the aforementioned basic principle, the major technology of the present invention is to inlay light emitting diode (LED) lights on the plug-in ends of a SATA cable and add the LED control circuits within the plug-in ends to control the display of the LED light. When the two plug-in ends of a SATA cable are connected to the sockets of the host and peripheral devices, the LED control circuits in the plug-in ends are triggered to turn on the inlayed LED lights to display and indicate the readiness status for the SATA cable connectivity.
Additionally, the inlayed display lights on the SATA cables according to the present invention can show the actual pattern of the data transmission within the SATA cables. From computer manufactures' marketing perspective, this light display add-on of the SATA cables is considered a very attractive feature for the young computer nerds who are constantly after exciting and stylish varieties.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
