AN IMPROVED DUAL IN-LINE (DIL) SWITCH FOR SECURING DATA COMMUNICATION AND STORAGE

Field of Invention

The present invention generally relates to telecommunication devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to communication interfaces. Most particularly, the present invention relates to an improved dual in-line (DIL) switch for use in controlling and securing data communication signals between communication devices.

Background to the Invention

Registered jacks, known as RJ-XX, are a series of telephone connection interfaces or electrical connector designed for use in telephony and data communication industries. The term jack sometimes means both receptacle and plug and sometimes just the receptacle. Among the various RJ types are RJ-10, RJ-11 the telephone; RJ-12, RJ-14, RJ-45 the Ethernet cable; RJ-48, RJ-61 , and the like. The RJ-XX works in a pair for modular plug the male and modular jack the female (or PCB socket).

The most common telephone jacks are the RJ-11 and RJ-45. The RJ-11 jack is likely to be the jack that household or office phones are plugged into from the ordinarily "untwisted" wire (sometimes called "gray satin" or "flat wire") people are most familiar with. The RJ-11 can have up to six conductors but is usually implemented with four. A computer that uses a dial-up modem to connect to a network is usually plugged into an RJ-11 jack. The RJ-14 is similar to the RJ-11 , but the four wires are used for two phone lines. Typically, one set of wires (for one line) contains a red wire and a green wire. The other set contains a yellow wire and a black wire. Each set carries one analog "conversation" (voice or data).

The RJ-45 is a single-line jack for digital transmission over ordinary phone wire, either untwisted or twisted. The interface has eight pins or positions. For connecting

a modem, printer, or a data PBX at a data rate up to 19.2 Kbps, untwisted wire can be used. For faster transmissions in which one is connecting to an Ethernet 10BASE- T network, twisted pair wire is used.

The common usages of RJ-XX are for voice signal and bitstream data communications. To date, there are switches for power cable connection for electrical systems but not data cable of RJ-XX. It is desirable to provide a physical switch for on-off switching purposes as it will eradicate problems such as malicious virtual access to computers, damage to the RJ-XX jacks due to frequent plugging and unplugging as well as avoiding damage to components due to power surges such as lightning and the like.

Summary of the Invention

The present invention broadly provides improvements to a DIL switch, which is also known as dual in-line package (DIP) switch, for use in opening and closing a communication channel between two devices.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an improved DIL switch having a sliding bar which blocks or allows communication to pass through by way of push or pull motion, wherein if the position of the sliding bar is pushed in, all signals passing through the DIL switch are blocked, and if the position of the slide bar is pulled out, all the connections are allowed to pass through.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the improved DIL switch is provided on a printed circuit board (PCB) as RJ switch for RJ-XX data communication cables which overcome some of the drawbacks of the physical plugging and unplugging of the cable jacks.

In another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the improved DIL switch is provided on a PCB as hard disk drive (HDD) switch for Serial ATA or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) communication cables which overcome some of the drawbacks of the physical plugging and unplugging of the cable jacks. It can also be applied for other communication cables such as Integrated Drive

Electronics (IDE), which is also called Parallel ATA and Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment (PATA).

In yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the improved DIL switch is integrated with HDD to form an HDD switch. The HDD switch further comprises at least one internal HDD and/or external HDD. Alternatively, the external HDD can be a flash drive using the Universal Serial Bus (USB).

The DIL switch of the present invention is an eight (8) way 8PST (8 Poles, Single Throw) DIL switch. Alternatively, it can be other n-way DIL switches that include 4- way DIL switch. In another innovated invention, it can be a ten (10) way 8PST+2PST

DIL switch activated in opposite direction, where the first 8PST is to control the network connection of RJ-XX and the second 2PST is to control the USB data connection of the second HDD or USB flash drive. Additionally, the second 2PST can be 4PST to control also the USB power connection as well. It can also be extended from the application of USB connection to SATA connection.

The RJ-XX of the present invention may be, for example, RJ-45 and RJ-11.

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a device and a method to secure computer communication and data storage from being illegally accessed or exposed to hacking threats. This is achieved by using the improved DIL switch which can be used in addition to an RJ-XX as RJ switch and an external HDD switch to control access of one or more added HDD, either external HDD and/or internal HDD.

The network connection of the computer via the wired Ethernet network through the RJ-XX modular jack can be replaced with wireless network. In this case, the RJ switch of this invention can be modified to control the network connection of wireless USB network adapter. In other words, the 8-way 8PST improved DIL switch acting as the RJ switch becomes a 4-way 4PST improved DIL switch acting as a USB switch. This USB switch can control all types of wireless network adapter, using the USB connection like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), 3G, WiMAX, etc. This USB network adapter can be hot-swappable or non-hot-swappable. For enhancement, the improved DIL switch can be 8-way 4PST+4PST where both the 4PST are activated

reversely. One 4PST is for the wireless USB network connection and another 4PST is for the USB data connection of a second storage device. The second 4PST for USB data storage can again be modified for other types of data connection like HDD using the SATA connection.

