United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,666,495 Yeh 45 Date of Patent: Sep
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USOO5666495A United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,666,495 Yeh 45 Date of Patent: Sep. 9, 1997 54 METHOD AND STRUCTURE FOR DATA 5,224.216 6/1993 Gordon et al.................... 395/200.01 TRANSFER BETWEEN A STANDARD PORT 5,227,953 7/1993 Lindberg et al. ... ... 361/393 OFA HOST COMPUTER AND A CUSTOM 5,265,238 11/1993 Canova, Jr. et al. ... 395/500 PORT OF A PALMTOP COMPUTER USENGA 5,301,334 4/1994 Horiuchi .............. ... 395/750 DOCKING STATION 5,313,596 5/1994 Swindler et al. ... 395/281 5,317,691 5/1994 Traeger ............ ... 364,550 5,323,291 6/1994 Boyle et al. ... 351/683 76) Inventor: Keming W. Yeh, 43765 Abeloe Ter, 5,347,425 9/1994. Herron et al. .......................... 36A683 Fremont, Calif. 94539 5,497,464 3/1996 Yeh .................................... 395/2OOO1 21 Appl. No.: 602,405 Primary Examiner-Lance Leonard Barry, Esq. 22 Filed: Feb. 16, 1996 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Skjerven, Morrill, MacPherson, Franklin & Friel; Edward C. Kwok Related U.S. Application Data 57 ABSTRACT 60 Division of Ser. No. 975,375, Nov. 13, 1992, Pat No. A portable information storage and transfer device for use 5,528,758, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 786, with IC memory card-based portable computers obviates 483, Nov. 1, 1991, abandoned. many operations traditionally requiring a desktop computer. I51] Int. Cl. .................. G06F 3/00; G06F 13/00 The floppy disk drive in the information storage and transfer 52 U.S. Cl. .......................... 395/281; 395/500; 395/882; device allows large amount of data and software programs 395/892: 364/DIG. 1; 364/229; 364/229.4; to be made available to the IC memory card-based computer 364/231.1; 364/231.2 on floppy disks. The contents of such floppy disk can then 58 Field of Search .................... 364/708.1; 395/200.01, be transferred for use in the portable computer on a blankIC 395/200.03, 200.08, 200.12, 200.14, 200.2, memory card or the portable computer's system memory. 281, 500, 831, 882, 885, 890, 892, 800; Information entered into and stored in the systemmemory or 361/683, 684, 685, 686 an IC memory card of the portable computer can also be transferred through the information storage and transfer 56 References Cited device to floppy disks, to a printer, to various peripheral devices or to a host computer. A built-in modem for access U.S. P. DOCUMENTS ing facsimile machines, other modems and the telephone 4,377,852 3/1983 Thompson .............................. 395/500 system is also provided. Many types of software programs 4,654,818 3/1987 Wetterau, Jr. 395/500 required to enable these functions of information storage, 4,769,764 9/1988 Levanon..... 364708 transfer, printout and communication can all be stored E. 19. Pos et al. a 3.: locally rather than on relatively expensive IC memory cards, 4,903,222swe-Y 2/1990 Carteray etessees al. sesses ............................ - - 364/708 R into the informations storage and transfer device on 4,982,324 1/1991 McConaughy et al. 395/200.09 5,126,954 6/1992 Morita ..................................... 364/708 5,157,769 10/1992 Eppley et al. .......................... 395/200 16 Claims, 3 Drawing Sheets -------------6 -5 : DRAM FLASH MEMORY ROM 8 8 -18 1?t CPU (MICROPROCESSOR) 4. 19 18 18 INPUTIOUTPUT (IO) 13 CONTROLLER u , - - - -- a H re- rew were r rr wr- a ---------- r : 8 8 18 18 PALMTOPTO OTHERPORTS MAGNET RS232C SERIAPORT PARALLELPORT COMPUTR CARD ROR 6 5 4 U. ---------------------- - - - -ans area - (12 -- U.S. Patent Sep. 9, 1997 Sheet 1 of 3 5,666,495 arly 8 FIG. 1 U.S. Patent Sep. 9, 1997 Sheet 2 of 3 5,666,495 MICROPROCESSOR- FLOPPY DISK CONTROLLED DRIVE (FDD) ELECTRONICS 1.8", 2.5", 3.5" CIRCUIT BOARD OR 5.25", etc. POWER SUPPLY (AC or DC) -----,---------------- is DRAM FLASH MEMORY ROM 18 18 8 | 11 CPU (MICROPROCESSOR) 4. 19 -18 18 | A INPUTIOUTPUT (I/O) MODEM CONTROLLER 13 TTT 18 18 18 18 18 18 | | TO OTHER TO RS232 SERIAL PARALLEL PALMTOP PORTS MAGNETIC C PORT PORT COMPUTR CARD ROR 8 6 5 4. - 9anom - up- -as em as an emo rum t- 7 mm man arm as as -o an amus m an us - us (12 -- U.S. Patent Sep. 9, 1997 sheet 3 of 3 5,666,495 w 404 403 FIG. 4 5,666.495 1. 