TWI236614B - USB drive capable of connecting in series - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a USB drive capable of connecting in series. The portable drive has an upstream port and a downstream port, so as to enable a serial connection for other portable drives or a multi-layer topology connection for downstream USB periphery apparatuses. The portable drive has a converting circuit. When the device inserted into the downstream port is another USB drive capable of connecting in series or a typical USB drive, the converting circuit executes a serial connection control function to make the memory devices of the two portable drives connect in series. When the device inserted into the downstream port is a typical USB peripheral device, the converting circuit changes its configuration into a USB hub and executes a hub operation, so that the memory device and the downstream USB peripheral apparatus can communicate with a computer host or other microprocessor devices respectively.

Description

1236614 / __ Case No. 92100838_year ... month — a_______________ V. Description of the invention (1) [Technical field to which the invention belongs] The present invention relates to a serial USB drive, especially a USB (Universal Serial Bus) ) Interface storage device, the mobile disk reserves at least one downstream port, which is conducive to the serial connection of other mobile disks or the multilayer topology connection of other downstream USB peripheral devices. [Prior technology] The internal function block of the conventional US B mobile drive (USB Drive) or flash drive is shown in Figure 4. Generally, a USB interface circuit 8 is used to connect the flash memory (F 1 ash M em〇ry ) 9 into. Among them, the data stored in the flash memory 9 can communicate with the USB bus of the host computer or other microprocessor devices through the USB interface circuit 8 to complete the data transmission operation. Because the early flash memory technology is not developed, its capacity cannot be made very large, making the capacity of early mobile disks quite limited. Today, large-scale files such as multimedia information are widely used. At present, the way to handle such large files is that users need to use backup software to store files on different USB drives or other recording media. Users must also pay attention to labeling The storage order of these USB drives or recording media, and then when reading files, they still need to be placed in and swapped to the reading device in accordance with their divided storage order. Obviously, this archiving method is not very efficient. Large files can be stored at once. The capacity of early mobile disks is insufficient, and you need to buy large-capacity mobile disks again. The old mobile disks are discarded, causing waste of memory resources. Therefore, the new generation of mobile disk technology needs to be considered. It can be used in series to expand the existing memory capacity to solve this embarrassing problem. On the other hand, the convenient use of USB has caused most computer cycles.

1236614 Case No. 02100838. Giant __ amendment ...... .. 5. Description of the invention (2) ^ The edge device became a member of the USB family by joining the USB interface agreement. However, at present, most standard computer hosts only reserve two USB sockets. If a user plugs in a USB socket with a conventional old USB mobile disk, there is only one USB socket left. If the user wants to further expand several USB interfaces Computer peripherals need to connect a multi-port USBHub to meet the demand for USB sockets. For users, it is more difficult to purchase new hardware. Therefore, ordinary users choose to plug in USB sockets alternately. These peripheral devices are used alternately, but the inconvenience of using alternate plugs is still disturbing. Therefore, the new generation of mobile disk technology also needs to consider scalability issues, such as retaining at least the number of USB sockets reserved by the original computer host to facilitate plugging in other downstream USB peripheral devices. [Summary of the Invention] The main purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a cascadable USB mobile disk with upstream and downstream ports, which is beneficial to the interactive serial connection of other mobile disks or the multilayer of downstream USB devices. Topology connection. The mobile disk has a conversion circuit inside. When the device plugged into the downstream port is another serial USB mobile disk or an old USB mobile disk, the conversion circuit performs a serial control function to make the two mobile disks memorize. The device is connected in series; when the inserter is a general USB device, the conversion circuit changes its configuration to a USBHub and executes the hub action, so that the USB mobile disk memory device and the downstream USB peripherals can be separately connected to the computer host or other microprocessing USB bus communication of the device.

