LSI Assigned Two Patents

Detecting syncMark in HDD

LSI Corp., Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,190,831) developed by Yuan Xing Lee, Santa Jose, CA, Fuminori Sai, Yukohama, Japan, and Shaohua Yang, San Jose, CA, for "methods and apparatus for detecting a syncMark in a hard disk drive."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Methods and apparatus are provided for detecting a syncMark in a read channel, such as a hard disk drive. A syncMark is detected in a sector in an iterative read channel by obtaining a sector signal from a storage media, the sector signal comprising a first syncMark, data and a second syncMark substantially at an end of the sector; determining whether the first syncMark is detected in the sector signal; searching for the second syncMark if the first syncMark is not detected in the sector signal; and detecting and decoding the sector signal based on a detection of the second syncMark. The second syncMark may be positioned, for example, following data in the sector signal. The second syncMark can be searched for in a window within the signal sector that is based on an estimated location of the first syncMark."

The patent application was filed on Oct. 31, 2008 (12/262,550).

Write Performance Monitor in Storage Device

LSI, Milpitas, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,194,339) developed by Ross Wilson, Menlo Park, CA, for a "write performance monitor in a storage device."

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "An apparatus comprising a write circuit, a processing circuit and a monitor circuit. The write circuit may be configured to generate one or more write control signals in response to an input signal. The processing circuit may be configured to generate an intermediate control signal in response to

• the input signal,
• a reference clock signal and
• one or more user input signals.

The monitor circuit may be configured to generate a sample signal in response to

• the write control signals and
• the intermediate signal.

The sample signal may represent a waveshape of the write control signals used to monitor writing to a data storage system."

The patent application was filed on July 29, 2010 (12/846,271).