Method of recording in a disk memory and disk memory system

Claim 1

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from disk units (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, a number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, said method being further characterized in that for writing a block of information, that is, a sequence of words of information associated with a block address and arriving at each disk unit in the form of a sequence of bits associated with the same block address, each bit of said sequence is first temporarily recorded in a memory associated with said each disk unit, and then physically recorded on a disk of said unit and in that for reading a block of information from said disk, a reverse operation is performed, said method being further characterized in that before transferring to said disk the sequence of numerical information transmitted from said memory associated with said disk unit, longitudinal error detection or correction bits (Kli-Kyi) are calculated and added to said sequence, and in that before writing into the memory the sequence of numerical information coming from said disk, an operation of detecting longitudinal error and correcting them if necessary is effected.

Claim 2

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from disk units (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, a number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, said method being further characterized in that for writing a block of information, that is, a sequence of words of information associated with a block address and arriving at each disk unit in the form of a sequence of bits associated with the same block address, each bit of said sequence is first temporarily recorded in a memory associated with said each disk unit, and then physically recorded on a disk of said unit and in that for reading a block of information from said disk, a reverse operation is performed, said method being further characterized in that before transferring to said disk the sequence of numerical information transmitted from said memory associated with said disk unit, longitudinal error detection or correction bits (Kli-Kyi) are calculated and added to said sequence, and in that before writing into the memory the sequence of numerical information coming from said disk, an operation of detecting longitudinal error and correcting them if necessary is effected.

Claim 5

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from the disk unit (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, a number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, said method being further characterized in that for writing a block of information, that is, a sequence of words of information associated with a block address and arriving at each disk unit in the form of a sequence of bits associated with the same block address, each bit of said sequence intended for being recorded in the corresponding disk unit is first inscribed, at an address in memory which is a univocal function of the block address and of the place of the bit in said sequence of bits, into a direct access memory associated with said disk units, and when said sequence of bits has been entirely inscribed into said memory, the numerical information then contained in said memory is read in sequence and transmitted in series in order to be recorded on a track of one of the disks of said unit, said disk and said track of said disk being determined as a function of said block address, the memory address of the first bit transmitted being determined as a function of the number of the first sector of said track encountered by the recording head, the sequential reading of said memory being effected in accordance with a cyclical sequence, and in that for reading a word of information associated with a given logical address, the bits comprising this information beginning at the set of memories associated with said disk units at memory addresses which are a function of the logical address, are synchronously read immediately, if the information is present in the set of memories or, in the contrary case, after retranscription into each memory of the entirety of the numerical information contained on the track associated with said logical address, said retranscription being effected beginning at the first sector of said track encountered by the reading head.

Claim 6

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from the disk unit (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, a number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, said method being further characterized in that for writing a block of information, that is, a sequence of words of information associated with a block address and arriving at each disk unit in the form of a sequence of bits associated with the same block address, each bit of said sequence intended for being recorded in the corresponding disk unit is first inscribed, at an address in memory which is a univocal function of the block address and of the place of the bit in said sequence of bits, into a direct access memory associated with said disk units, and when said sequence of bits has been entirely inscribed into said memory, the numerical information then contained in said memory is read in sequence and transmitted in series in order to be recorded on a track of one of the disks of said unit, said disk and said track of said disk being determined as a function of said block address, the memory address of the first bit transmitted being determined as a function of the number of the first sector of said track encountered by the recording head, the sequential reading of said memory being effected in accordance with a cyclical sequence, and in that for reading a word of information associated with a given logical address, the bits comprising this information beginning at the set of memories associated with said disk units at memory addresses which are a function of the logical address, are synchronously read immediately, if the information is present in the set of memories or, in the contrary case, after retranscription into each memory of the entirety of the numerical information contained on the track associated with said logical address, said retranscription being effected beginning at the first sector of said track encountered by the reading head.

Claim 7

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from the disk units (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, the number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, and further characterized in that each bit of said word of information is first temporarily recorded in a memory associated with said disk and then is physically recorded on a disk of said unit, and in that for reading a word of information from said disk, a reverse operation is preformed, and further characterized in that before recording onto a disk track the block of numerical information transmitted beginning at the memory associated with a disk unit, longitudinal error detection or correction bits (K 1i -K yi ) are calculated and added to said block of numerical information, and in that before writing into the memory the numerical information coming from one track, an operation of detecting longitudinal errors and correcting them if necessary is effected.

Claim 8

A method of writing and reading numerical information in a mass memory comprising a plurality of disk units (3), each disk unit being capable of containing one or a plurality of disks (7), said mass memory being controlled by at least one disk controller, each word of numerical information comprising a plurality of bits and being associated with a logical address, characterized in that at the time of the transfer of information to or from the disk units (3), the bits making up one word of information are transmitted simultaneously, each bit being allocated to a disk unit associated with the position of said bit in said word, in order to be written or read synchronously with the other bits of the same word at a physical address which is a univocal function of the logical address of said word of information, said physical address defining, for each disk unit, the effective location where said bit will be written or read, that is, defining the disk of said unit, in the case where the unit includes more than one disk, the number of a track of said more than one disk and the location of said bit on said track, and further characterized in that each bit of said word of information is first temporarily recorded in a memory associated with said disk and then is physically recorded on a disk of said unit, and in that for reading a word of information from said disk, a reverse operation is preformed, and further characterized in that before recording onto a disk track the block of numerical information transmitted beginning at the memory associated with a disk unit, longitudinal error detection or correction bits (K 1i -K yi ) are calculated and added to said block of numerical information, and in that before writing into the memory the numerical information coming from one track, an operation of detecting longitudinal errors and correcting them if necessary is effected.