The present invention reserves at least one downstream port on the U S B mobile disc and can be used in tandem with each other when having most of the present invention, so as to unlimitedly connect the downstream U S B mobile disc and expand the memory capacity; and any one. Cascadable U S B

Page 5 1236614 Case No. 92100838 Leap Year; Month Day Amendment ____ ~~ — ~~ ~~ '' 二-二 ―. 一 —:. 一 7 ..: 一 了] '~ V. Description of the Invention (3 The mobile disc can also be plugged in separately for use of its built-in memory capacity, making the application of the present invention extremely flexible. In the arrangement for expanding the memory capacity, when the conversion circuit in the present invention performs the concatenation function, all of the serially connected u S Β mobile disk memory is combined into a single virtual memory space, and can be based on the interior of the mobile disk storage device. Marked as sequential execution of reading or writing of data in most serially connected US Β mobile discs, users of the present invention can not worry about the insertion order of each mobile disc 'mainly as early as the interior of each disc. The Firware code can control the reading or writing sequence of data by itself. On the other hand, the conversion circuit of the present invention can also automatically switch the downstream port to the function USB socket of the USB hub, providing any downstream USB peripheral computer peripheral equipment that can be expanded by hot plugging. Therefore, the present invention is a practical and advanced design. In addition to the functions of unlimited connection and expansion of memory capacity, it can also combine the memory capacity of the old USB mobile disk, and at least retain the number of USB sockets reserved by the original computer host. It is believed that those who apply the present invention can also obtain these advantages. [Embodiment] Please refer to FIG. 1 for an example diagram of a cascadable USB mobile disk according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of its internal function, which mainly includes an upstream port 1 1, A downstream port 12 (its position can also be located on the side or other orientation), a conversion circuit 2, a USB interface circuit 3, and a flash memory 4. The upstream port 1 1 is used to connect an upstream USB device or a USB socket of a computer host to form a multi-layered star topology used by the USB system, and the downstream port 1 2 is used to connect other Downstream USB computer peripheral device or USB mobile disk or the serial connection of the present invention

1236614 Case No. 92100838 Amendment V. Description of the Invention (4) USB mobile disks, and a plurality of serially connectable USB mobile disks of the present invention can be serially connected to form a single virtual sum of the memory capacity of these USB mobile disks Memory space. The U S B interface circuit 3 is connected to the conversion circuit 2 and the flash memory 4 to facilitate the transmission of data by using the U S B P r0t 〇 c ο 1.

The conversion circuit 2 is connected to the upstream and downstream ports 1 1 and 12 and the USB interface circuit 3. The conversion circuit 2 switches its configuration according to which device the downstream port 12 is inserted into, and converts it into different functions. The specific judgment flow is shown in Figs. 3A and 3B. When the device plugged into the downstream port 12 is another serial USB mobile disk or other traditional USB mobile disk with compatible F 1 ash M em ry, the conversion circuit 2 performs a serial control function. And the firmware code inside the conversion circuit first distinguishes whether the flash memory newly inserted into the mobile disk has an internal mark. If there is no mark and the latter is a serializable USB mobile disk, it will be supplemented by one in the existing order The new mark gives a new flash memory in the mobile disk; if there is a mark, the order between the existing flash memory is distinguished, and then for the file storage between the mobile disk and the purchase of 5 serial USB drives The Weibo code inside the disc is based on this mark order, and controls the data storage order to form a large single virtual memory space, especially when a flash memory space is less than a large storage file such as multimedia information. , The conversion circuit divides the storage file into another serially connected flash memory physical storage space provided by the present invention or the old USB mobile disk, so the user can smoothly Complete the data storage, and if the file is divided into most of the cascadable USB mobile disks, the user does not need to worry about the order of each mobile disk or read the serial number of each mobile disk when reading. By reading 11_ 隐 ffii

