Seagate Assigned Four Patents

Storage media asperity detection
Seagate Technology LLC, Cupertino, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,681,438) developed by seven co-inventors for “storage media asperity detection.”

The co-inventors are Prasanna Manja Ramakrishna, Englewood, CO, Scott Howard Deits, Littleton, CO, Kevin David Powers, Sandeep Bhushan James J. Martin, Dale Thomas Riley, and Vance Charles Kluver, Longmont, CO.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present application discloses a transducer head comprising a read element that reads data from a storage media and an asperity sensor that detects a dimension of an asperity on a surface of the storage media using a temperature change at the asperity sensor. The asperity may be one or both of a void in the surface of the storage media and a protrusion from the surface of the storage media.”

The patent application was filed on Sept. 26, 2012 (13/627,763).

Head radial positioning over contact-start-stop zone
during spin-up/spin-down of disk
Seagate Technology LLC, Cupertino, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,675,299) developed by five co-inventors for “head radial positioning over contact-start-stop zone during spin-up/spin-down of disk.“

The co-inventors are Philip John Bartels, Seshadri Ramaswamy, Lexington, MA, Mark Edward Sheffield, Northborough, MA, Geoffrey Wayne Kaiser, and James Fay Martin, Westborough, MA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A read/write head is moved across a contact-start-stop (CSS) zone on a data storage disk during the spin-up and/or spin-down of the disk. Moving the head during spin-up and/or spin-down may reduce the concentration of wear along a surface of the CSS zone.”

The patent application was filed on May 4, 2009 (12/434,900).

Single command payload transfers block of security functions
to storage device
Seagate Technology LLC, Cupertino, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,656,188) developed by four co-inventors for a “single command payload transfers block of security functions to a storage device.”

The co-inventors are William Preston Goodwill, Edmond, OK, Thomas John Schwartzkopf, Loveland, CO, Robert H. Thibadeau, Pittsburgh, PA, and John R. Nestor, Issaquah, WA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A storage device has a storage medium and a processor. The processor is disposed within the storage device and is adapted to receive multiple commands as a command block over an interface. The processor is adapted to extract each of the multiple commands from the single block for execution on the storage device.“

Non-volatile resistive sense memory on-chip cache
Seagate Technology LLC, Scotts Valley, CA, has been assigned a patent (8,650,355) developed by four co-inventors for “non-volatile resistive sense memory on-chip cache.”

The co-inventors are Henry F. Huang, Apple Valley, MN, Hai Li, Yiran Chen, Eden Prairie, MN, and Hongyue Liu, Maple Grove, MN.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “Various embodiments of the present invention are generally directed to a non-volatile resistive sense memory on-chip cache. In accordance with some embodiments, a processing circuit is formed on a first semiconductor substrate. A second semiconductor substrate is affixed to the first semiconductor substrate to form an encapsulated integrated chip package, wherein a non-volatile storage array of resistive sense memory (RSM) cells is formed on the second semiconductor substrate to cache data used by the processing circuit.“

The patent application was filed on Oct. 15, 2008 (12/252,027).