Electrical connectors – With guiding means for mating of coupling part – For guiding side of movable panel – e.g. – circuit board
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-12
2003-07-29
Bradley, P. Austin (Department: 2833)
Electrical connectors
With guiding means for mating of coupling part
For guiding side of movable panel, e.g., circuit board
C439S946000, C439S076100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06599147
ABSTRACT:
FIELD
The invention is related to removable expansion modules or cards for computer hosts, such modules having particular application to portable computing hosts such as handheld computing devices.
BACKGROUND
The broad use of portable host computers, including laptops, notebooks, palmtops, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and handheld computers (handhelds), has been severely hampered by limited capabilities for expansion or customization. Expansion and application customization has been performed via only one, or at most two, slots for removable expansion modules for I/O, I/O adapters, memories, and memory adapters.
Memory expansion cards have included DRAM, SRAM, ROM, and Flash technologies. I/O expansion modules have included dedicated peripherals, networking, modems, wireless communications, serial I/O, and bar-code and other scanners.
Having only one slot meant choosing between memory or peripheral expansion. In two-slot implementations, one of the slots is generally used for peripheral expansion, and the other for memory expansion. As market forces and consumer demand are pushing future PDAs to be ever smaller, allocating packaging volume for two-slots will be increasingly viewed as a costly and nonviable solution.
If not further qualified, a general reference in this specification and the attached claims to the terms “expansion module” or “expansion card,” and possibly prefaced by “removable,” should be construed as a general reference to a class of generally enclosed compact expansion devices that provide fast, reliable, and robust repeated field insertion, removal, handling, and storage, ideally suited for closed-case, user-serviceable, plug-in expansion of portable and handheld computing devices. If not further qualified, a general reference in this specification and the attached claims to the term “slot,” should be construed as a reference to the physical and electrical means by which a portable computing device receives a removable expansion module of the class just defined. A reference in this specification and the attached claims to the terms “closed-case,” or “sealed-case,” serves to indicate that insertion and removal of an expansion device does not involve significant reconfiguration or removal of the external casing of the computing device. Closed-case is not meant to foreclose the possible user removal of a protective access panel or the user opening of a hinged access door. Nor is it meant to foreclose that the casing may need to be removed for more significant events best performed by a qualified service person.
Memory and Expansion Module Standards
Two of the most popular industry standards for the slots and removable cards are the PC Card and the CompactFlash Card. The PC Card has a 16-bit variant, previously known as a PCMCIA card, and a newer 32-bit variant, also known as a Card-Bus card. PC Cards include Type I, Type II, and Type III devices. If not further qualified, a general reference to PC Cards in this specification and the attached claims should be construed to refer to any of the Card-Bus (32-bit), PCMCIA (16-bit), Type I, Type II, or Type III PC Card variants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,426 ('426), ADAPTER FOR INTERFACING AN INSERTABLE/REMOVABLE DIGITAL MEMORY APPARATUS TO A HOST DATA PART, assigned to Nexcom Technology, and hereby incorporated by reference, describes these and other removable expansion card and memory types suitable for PDAs. In addition to the PC Card and CompactFlash Card formats, the '426 patent includes discussions of and references to Miniature Cards, Sold State Floppy Disk Cards (SSFDCs), MultiMediaCards (MMC), Integrated Circuit (IC) Cards (also known as Smart Cards), and Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) Cards.
CompactFlash Standards
FIGS. 1
,
2
, and
3
are different views of a prior art Type II CompactFlash Card. The physical, electrical, and software interface architecture of CompactFlash Cards (CF+ Cards and CF Cards) is taught in the CompactFlash Specification Revision 1.3, Copyright 1998, and the CF+ and CompactFlash Specification Revision 1.4, Copyright 1999, both by the CompactFlash Association (CFA), P.O. Box 51537, Palo Alto, Calif. 94303, and both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIGS. 1
,
2
,
3
, part of
10
, and part of
11
are reproduced or derived from the CompactFlash Specification Revision 1.3 document. Strictly speaking, CompactFlash nomenclature uses CF to denote cards that are primarily limited to flash data storage, and uses CF+ to denote cards that may have any or all off flash data storage, I/O devices, and magnetic disk data storage. CF and CF+ cards presently include Type I (3.3 mm thick) and Type II (5 mm thick) devices. Both Type I and Type II CF cards are 36.4 mm long by 42.8 mm wide, or roughly “matchbook-sized.” A Type III device is being defined as discussed in a later section herein. If not further qualified, a general reference to CompactFlash (or CF) in this specification and the attached claims should be construed to refer to any of the CF, CF+, Type I, Type II, or Type III CompactFlash variants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,145 ('145), REMOVABLE MOTHER/DAUGHTER PERIPHERAL CARD, assigned to SanDisk Corporation, and hereby incorporated by reference, describes the required features of host systems for CompactFlash Cards, including controllers required by CompactFlash memory cards (CF cards) and comprehensive controllers required by CompactFlash memory and I/O cards (CF+ cards).
MultiMediaCard
FIGS. 4 and 5
represent a prior art MultiMediaCard form factor and its pad definitions.
FIGS. 6 and 7
represent the prior art internal architecture of a generic MultiMediaCard and its registers.
FIG. 8
illustrates the prior art functional partitioning of a generic MultiMediaCard system.
FIG. 9
illustrates the prior art physical partitioning of a generic MultiMediaCard system.
The MMC and MMC related system issues are taught in the MultimediaCard System Summary Version 2.0, Copyright January 1999, by the MultiMediaCard Association, 19672 Stevens Creek Blvd., #404, Cupertino, Calif. 95014-2465, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
FIGS. 4
,
5
,
6
,
7
,
8
,
9
, and part of
10
are reproduced or derived from the MultimediaCard System Summary document.
FIGS. 10 and 11
are different views comparing the form factors of the prior art CompactFlash Card (top) and MultiMediaCard (bottom). In each of
10
and
11
, the CompactFlash Card and the MultiMediaCard are both roughly to equal scale.
Adapters for Removable Memories
Adapters exist or have been prophetically disclosed for physically and electrically coupling a removable memory on a slide, or stick, to a portable host via a removable expansion card of either the PCMCIA Card or CompactFlash Card form factors. The previously mentioned '426 patent describes such removable memory adapters. The focus of these existing memory adapters has been limited to merely providing an interface adapter, or bridge, between a first interface type (the host to removable-expansion-card interface) and a second interface type (the removable memory stick).
PC Card Mother and CompactFlash Card Daughter Combinations
Adapters exist or have been prophetically disclosed that comprise a special mother PC Card designed to accept one or more daughter CompactFlash Cards of one or more types. The previously '145 patent describes such CompactFlash adapters. The focus of these existing mother/daughter combinations has also been limited. First, the daughters have been used for memory expansion for the host platform, primarily in the form of flash-memory-based mass-storage-like devices. In this first approach, the mother card provides the requisite mass-storage controller functionality. Second, the daughters have been used for dedicated peripheral, I/O, or communication functions. In this second approach, the mother card has a so-called comprehensive controller that augments the mass-storage controller functionality with functions commonly required or useful to multiple daughter cards. Third, in a va
Gifford Michael L.
Mills Kevin J.
Bradley P. Austin
Dyke Korbin Van
León Edwin A.
PatentVentures
Smith Bennett
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