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Page 7 1236614 / _ Case No. 92100838 / year ... month __ day amendment ______ 5. Description of the invention (5), when the device reads the aforementioned divided files, there is no need to-replace these action 'discs, especially when reading If the two inserters are both serial-connected USB removable disks when fetching files, and they are arbitrarily inserted differently from the original storage order, the order of the two inserted removable disks is distinguished by the flash memory marking order inside the removable disks. It is more important to judge the read order of the divided files, whether it is a single or a plurality of cascadable USB mobile disks of the present invention, it can retain at least the number of USB sockets reserved by the original computer host, so as to facilitate plugging in other Downstream USB computer peripherals. The downstream ports of the cascadable USB mobile disk according to the present invention can be designed in multiples, and each of the downstream ports can perform the above-mentioned serial cascadable USB mobile disk, or can be connected to other downstream USB computer peripherals Or a general USB flash drive. On the other hand, when the inserter is a general USB device, the conversion circuit 2 notifies the host computer of US st 〇st C ο ntr ο 1 1 er, changes its configuration to a USBHub to perform the hub action, and makes the flash Memory 4 and downstream USB peripherals can communicate with the USB bus of the host computer or other microprocessor devices respectively. The functions described above explain the convenience of the present invention in using the mobile disk. The downstream connection reserved by the mobile disk can be used in series with each other to expand the memory capacity. Therefore, most of this type of mobile disk can be formed by serial connection. Larger memory space; in the arrangement for expanding the memory capacity, when the conversion circuit 2 performs the serial control function, it can perform the reading and writing of data according to the internal marks of the flash memory 4 between the mobile discs. In order to form a virtual large-capacity hard disk, users can control the order or flow of data storage without having to worry about the insertion order of each mobile disk.

Page 8 1236614 Case No. 92100838 'Monthly Amendment V. Description of the Invention (6) It can be described as quite convenient outside the SB mobile disc and each mobile disc can also be based on the B HUB and peripheral equipment, so the connected USB line SB HUB comprehensive In terms of the above-mentioned memory media, it can be more abrupt and at least able to retain and then plug in other idle mobile disc products. This function can more easily detach the downstream port and use the function of the upper moving disc. In addition to breaking the existing solution of the original video game US, it can be used to make the 12 hot-swappable equivalents alone. It can still be said to be flexible enough to be connected to the Flash brain host B computer. It can be said to be able to continuously connect other traditional uses. The inserted device is designed to defecate and can be full at the end. It can be used in a wide range of ways. Memory ^ The reserved U peripheral devices have a large number of USB mobile disks that can be connected in series. In terms of this, the mobile device of the present invention automatically switches to the US for any USB computer continuous serial connection. Most of those who can be stringed provide automatic switching to U for flexible use. For this type of storage capacity, the memory capacity of the memory space is limited, and the number of SB sockets is also provided to effectively use the old practicality and progressive production.

Page 9 1236614 Case No. 92100838 Amendment Brief description of the drawing…:… [Simplified description of the drawing] Fig. 1 is an external view of the present invention. Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of the present invention. Figure 3 A is the flowchart used by the present invention (1) Figure 3 B is the flowchart used by the present invention (2) Figure 4 is the functional block diagram of the conventional USB mobile disk [illustration of the number] (usual part) USB Interface circuit 8 Connect to flash memory 9 (this creative part) Upstream port 1 1 Downstream port 1 2 Conversion circuit 2 USB interface circuit 3 Flash memory 4

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Claims (1)