The improved DIL switch can be other types of switch performing enhanced functions, where they can also switch on and off a few little switches to control the data and power connections like keylock switch, selector switch, pushbutton switch, rocker switch, rotary switch, slide switch, toggle switch, etc., with and without a network connection light indicator.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The present invention will now be described in greater detail, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 illustrates a conventional 8-way DIL switch;

Figure 2 illustrates an improved 8-way 8PST DIL switch according to the present invention;

Figure 3 illustrates an improved 8-way DIL switch of the present invention incorporated with RJ-11 or RJ-45 port in a wall plate application;

Figure 4 illustrates an improved 8-way DIL switch of the present invention incorporated with RJ-11 or RJ-45 port in an interconnection box application; and

Figure 5 illustrates an HDD switch using an improved 8-way DIL switch of the present invention on a printed circuit board (PCB).

Figure 6 illustrates an improved 10-way 8PST+2PST DIL switch activated in opposite direction.

Detailed Description of The Invention

Figure 1 depicts a commercially available 8-way dual in-line (DIL) switch, which functions to control the flow of signals passing through it. They are many types of DIL switch and it is mainly characterized by the number of channels it possesses. The DIL switch used in the present invention is an 8-way DIL switch which means it has 8 channels that can be controlled separately. The channels on the DIL switch are activated through in/out terminals 110 and 120. The roles are interchangeable depending on the direction of the communication. However, it can be time consuming for a person skilled in the art to control each channel in daily application. Alternatively, an n-way DIL switch, such as 4-way DIL switch, can be used for an external hard disk drive (HDD) or flash drive using Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.

Figure 2 depicts an improved 8-way 8PST (8 Poles, Single Throw) DIL switch according to the present invention to control all switches simultaneously through the addition of a slide bar 210, which will slide in and out between terminals 110, 120 by a simple push or pull motion. Each push and pull motion will either completely block or connect all 8 channels in the DIL switch. The actuator type of slide bar can be others like raised rocker, recessed rocker, and piano-type (aka side).

Figure 3 and 4 depicts the implementation options for the present invention. Figure 3 shows a wall plate 330 implementation, which in a typical operation would involve communication cable that is connected directly to the improved 8-way DIL switch 310. This DIL switch would either allow or block the communication signal to the RJ-11 or RJ45 port 320, which would be connected to the intended recipient device. This wall plate 330 implementation is suitable in office environments, where the existing cables are already concealed in the walls.

Figure 4 refers to an external interconnection box 430 implementation whereby the improved 8-way DIL switch 420 is housed in a rectangular casing that has 2 RJ-11 or RJ-45 ports 410 located on each side, respectively, or on the same side alternatively. In a typical operation, the incoming signal will pass through the RJ-11 or RJ-45 port 410 and connect to the 8-way DIL switch 420. Depending on the position of the slide

bar, the 8-way DIL switch will either block or allow the signal to pass through the incoming/outgoing RJ-11 or RJ45 port 410.

Figure 5 refers to an HDD switch using an improved 8-way DIL switch 530 whereby the simple plugging and unplugging of a USB cable or SATA data cable 520 can act as a physical switch for the HDD 540. For external HDD 540, the simple plugging and unplugging of USB cable or data cable 520 can act as physical switch. The external HDD 540 can also be switched off using the software approach. Hence, an additional HDD switch is optionally required. As for an internal HDD 540, plugging and unplugging of data cables 520 is inconvenient to the user. Therefore, a switch is added on a PCB card housing two data ports and two optional power ports. These two data ports are connected to HDD data port and motherboard data port 510, respectively. Meanwhile, power ports are optionally connected to HDD power port and power supply of computer casing, respectively. Since the conventional computer casing is not yet designed to have an HDD switch in the front panel, the present invention puts this HDD switch on a PCB card at the back panel of computer casing as like a networking PCB card. A user may switch off or on the internal HDD 540 using HDD switch at the back panel as easy as plugging and unplugging a networking cable from a desktop computer.

Figure 5 can be applied together with Figure 3 or Figure 4 to provide a device and a method to secure computer communication and data storage from being illegally accessed or exposed to hacking threats. The networking port of a computer system is connected to an RJ switch as in Figure 3 or Figure 4. Also, the computer system, in addition to a first HDD, has at least an extra internal or external HDD, or alternatively a flash drive, with HDD switch as in Figure 5. There are two operating modes. For the first operating mode, when the RJ switch is on, which allows networking access, only the first HDD is on and the second HDD is switched off using the HDD switch. During the first operating mode, data in the second HDD is safe from virtual hacking. For the second operating mode, when the RJ switch is off, which blocks networking access including any virtual hacking, the first HDD is on and the second HDD is switched on as well using the HDD switch. During the second operating mode, plaintext data can be transferred from the first HDD to the second

HDD, ciphertext data can be transferred from the second HDD to the first HDD, and plaintext data can be created in the second HDD for secure storage.

Figure 6 shows an innovation based on the improved 8-way 8PST (8 Poles, Single Throw) DIL switch in Figure 2 that can also perform the similar function of creating hacking-free data storage. Besides the 8PST 610 to control the network connection of RJ-XX, this innovation has 2PST 620 activated in opposite direction of the 8PST to control the data connection of USB data cable. Hence, the innovation in Figure 6 is an improved 10-way 8PST+2PST DIL switch activated in opposite direction by the same actuator 630. When the slide actuator is on the left, the 8PST is switched on and the 2PST is switched off. When the slide actuator is on the right, the 8PST is switched off and the 2PST is switched on. The 2PST can also be extended to become 4PST to cover also the USB power connection and nPST to cover the SATA data and/or power connection.

It will be appreciated that the preferred embodiment is illustrative only and that various changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is limited only by the following claims.