Patent ID: 7152173

Claim:
A control apparatus for controlling startup of a plurality of peripheral devices in a computer system, comprising: a power supply for affording electrical power to the peripheral devices; a host electronic circuitry including a plurality of sets of identification (ID) indication pins and an identification (ID) set pin, each set of ID indication pins designating a unique whole ID number, the set of whole numbers being continuous from 0 to x, where x+1 is a whole number divisor of the total number of peripheral device controlled; a plurality of power switches each electrically connected between the power supply and a corresponding peripheral device of the plurality of peripheral devices, whereby the corresponding peripheral device can receive power transmitted through the power switch; and a plurality of controllers comprised of control circuitry, the controllers being electrically connected between the host and said corresponding power switches, each controller receiving a corresponding ID number of the set of whole numbers from the host; wherein the power switches are actuated to open and close according to control signals received from the corresponding controller such that the power switches connect the power supply to the peripheral devices in a sequence determined by the ID numbers assigned to the controllers, the plurality of peripheral devices are IDE_HDDs which are hard disk drives (HDDs) conforming to the Integrated Device Electronics IDE interface.