JP3858747B2 - PC card adapter - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technology of a PC card adapter conforming to PC Card Standard. Specifically, for inserting a small card having an interface that does not conform to PC Card Standard PC Card ATA standard, and converting it to a PC card conforming to PC Card ATA standard so that the host computer can select an appropriate driver. It is.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, PC cards are used in personal computers, digital cameras, PDAs, handy terminals, and the like. In digital cameras, small cards such as smart media cards that do not conform to the PC card ATA standard interface are often used to store image data, and the host computer can read and write image data stored on the small card. PC card adapters are also often used.
[0003]
The conventional PC card adapter uses the PC card ATA standard as an interface of the PC card. When the PC card adapter is connected to the host computer, CIS (Card Information Structure) information described in the PC Card Standard is read from the PC card adapter, and the host computer selects a driver based on the information and operates the PC card adapter. That is, the CIS information of the PC card adapter is important information used by the host computer to select a driver. In the case of a conventional PC card adapter, regardless of the small card to be inserted, there is a case where the PC card adapter has fixed CIS information, and there is CIS information for the PC card adapter in a small card such as a smart media card. Yes, there are two cases where the CIS information is taken in and held in the PC card adapter.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the conventional PC card adapter, there is no CIS information for the PC card adapter in the small card, and even when a completely new type of small card is inserted, the fixed CIS information in the PC card adapter is used. For this reason, the driver selected by the host computer is also selected from the conventional small card driver, and the new type of small card and the PC card adapter cannot be normally operated.
[0005]
Even if the host computer setting is changed to select a driver that supports a new type of small card, the driver for a new small card is selected when a conventional small card is inserted. However, each time the user changes the small card, the driver has to be changed to a compatible driver, which is very inconvenient and inconvenient.
[0006]
Further, as a method for storing the unique information of the small card in the PC card adapter, when the unique information of the small card is directly stored in the PC card adapter, there is a problem that the RAM area increases and the manufacturing cost increases.
[0007]
The present invention solves such a conventional problem, and allows a small card driver inserted into a PC card adapter to be properly selected and operated normally, and also reduces the manufacturing cost. The object is to provide a card adapter.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, a PC card adapter according to claim 1 of the present invention is a PC card adapter for connecting a detachable small card to a PC card ATA standard interface of a host computer, and a connection for connecting the small card. Means 1, connection means 2 for connecting to the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer, means for reading the unique information stored in the small card, and the data of the data to the host computer through the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer a PC card ATA standard interface control unit for transferring, to a CIS (card information Structure) information as PC card adapter, row error correction or error detection in the interior of the PC card adapter Incorporated by using an arithmetic circuit to reduce the data size of the unique information of the small card, creating a new CIS information, those having a structure having a function of the CIS information can host computer reads .
[0009]
In addition, the PC card adapter according to claim 2 of the present invention is configured to be incorporated in a space where a CIS information storage area as a PC card adapter is vacant, with the data size of the unique information of the small card reduced. I have it.
[0010]
With the above configuration, the PC card adapter according to claim 1 of the present invention changes the CIS information of the PC card adapter depending on the type of the small card, so that the host computer can read the difference in the CIS information and select an appropriate driver. It becomes like this. In addition, the driver for operating the small card via the PC card adapter is not selected correctly, and the driver cannot be operated normally, or the driver is set to be adapted whenever the user changes the type of the small card. You can solve the problem that you have to change.
[0011]
Since the PC card adapter according to claim 2 of the present invention can be stored small in the PC card adapter even when the size of the unique information of the small card is large, a large RAM area is not required and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. Is preferred.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0013]
Example 1
FIG. 1 shows a PC card adapter according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the PC card adapter is mainly composed of 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 parts. 11 is a connector for an ATA standard interface for connecting to the host computer, 13 is a connector for connecting the PC card adapter and the small card, 12 is a guide for smoothly connecting the PC card adapter and the small card, and 15 is A ROM area in the controller IC 10 for storing basic data for CIS information of the PC card adapter, and a RAM area 16 in the controller IC 10 for storing unique information read from a small card. A controller IC 10 controls the small card connected to the connector 13, the host computer connected to the connector 11, and the ATA standard interface. Further, the controller IC 10 has a function capable of generating CIS information from the data in the ROM area 15 and the RAM area 16 and responding to a CIS information read request from the host computer. Reference numeral 14 denotes a peripheral circuit component for operating the controller IC.
[0014]
FIG. 2 shows a small card A in the first embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 21 denotes a unique information area of the small card A, which includes CIS information itself for the PC card adapter and card-specific information such as memory capacity. Reference numeral 22 denotes a memory area for realizing other functions of the small card A. A typical example of the small card A is a smart media card.
