disk controller

The disk controller (or "hard disk controller") is the circuit which allows the CPU to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk or other kind of disk drive.Early disk controllers were identified by their storage methods and data encoding. They were typically implemented on a separate controller card. Modified frequency modulation (MFM) controllers were the most common type in small computers, used for both floppy disk and hard disk drives. Run length limited (RLL) controllers used data compression to increase storage capacity by about 50%. Priam created a proprietary storage algorithm that could double the disk storage.  Shugart Associates Systems Interface, (SASI) was a predecessor to SCSI.
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Noun
1. (computer science) a circuit or chip that translates commands into a form that can control a hard disk drive
(hypernym) control, controller
(classification) computer science, computing

<hardware, storage> (Or "hard disk controller", HDC) The circuit which allows the CPU to communicate with a hard disk, floppy disk or other kind of disk drive.
The most common disk controllers in use are IDE and SCSI controllers. Most home personal computers use IDE controllers. High end PCs, workstations and network file servers mostly have SCSI adaptors.
(1998-03-16)