Back to results
US 8,190,970 B2Granted
Probe-based data storage devices
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsThomas Albrecht, Theodore Antonakopoulos, Giovanni Cherubinni, Ajay Dholakia, Evangelos S. Eleftheriou, Charalampos Pozidis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A probe-based data storage device includes a storage surface having an array of A storage fields; a probe array comprising A probes for writing data to respective storage fields; and an apparatus for controlling writing of blocks of user data in the array of storage fields.
Claims10
A probe-based data storage device comprising:
- a storage surface having an array of A storage fields;
- a probe array comprising A probes for writing data to respective storage fields, said A probes corresponding to the A storage fields;
- and
- an apparatus for controlling writing of blocks of user data in the array of storage fields, wherein data is written to said array of storage fields by the corresponding array of probes, said apparatus comprising:
- a codeword generator for coding the blocks of user data to produce a plurality of C-byte codewords such that r*C=k1*A where r is the number of codewords and k1 is an integer >1;
- a sub-block generator for producing A sub-blocks of k1 bytes from the codewords by selecting successive bytes of each sub-block cyclically from the r codewords;
- a write controller for controlling writing of the A sub-blocks via respective probes to the corresponding storage fields of the storage field array such that the codewords are distributed across the A storage fields of the storage array, with bytes from a same codeword always being r bytes apart.
4 more elements
A probe-based data storage device comprising:
- a storage surface having an array of k*A storage fields, where k is an integer greater than or equal to 2;
- a probe array comprising k*A probes for writing data to respective storage fields, said k*A probes corresponding to the k*A storage fields;
- a control apparatus comprising k logical sub-devices (SD1 to SDk0) for controlling writing of data to respective logical sub-arrays (SA1 to SAk0), each of A storage fields, of the storage field array via respective logical sub-arrays, each of A probes, of the probe array, wherein each logical sub-device (SD1 to SDk0) comprises an apparatus for controlling writing of blocks of user data in the respective storage field sub-array (SA1 to SAk0);
- and
- a codeword generator for coding blocks of user data to produce, from each user data block, a plurality of C-byte codewords such that r*C=k1*As where r is the number of codewords, k1 is an integer ≧1, As=Ad/k0 and k0 is an integer >2.
2 more elements
A probe-based data storage device comprising:
- a storage surface having an array of k2*Ad storage fields, where k2 is an integer greater than or equal to 2;
- a probe array comprising k2*Ad probes for reading and writing data in respective storage fields;
- and control apparatus comprising k2 logical sub-devices (LD1 to LD k2) for controlling reading and writing of data to respective logical sub-arrays, each of Ad storage fields, of the storage field array via respective logical sub-arrays, each of Ad probes, of the probe array, wherein each logical sub-device (LD1 to LD k2) comprises an apparatus controlling reading and writing of user data in the respective logical sub-array of the storage field array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.