[0015]
FIG. 3 shows a small card B in the first embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 31 denotes a unique information area of the small card B, which contains information unique to the card such as a memory capacity, but is not CIS information for the PC card adapter itself. Reference numeral 32 denotes a memory area for realizing other functions of the small card B. A typical example of the small card B is an SD card, MultiMediaCard.
[0016]
The difference between the small cards A and B in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 is a great difference in whether or not CIS information for the PC card adapter is included.
[0017]
FIG. 4 shows the PC card adapter in a state before the small card is inserted.
[0018]
FIG. 5 shows the PC card adapter with the small card inserted.
[0019]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the PC card adapter of the present invention.
[0020]
In this embodiment, when a small card A represented by a smart media card is inserted into a PC card adapter, the CIS information in the small card A may be held in the PC card adapter and transmitted to the host computer. Although there is no problem, since the small card B represented by the SD card does not include the CIS information for the PC card adapter, it applies to the problem to be solved by the invention. Therefore, the operation of the PC card adapter of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIG.
[0021]
The steps when the small card B is inserted into the PC card adapter of the present invention and connected to the host computer for the first time will be described. In step S1, the small card B is inserted into the PC card adapter of the present invention. After insertion, the configuration shown in FIG. 5 is obtained. In step S2, the PC card adapter of the present invention is inserted into a host computer having an ATA standard interface.
[0022]
Next, in step S3, the PC card adapter of the present invention reads the unique information of the small card B and stores it in the RAM area in the PC card adapter.
[0023]
Next, in step S4, there is a request for reading CIS information from the host computer to the PC card adapter of the present invention.
[0024]
Next, in step S5, as a response to S4, new CIS information is created by combining the CIS information originally provided in the PC card adapter of the present invention and the information of the small card stored in the RAM area, to the host computer. Pass that data. However, when combining the information of the small card stored in the RAM area, the data of 00h and FFh is changed to data other than 00h and FFh to obtain new CIS information.
[0025]
In step S6, the host computer interprets the CIS information read from the PC card adapter of the present invention, and confirms whether the PC card adapter is inserted for the first time.
[0026]
Next, step S7 in the case of handling as a PC card adapter inserted for the first time will be described. In step S7, since the PC card adapter of the present invention is first connected to the host computer, the host computer requests the user to install an appropriate driver. However, this installation may be omitted if the user has installed an appropriate driver in advance.
[0027]
Next, in step S8, the host computer can operate the PC card adapter normally using the driver selected by the user in step S7. Further, the host computer manages that the driver selected in step S7 is automatically selected when a PC card adapter having the same CIS information is inserted from the next time.
[0028]
Next, steps when the small card B is inserted into the PC card adapter of the present invention and connected to the host computer before will be described.
[0029]
Steps S1 to S5 are the same, but in step S6 in which the PC card adapter is inserted for the first time after interpreting the CIS information, it is determined that the PC card adapter is not the first time, and thus the process proceeds to step S9.
[0030]
In step S9, the host computer can operate the PC card adapter normally using the driver previously selected in step S7.
[0031]
Next, steps when a different type from the small card B, that is, a small card B ′ having different unique information is inserted into the PC card adapter of the present invention and connected to the host computer for the first time will be described. In the case of the PC card adapter of the present invention, the process proceeds to step S4 in the same manner as when the small card B is inserted, but CIS information different from the case where the small card B is inserted into the PC card adapter is passed to the host computer in step S5. It is. Therefore, the process can proceed to step S7, and the user can install an appropriate driver.
[0032]
Thereafter, if the small card B ′ is inserted and connected to the same host computer, the process proceeds to step S9, and the driver selected for the small card B ′ in step S7 is used. Can be operated.
[0033]
As described above, the PC card adapter of the present invention can solve the problem that the driver for a conventional small card is selected when a new type of small card is inserted and cannot be operated normally. The inconvenience that the user has to change to a driver adapted each time the small card is changed can also be solved, and the small card can be operated normally through the PC card adapter with good usability.
[0034]
(Example 2)
Next, a description will be given of a method in which the PC card adapter in step S3 reads small card specific information and stores it in the RAM area.
[0035]
In step S3, the unique information of the small card is read and then stored in the RAM area. At this time, the PC card adapter of the present invention uses the arithmetic circuit already inside to store the unique information of the small card in several bytes. It is secured in the RAM area in a state converted to. As an arithmetic circuit in the PC card adapter, an error detection circuit used when transferring data between the PC card adapter and the small card or between the PC card adapter and the host computer, for example, a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) 16 described in SD Card Specification An arithmetic circuit (see FIG. 7), an ECC (Error Correction Circuit) circuit described in SmartMedia Specification, or the like.
