Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080232060 | Multi-Level Cell (MLC) Rotate Flash Memory Device - A portable USB device is described herein. According to one embodiment, a portable USB device includes a core unit having a USB plug connector coupled to one or more multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory devices and an MLC flash controller disposed therein. The device further includes a housing for enclosing the core unit. The device further includes a swivel cap having a top surface and a bottom surface by bending a flat panel into a U-shape block having an opening end, a close end, and two side-openings, where the top and bottom surfaces of the swivel cap include a rivet opening align with each other. The housing having the core unit therein is sandwiched by the swivel cap using a set of rivets through the rivet openings of the housings and the swivel cap. The core unit can be rotated with respect to the rivet set in and out of the swivel cap. | 09-25-2008 |
20080233798 | Multi-Level Cell (MLC) Slide Flash Memory - A portable USB device with an improved configuration is described herein. According to one embodiment, a portable USB device includes a core unit having a USB plug connector coupled to one or more multi-level cell (MLC) flash memory devices and an MLC flash controller disposed therein. The portable USB device further includes a housing for enclosing the core unit, including a front end opening to allow the USB plug connector to be deployed. The portable USB device further includes a core unit carrier for carrying the core unit for deploying and retracting the core unit, including a slide button to allow a finger of a user to slide the USB plug connector of the core unit in and out of the housing via the front end opening of the housing. | 09-25-2008 |
20080266941 | 8/9 AND 8/10-BIT ENCODING TO REDUCE PEAK SURGE CURRENTS WHEN WRITING PHASE-CHANGE MEMORY - Phase-change memory (PCM) cells store data using alloy resistors in high-resistance amorphous and low-resistance crystalline states. The memory cell's reset current can be double a set current, causing peak currents to depend on write data. When all data bits are reset to the amorphous state, a very high peak current is required. To reduce this worst-case peak current, the data is encoded before storage in the PCM cells. An 8/10 encoder adds 2 bits but ensures that no more than half of the data bits are reset. An 8/9 encoder adds an indicator bit, and inverts the 8 bits to ensure that no more than half of the bits are reset. The indicator bit indicates when the 8 bit are inverted, and when the 8 bits are uninverted. Peak currents are thus reduced by encoding to reduce reset data bits. | 10-30-2008 |
20080270811 | Fast Suspend-Resume of Computer Motherboard Using Phase-Change Memory - A personal computer motherboard has a main memory of phase-change-memory (PCM) chips in PCM memory modules. An operating system (OS) image is stored in the PCM memory modules and is retained during suspend since the PCM chips are non-volatile. The microprocessor can directly read the OS image retained in the PCM memory modules without copying an OS image from a hard disk to the main memory upon resume. Therefore a boot loader program in the boot ROM does not have to be fetched to the microprocessor for suspend/resume. The video memory can also be PCM, allowing the frame buffer to be retained during suspend/resume, yet be directly addressable by the microprocessor. The display is quickly activated since the frame buffer does not have to be re-constructed after suspend/resume. PCM cells use amorphous and crystalline states of a variable resistor to store data. | 10-30-2008 |
20080285334 | LOCAL BANK WRITE BUFFERS FOR ACCELERATING A PHASE-CHANGE MEMORY - Phase-change memory (PCM) cells store data using alloy resistors in high-resistance amorphous and low-resistance crystalline states. The time of the memory cell's set-current pulse can be 100 ns, much longer than read or reset times. The write time thus depends on the write data. The very long write-1 time may require wait states. To eliminate wait states for sequential accesses, the PCM cells are divided into 16 banks. Each bank has its own bank write latch that stores data locally at the bank while the bank is being written. Data lines to the banks are freed up to transfer data to other banks once the data is written into the local bank write latch, allowing the long set-current pulse to be applied locally to slowly grow crystals in the alloy resistors. External host data are buffered and applied to the data lines by an array data mux. | 11-20-2008 |
20080298120 | Peripheral Devices Using Phase-Change Memory - Peripheral devices store data in non-volatile phase-change memory (PCM). PCM cells have alloy resistors with high-resistance amorphous states and low-resistance crystalline states. The peripheral device can be a Serial AT-Attachment (SATA) or integrated device electronics (IDE) PCM solid-state disk or a Multi-Media Card/Secure Digital (MMC/SD) card. A peripheral PCM controller accesses PCM mass storage devices containing PCM memory chips that form a mass-storage device that is block-addressable rather than randomly-addressable. SATA, IDE, or MMC/SD transactions from a host bus are read by a bus transceiver on the peripheral PCM controller. Various routines that execute on a CPU in the peripheral PCM controller are activated in response to commands in the host-bus transactions. A PCM controller in the peripheral controller transfers data from the bus transceiver to the PCM mass storage devices for storage. | 12-04-2008 |