2 METHOD AND STRUCTURE FOR DATA cards require long lead times to produce and require sub TRANSFER BETWEEN A STANDARD PORT stantial volume to be economical. Since there is seldom OFA HOST COMPUTER AND A CUSTOM guarantee that a given software will sell “well" in volume, . PORT OF A PALMTOP COMPUTER USINGA a software manufacturer assumes significant inventory risk DOCKING STATION when adopting a ROM card distribution strategy. Because portable computers are often issued by corpora CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED tions to field personnel to provide “at their fingertips" easy APPLICATIONS access to a large amount of essential information, e.g. The present application is a divisional application of U.S. product and customer information, there is a need to effi patent application ("Parent Application”), Ser. No. 07/975, ciently distribute and update such information. Currently, 375, filed Nov. 13, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,758, such update or distribution to a portable computer user is issued on Jun. 18, 1996, which is a continuation-in-part performed by issuing a new IC memory card with the application of U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 07/786,483, information already loaded, or by downloading the data or filed on Nov. 1, 1991, now abandoned. The present appli software using a modem. A special modem attachment to a 15 hand-held computer capable of communicating with a fac cation is also related to U.S. patent application ("Related simile machine, or accessing E-mail or local area networks Application"), Ser. No. 08/009,364, filed Jan. 26, 1993, now requires the use of customized software provided on an IC U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,859, issued on Nov. 12, 1996. memory card. Such modem attachment is expensive relative FIELD OF INVENTION to the cost of the hand-held computer, so that many appli 20 cations of the hand-held computer requiring the use of a This invention relates to the field of portable and hand modem are rendered uneconomical. As can be readily appre held computers and particularly to an information storage ciated from the above, the use of IC memory cards for and transfer device for use with integrated circuit memory distribution and update purposes is limited both by the cost card-based hand-held and portable computers. and the relatively modest capacity of the IC memory card. 25 Since data transfer using a modem or an IC memory card BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION limits the amount of data that can be transferred at a time, Many portable computers, especially hand-held or "palm the problem of data distribution is by no means solved by the top” computers, use integrated circuit memory cards (“IC use of modems or the use of IC memory cards. Further, memory cards”) as the primary media of information stor because prospective users of these portable computers are age. Such IC memory card include memory storage ele 30 found in a variety of services, e.g. insurance or property ments such as static random access memory (SRAM) or sales, service calls, courier service, field engineering, such electrical programmable and erasable non-volatile surveyors, medical calls, accident or property assessors, etc., memory elements as "flash” memory. These IC memory the use of IC memory cards as the primary storage media in cards are typically each the size of a customary credit card. these portable computers is indeed severely limiting the memory cards are used in portable computers in place of 35 wide spread acceptability in these industries. hard disk drives and floppy disk drives (HDDs, FDDs) in Another disadvantage often found in hand-held comput order to achieve the significant advantages of the size, ers using the IC memory card as the primary storage medium weight, and battery lifetime attributes of the portable com results from the portable computer's inability to provide a puter and to increase portability of the storage media. variety of system services related to the use of a computer, However, because of the limited memory density attainable 40 e.g. connecting to a hard copy device, or transferring impor in each IC memory card, and the high cost of IC memory tant data to a backup facility to prevent loss of data. This is chips, using IC memory cards in hand-held computers because, as explained above, standardized interfaces to imposes limitations not encountered in less portable peripheral equipment are typically larger and require gen computers, which typically use more power-consuming and erating voltage levels impractical in a hand-held computer, heavier hard and floppy disk drives as their primary storage 45 due to their size, weight and power conservation require media. Also, in order to avoid the sizes and weights of the ments. Thus, each interface to a peripheral device is through necessary power supply unit and the interface adaptor, a separate adapter which provides both the standard size hand-held computers are typically not equipped with the connector and the necessary voltage level and signal repre standardized interfaces (e.g. RS232C) found on larger desk sentation conversions. At present, a number of these adapt top and laptop computers. This is because standardized ers are required to provide the various interfaces to common interfaces are larger than can be conveniently provided on peripheral devices.