[0036]
Specifically, the CIS information converted into several bytes using the CRC 16 and held by the PC card adapter will be described below.
[0037]
In step S3, the PC card adapter of the present invention reads the unique information of the small card B. When the read data is calculated by the CRC 16 shown in FIG. 7, 2-byte data is obtained and stored in the RAM area. However, when the obtained data includes 00h and FFh, different values are used.
[0038]
The data stored in the RAM area is assumed to be data of addresses CEh and D0h of CIS information originally provided in the PC card adapter described in FIGS. 8, 9, 10 and 11.
[0039]
By doing so, the information for identifying this card can be remarkably compressed to several bytes (2 bytes in this embodiment) from the unique information of a small card consisting of several kilobytes to several tens of kilobytes. This information can be stored in an empty area of the CIS information storage area originally provided in the PC card adapter. That is, it is not necessary to secure a RAM area for storing the unique information of the small card in the PC card adapter, and those already provided with an arithmetic circuit for obtaining the identification information can be used as they are. There is no need to add any new hardware in the implementation, and therefore, the manufacturing cost is not increased.
[0040]
The synthesized CIS information conforms to the PC Card Standard standard, and can be used as a PC card adapter without any problem without deviating from the standard.
[0041]
In the present embodiment, the base CIS information is the one shown in FIG. 8, but this is merely an example, and there is no meaning in strictly defining the data therein.
[0042]
Furthermore, in this embodiment, the data stored in the RAM area is 2 bytes. However, the data to be stored and the capacity thereof are changed by using other arithmetic methods or a part of the small card specific information as it is. It goes without saying that it is also good.
[0043]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the PC card adapter according to the first aspect of the present invention is a method for connecting a detachable small card to the PC card ATA standard interface of a host computer, and the connection means 1 for connecting the small card to the PC card ATA standard interface. ,
Connection means 2 for connecting to the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer;
Means for reading the unique information stored in the small card;
PC card ATA standard interface control means for transferring data to the host computer through the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer,
A function of creating new CIS information by combining CIS (Card Information Structure) information as a PC card adapter with unique information of the small card, and holding the CIS information so that the host computer can read it. Since the CIS information of the PC card adapter changes depending on the type of the small card, the host computer can read the difference of the CIS information and select an appropriate driver. In addition, the driver for operating the conventional small card is selected through the PC card adapter, and the problem that the new small card cannot be normally operated or the user changes the type of the small card. This solves the problem that the setting must be changed to a driver adapted to the.
[0044]
Further, the PC card adapter according to claim 2 of the present invention uses the arithmetic circuit used when the PC card adapter communicates with a host computer and the small card as a method of creating the CIS information according to claim 1. The data size of the card specific information is reduced and incorporated into the CIS information originally provided in the PC card adapter to create new CIS information, and this CIS information is held so that the host computer can read it. By providing the function, even when the size of the unique information of the small card is large, the CIS information in the PC card adapter can be stored small, so that a large RAM area is not required and the manufacturing cost can be reduced. Have.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a main part configuration of a PC card adapter. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a small card A having CIS information for the PC card adapter. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a small card B having no CIS information for the PC card adapter. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a PC card adapter in a state before a small card is inserted. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a PC card adapter in a state where a small card is inserted. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation at the time of insertion. 7 is a diagram showing a CRC16 calculation formula. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing CIS information. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing CIS information. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing CIS information. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing CIS information.
10 Controller IC
11 Connector for ATA standard interface 12 Guide for smooth connection between PC card adapter and small card 13 Connector for connecting PC card adapter and small card 14 Peripheral circuit component 15 Stores basic data of CIS information ROM area 16 RAM area 21 for storing unique information read from a small card Unique information area 22 for small card A Memory area 31 for realizing other functions of small card A Unique information area 32 for small card B Small card B Memory area that realizes other functions of

Claims (2)

A PC card adapter for connecting a detachable small card to a PC card ATA standard interface of a host computer,
Connection means 1 for connecting the small card;
Connection means 2 for connecting to the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer;
Means for reading the unique information stored in the small card;
PC card ATA standard interface control means for transferring data to the host computer through the PC card ATA standard interface of the host computer,
The CIS (Card Information Structure) information as the PC card adapter is incorporated into the new CIS by reducing the data size of the unique information of the small card using an arithmetic circuit that performs error correction or error detection inside the PC card adapter. A PC card adapter having a function of creating information and holding the CIS information so that the host computer can read it. 2. The PC card adapter according to claim 1, wherein a data size of the unique information of the small card is reduced and incorporated in a place where a storage area for CIS information as the PC card adapter is vacant .

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