20100039225 | SLIDE FLASH MEMORY DEVICES - A portable USB device with an improved configuration is described herein. According to one embodiment, a portable USB device includes a core unit having a USB plug connector coupled to one or more flash memory devices and a flash controller disposed therein, where the flash controller is capable of exchanging data with a host via the USB plug connector using a bulk-only-transfer protocol. The portable USB device further includes a housing for enclosing the core unit, including a front end opening to allow the USB plug connector to be deployed. The portable USB device further includes a core unit carrier for carrying the core unit for deploying and retracting the core unit, including a slide button to allow a finger of a user to slide the USB plug connector of the core unit in and out of the housing via the front end opening of the housing. | 02-18-2010 |
20110003514 | DUAL-PERSONALITY EXTENDED USB PLUGS AND RECEPTACLES USING WITH PCBA AND CABLE ASSEMBLY - An extended USB plug connector includes a connector substrate including a frontend having a first set of electrical contact pins disposed thereon and a backend having a second set of electrical contact pins disposed thereon. The first set includes a first row of electrical contact pins disposed on a top surface of the connector substrate and a second row of electrical contact pins disposed in parallel with the first row of electrical contact pins and interior to the first row of electrical contact pins, where the second row includes more electrical contact pins than the first row. The second set of electrical contact pins includes a number of electrical contact pins equal to the first row and second row of electrical contact pins in total. The second set of electrical contact pins are used to connect to corresponding electrical contact pads disposed on a printed circuit board assembly having a USB controller and flash memory devices disposed thereon. | 01-06-2011 |
20110300724 | EXTENDED USB PLUG, USB PCBA, AND USB FLASH DRIVE WITH DUAL-PERSONALITY FOR EMBEDDED APPLICATION WITH MOTHER BOARDS - An extended universal serial bus (USB) storage device is described herein. According to one embodiment, an extended USB storage device includes a printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) having a flash memory device and a flash controller mounted thereon, and an extended USB connector plug coupled to the PCBA for providing a USB compatible interface between an external device and the flash memory device and the flash controller, wherein the extended USB connector plug includes a first end used to couple to the external device and a second end coupled to the flash memory device and the flash controller. The extended USB connector plug includes multiple communication interfaces. Other methods and apparatuses are also described. | 12-08-2011 |
20120042120 | BACKWARD COMPATIBLE EXTENDED USB PLUG AND RECEPTACLE WITH DUAL PERSONALITY - An extended Universal-Serial-Bus (USB) connector plug and socket each have a pin substrate with one surface that supports the four metal contact pins for the standard USB interface. An extension of the pin substrate carries another 8 extension metal contact pins that mate when both the connector plug and socket are extended. The extension can be an increased length of the plug's and socket's pin substrate or a reverse side of the substrate. Standard USB connectors do not make contact with the extension metal contacts that are recessed, retracted by a mechanical switch, or on the extension of the socket's pin substrate that a standard USB connector cannot reach. Standard USB sockets do not make contact with the extension metal contacts because the extended connector's extension contacts are recessed, or on the extension of the connector pin substrate that does not fit inside a standard USB socket. | 02-16-2012 |
20120309231 | DUAL-PERSONALITY EXTENDED USB PLUGS AND RECEPTACLES USING WITH PCBA AND CABLE ASSEMBLY - A USB plug receptacle includes a connector substrate having a tongue portion having a first set of electrical contact pins disposed on a top surface of the tongue portion, a second set of a plurality of electrical pins disposed on a bottom surface of the tongue portion, a third set of electrical contact pins disposed on an opposite end of the tongue portion. The USB plug receptacle further includes a metal case made of a sheet of electrically conductive metal plate by blanking the sheet into a generally tubular shape to receive and enclose the connector substrate. When the connector substrate is inserted into the metal case, the third set of electrical contact pins are exposed outside of the metal case and the third set of electrical contact pins can be mounted on first and second sets of electrical contact pads of a printed circuit board assembly. | 12-06-2012 |