Patent ID: 7664902

Claim:
A computer-implemented method communicating with a dual personality removable card interface, the method comprising: detecting a removable card inserted into a dual-personality connector slot for connecting to a standard-protocol card and for connecting to an extended-protocol card, the dual-personality connector slot to accept the standard-protocol card and to accept the extended-protocol card, the dual-personality connector slot including standard metal contacts and extended metal contacts that both make contact with the standard-protocol card and both make contact with the extended-protocol card, wherein the removable card includes a multi-level cell (MLC) memory array; applying power to the removable card via the standard protocol metal contacts; interrogating the removable card to identify a type of the removable card in order to determine whether the removable card operates according to the extended protocol by sending one or more commands associated with the extended protocol to the removable card and examining a response from the removable card in view of the commands; and invoking a corresponding protocol processing logic corresponding to the extended protocol to handle further communications between a host and the removable card if the removable card is determined to be an extended protocol card, including enabling the host sending a request to the removable card for receiving a predetermined blocks of data from the removable card, in response to the request, the removable card replying with a positive acknowledgement (ACK) and sending a first block of data to the host, in response to the first block of data received from the removable card, enabling the host requesting a next block of data, if the removable card is not ready, the removable card replying with a negative acknowledgement (NACK) indicating that the removable card is not ready to send further data, in response to the NACK, enabling the host suspending requests for further data, subsequently when the removable card is ready, the removable card sending a ready signal (RDY) to the host indicating that the removable card is ready to send further data, and enabling the host replying an ACK to the removable card to receive further data until all of the predetermined blocks of data have been received.