Patent ID: 6546456
Filing Date: 2003-04-08
Classification: G11B

Abstract:
A motor vehicle based data processing system, comprising:a rotating magnetic fixed disk drive data storage device; a storage buffer, said storage buffer comprising semiconductor memory, said buffer receiving data from said disk drive data storage device; a controller controlling the operation of said disk drive data storage device, said controller retrieving sequentially presented data from said buffer for use during a time interval in which said disk drive data storage device is being powered up and data is not yet accessible from said disk drive data storage device; wherein said storage buffer is contained in a random access memory of a fixed size having an address space, and wherein a portion of said address space is allocated to said storage buffer to store said sequentially presented data, said portion being of a variable size; wherein a first portion of said address space is allocated to storing said sequentially presented data when the motor vehicle is operating, and a second portion of said address space is allocated to storing said sequentially presented data when the motor vehicle is not operating, said second portion being larger than said first portion.