1236614 Case No. 92100838 Μ 美 买 丨 Fen ^ !, Month Amendment 2 Patent Application Range ~ • A cascadable US has: an upstream port, USB interface, the upstream port, the USB socket of the host, the USB interface The converter circuit can automatically switch its circuit when inserting the downstream mobile disk or other US control functions, so that a single virtual expansion of two volumes is all the inserted U when the inserter A computer is notified to the host controller of a circuit to perform the hub function and its downstream port plug-in or other microprocessor. • According to the scope of the patented application (USB Drive), it can be plugged into this downstream port, which mainly converts electricity to B. Disk (USBD rive, at least one downstream port, circuit and memory device; it is used to connect the upstream USB device or computer 1 circuit, it is connected to the conversion circuit and the memory device transmission; it is connected to the upstream and downstream interfaces and the USB interface. What kind of device configuration the port inserter is converted into the functions described below; The port device is another When a USBB mobile disk is connected, the conversion circuit performs a serial connection of the storage devices of the mobile disk to form a storage space. The capacity of the virtual memory space is the sum of the storage capacity of the SB mobile disk. The USB of other microprocessor devices changes its configuration to a USB HUB, so that the memory device in the USB mobile disk can be communicated with the computer's main device when it is connected to the USB peripheral device. The serializable USB device described in item 1 The memory device is another USB mobile disk incorporated by F 1 ash M em ry and combined into a compatible IP Page 11 1236614 Case No. 92100838 Revised Black Year 24 Amendment 6 、 Scope of patent application ______ F 1 ash M em〇ry 〇3 of upstream equipment · According to the cascadable type described in item 1 of the scope of patent application USB Drive (USB Drive). This downstream port is used to connect other downstream USB computer peripherals. 4 · According to the cascadable USB drive (USB Drive) described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application, this downstream port is used to connect other USB mobile drives or cascadable USB drives. 5 · According to the cascadable USB drive (USB Drive) described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application, when the downstream port is plugged into another USB cascadable drive, the conversion circuit performs a serial control function. When the storage devices of two mobile disks are connected in series, when the conversion circuit performs the serial connection function, it is determined whether the newly inserted flash memory of the mobile disk has an internal mark according to its internal firmware code. In sequence, a new mark is added to the new flash memory; if there is a mark, the order between the existing flash memory is distinguished. For the storage between mobile disks, the firmware code in each disk is The reading or writing of data is performed in this mark order. 6 · According to the cascadable USB mobile drive (USBD rive) described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, each downstream port can be connected with at least one cascadable USB mobile drive (USB Dr i ve), and Used to connect other USB flash drives or downstream USB computer peripherals. 7 · According to the cascadable USB drive (USB Drive) described in item 5 of the scope of the patent application, the downstream port and the upstream port of another cascadable USB mobile disc are successively formed into a serial connection USB _ 1 iSPIII »i mm m II Page 12 1236614 // _Case No. 92100838 / _ Year: Month Day Amendment_ VI. Patent Application Scope Action Disk. 8 · According to the cascadable USB drive (USB Drive) described in item 5 of the scope of patent application, when a flash memory space is not enough for a storage file, the conversion circuit will divide the storage file into another serial file. The USB mobile disk connected to the downstream port has a flash memory physical storage space to store it. 9 · A serial USB drive (USB Drive), which mainly includes: an upstream port, at least one downstream port, a conversion circuit, a USB interface circuit and a memory device; the downstream port is used to connect Other downstream USB computer peripherals or other USB mobile disks or other serially connectable USB mobile disks (ie, the present invention); the USB interface circuit, which connects the conversion circuit and the memory device, and performs data transmission; the conversion circuit can According to the device inserted by the downstream port, the circuit configuration is switched to the function described below. When the device inserted in the downstream port is another USB mobile disk, the conversion circuit performs a serial control function. The memory devices of two mobile disks are connected in series to form a single virtual memory space with an enlarged capacity. The capacity of this virtual memory space is the total memory capacity of all inserted USB mobile disks. When the conversion circuit executes the connection function, The internal firmware code identifies whether the newly inserted flash memory has an internal tag, if there is no tag, the existing Recurrence sequence back to a new tag Page 13 1236614 Case No. 92100838 Amendment VI. The scope of patent application for new flash memory; if there is a mark, the order between the existing flash memory is distinguished, and then the storage between the mobile disks, The firmware code inside each disc is used to perform reading or writing of data in this marked sequence; when the inserter is a general USB computer peripheral device, the conversion circuit notifies the host computer or other microprocessor devices The USB Host Controller changes its configuration to a USB HUB to perform the hub function, so that the memory device in the USB mobile disk and the USB peripheral devices inserted into its downstream ports can communicate with the host computer or other microprocessor devices respectively. 1．According to the serializable USB drive (USB Drive) described in item 9 of the scope of the patent application, the upstream port is used to connect other serially connectable USB mobile drives or the USB socket of the computer host. 1 · According to the cascadeable USB flash drive (USBD rive) described in item 9 of the scope of patent application, its memory device is F 1 ash Memory and can be combined with another USB mobile disc inserted into the downstream port as F 1 ash M emory compatible with upstream equipment. 1 2 · According to the cascadable USB mobile disk (USBD rive) described in item 9 of the scope of patent application, when a flash memory space is insufficient for a storage file, the conversion circuit will divide the storage file to another phase. The USB flash drive serially connected to the downstream port has a flash memory physical storage space storage. 1 3 · According to the cascadable U S B line described in item 9 of the scope of patent application Page 14 1236614 _Case No. 92100838 .. Date of the year _____ 6. Scope of Patent Application For a USB drive, each downstream port can provide at least one serial USB drive for serial connection. Page 15