Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Hierarchical memories
Patent
1995-03-20
1998-09-01
Sheikh, Ayaz R.
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Hierarchical memories
395281, 395309, 395308, 395847, 711115, 235492, H01J 1300
Patent
active
058023259
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Removable mass memory cards for microcomputers (or personal computers or PCs) have appeared recently as accessories for personal computers, especially for portable computers. They could in the future replace diskettes and other magnetic type mass storage means.
They could be used as mass memories with a capacity as great as that of magnetic diskettes (in the range of one million bytes). Their space requirement is no longer great (they have a credit card format, with a thickness of 3 to 5 millimeters). Access to these cards is much faster (several thousands of times faster).
They can even be used as program random-access memories that can be carried out directly by the personal computer. In this case, unlike in magnetic mass memories, they do not have to be loaded into the random-access memory (RAM) of the PC in order to be performed thereafter. The programs that they contain can be carried out directly by the personal computer.
Mass memory cards, sometimes called PC cards, have several memory chips and a connector (a 68-pin female connector according to the PCMCIA standard of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, 1030B East Duane Avenue, Sunnyvale, Calif.). The card can be plugged into a corresponding (male) connector of the computer. The connections are such that. the memory can be addressed by a parallel input/output port of the PC, either as if the memory were a magnetic mass memory or as if it were an extension of the random-access memory of the computer.
There furthermore exists cards for personal computers that have functions of communication between the computer and the exterior and that have not only a connector designed to provide for the link with the personal computer but also connection means towards the exterior. These cards are called "input/output function cards" or I/O function cards. The typical example of a communications function is the modem which is connected by a first connector to the computer and by a second connector to a telephone line for the sending of digital data on the line. Another example of a card with a communication function would be a card for a local area network where communication with the exterior is provided not by a connector with physical contacts but by RF transmission in a local environment.
Existing communications cards generally use the RS232C output of the computers, which delivers digital data in serial form that is well suited to communications by modem or by radio; or again the communications cards are directly mounted inside the computer and do not take the form of plug-in cards.
For portable computers especially, and more generally whenever it is sought to save space, it is preferable for the peripheral elements to be mounted in such a way that they can be plugged in and used only when they are needed.
Reference could be made, besides, to the documents EP 0 275 510 and WO 90/13096 in which microprocessor-based cards are used for credit cards, as well as to the document EP 0 383 518 in which a microprocessor-based card enables the loading of a program into an internal memory, this loading being done by means of the microprocessor of the card and a loading program placed in its ROM.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the invention, it is thought that the memory extension connector, which is present on many computers, especially on portable computers, could be used to plug in cards having any communications function, without there appearing any problem of communications protocol through the use of this connector although the connector is not normally designed for this purpose since it is normally designed to constitute a memory extension of the computer.
For this purpose, it is proposed that the card designed to be plugged into a computer should comprise: performed by the microcomputer, including programs for the transfer of data between the card and the exterior, and format data relating to the organizational structure of the memory files of the card; address bus (AD2), data bus (BD2) and control s
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Gemplus Card International
Phan Raymond N.
Sheikh Ayaz R.
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