Arrangement of designation of drive element number using mother boards
AssigneeFujitsu Limited
InventorMasahito Iwatsubo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An arrangement of a designation of a drive element number using mother boards interposed between an upper grade device and a plurality of drive elements includes a plurality of groups of drive elements, each of which drive elements has a specifically designated drive element number, an upper grade device for carrying out a signal communication through tag bus line cables with a selected drive element, and a plurality of mother boards interposed between the upper grade device and the plurality of drive elements, each of the mother boards corresponding to one of the plurality of groups of drive elements. The plurality of mother boards has a same potential level arrangement of connection pins for a drive element number designation in connecting portions.
Claims8
An apparatus for selecting a designated drive element from groups of drive elements, the apparatus comprising:
- control means for communicating to the drive elements;
- a first group of drive elements;
- a second group of drive elements;
- a first group of connecting means wherein each connecting means corresponds to a drive element from said first group of drive elements;
- a second group of connecting means wherein each connecting means corresponds to a drive element from said second group of drive elements;
- a first mother board, containing said first group of connecting means, for electrically coupling said first group of drive elements to said control means through said first group of connecting means;
- a second mother board, containing said second group of connecting means, for electrically coupling said second group of drive elements to said control means through said second group of connecting means;
- each of said corresponding connecting means including a plurality of connection terminals which correspond to bits that represent a drive element number such that the corresponding drive elemtns acknowledge their selection by comparing the drive element number, as communicated from the control means, to a logic level associated with said connection terminals, the associated logic levels of the connection terminals defining at least two lower bits and at least an uppermost bit of the drive element number for a given drive element
- whereby said first and second group of connecting means have a same connection terminal structure so that said first and second mother boards have a substantially identical connection structure.
An apparatus for selecting a designated magnetic disk storage element from groups of magnetic disk storage elements, comprising:
- a plurality of groups of magnetic disk storage elements, each of which magnetic disk storage elements has a specifically designated drive element number;
- first and second mother board, each of said mother boards corresponding to one of said plurality of groups of magnetic disk storage elements;
- each mother board including a group of connecting means wherein each connecting means corresponds to a magnetic disk storage element from the corresponding group of magnetic disk storage elements such that said one of the plurality of groups of magnetic disk storage elements is connected to said first mother board, said another of plurality of groups of magnetic disk storage elements is connected to said second mother board, the second mother board is connected through a cable to said first mother board;
- each of said corresponding connecting means including a plurality of connection terminals which correspond to bits that represent the drive element number such that the corresponding magnetic disk storage elements acknowledge their selection by comparing a selected drive element number, as communicated from a control means, to a logic level associated with said connection terminals, the logic levels of the connection terminal defining at least two lower bits and at least an uppermost bit of the drive element number for a given drive element, such that the groups of connecting means have a same connection terminal structure so that the groups of connecting means on each of said first and second mother boards have a substantially identical lower bit and upper bit connection terminal structure;
- the connection terminals corresponding to the uppermost bit being commonly connected on each of the mother boards;
- and the apparatus having a termination resistor located externally to the second mother board and operatively connected to said commonly connected terminals of the second mother board to determine a logic level of said uppermost bit on the second mother board, so that different designations of the drive element number are possible by said first and second mother boards having the same connection configuration based on a presence/absence of the terminal resistor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.