RISC Processor-Based Disk Manager Architecture for HDD Controller

Broadcom Corp., Irvine, CA., has been assigned a patent (8,144,413) developed by John P. Mead, Longmont, CO, for a RISC processor-based disk manager architecture for HDD controllers.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor based disk manager architecture for HDD (Hard Disk Drive) controllers. Disk manager operations of a HDD are off-loaded from a main processor to a dedicated RISC processor. The main processor is operable to provide higher level instructions to the RISC processor, and the RISC processor is operable to translate those higher level instructions into bit level instructions that are subsequently provided to one or more control engines that is then operable to execute those bit level instructions to perform one or more channel interfacing protocol control functions that can include any one or more of low level timing for servo demodulation, timing for data formatting operations, media control operations, transfer control operations, and/or other disk manager related functions."

The patent application was filed on Aug. 17, 2007 (11/840,577).