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IPC Subgroup
G06F 3/06

Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers

Introduced: September 1968

Last revised: January 2006

Full Title

Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements > Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers

Classification Context

Section:
PHYSICS
Class:
COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
Subclass:
ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING

Description

G06F3/06 covers digital input from and digital output to record carriers, i.e. the interface between processing units and storage devices such as hard disks, solid-state drives, tape and disk arrays. Subject matter includes storage addressing and buffering, command queuing, RAID organisation, storage virtualisation, caching hierarchies and wear management for flash-based media. The group belongs to the input/output arrangements of G06F3/00; internal memory addressing and management within the computer are classified in G06F12/00.

Filing statistics

IPC G06F 3/06 belongs to the parent subclass G06F, which recorded 2,990,091 patent applications worldwide between 2013 and 2023. Annual filings grew from 193,009 in 2013 to 380,314 in 2023 (+97%). The most active applicants in class G06 are SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS COMPANY (66,669 applications), IBM (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION) (62,313 applications) and MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING (41,918 applications).

Source: EPO PATSTAT, worldwide filings

1 direct subcode

Child Classifications

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  • G06F 3/08 from or to individual record carriers, e.g. punched card

Top Applicants

Top 10 applicants by patent filingsfor class G06, 2013–2023, worldwide · Source: EPO PATSTAT

  1. SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS COMPANY KR 66,669
  2. IBM (INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION) US 62,313
  3. MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING US 41,918
  4. GOOGLE US 32,969
  5. SGCC(STATE GRID CORPORATION OF CHINA) 30,822
  6. INTEL CORPORATION US 30,010
  7. TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY 28,235
  8. HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY CN 26,079
  9. APPLE US 21,891
  10. HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES COMPANY 20,505