International Business Machines Corporation

Roger Javier Justo

Nhan Xuan Bui

Kevin Bruce Judd

Hirokazu Nakayama

Tomoko Taketomi

Daniel James Winarski

Glen Alan Jaquette

Allen Keith Bates

Angeliki Pantazi

Reed Alan Hancock

Armando Jesus Argumedo

Eric Rolf Christensen

Arturo Avila Mojica

Shawn Owen Brume

Joel Hsien-Li Chen

Armando Jesus Argumendo

A maximum velocity is dynamically determined during a tape drive operation to obtain a statistical standard deviation of a position error signal (PES) that yields an amount of stopwrite (SW) operations that avoids backhitching. The tape velocity is adjusted to the maximum velocity.

Dynamically controlling tape velocity

Methods, servo systems, and data storage drives follow the lateral shift excursions of longitudinal tape, for example, from flangeless tape guides. A servo sensor is configured to sense lateral position of a tape head with respect to longitudinal servo tracks of the tape, a fine actuator is configured to translate the head laterally, and a coarse actuator is configured to translate the fine actuator laterally. Position error is determined between the head and a desired position related to the servo track, and the fine actuator operated to translate the head laterally to reduce the position error. In the embodiment, lateral shift excursion is sensed from the position error, and the coarse actuator is positioned substantially at a midpoint of the lateral shift excursion. Thus, the fine actuator follows the lateral shift excursions, while the coarse actuator remains at the midpoint.

Positioning coarse servo actuator of tape servo system to allow fine servo actuator to follow tape shift excursions

A method for controlling data rate of a tape drive is disclosed. The tape drive is connected to a computer system. The tape drive stores data by dividing the data into multiple codeword quads (CQs). A local memory within the tape drive includes drive to iteratively monitor data rate during write operations. If a number of CQ skips exceeds a pre-defined threshold value, the drive code reduces a maximum allowable data rate of the tape drive.

Method and apparatus for controlling data rate of a tape drive

Handling a magnetic tape cartridge comprises the steps of reading cartridge mount information from the cartridge memory; determining from the cartridge mount information whether the present mount is the first mount of the magnetic tape cartridge; and if so, fast forward and rewind the magnetic tape of the magnetic tape cartridge, e.g., the fast forward is to end of tape (EOT) and the rewind is to beginning of tape (BOT). Alternatively, if the cartridge mount information indicates the present mount is the first mount of the magnetic tape cartridge; monitoring input/output with respect to the magnetic tape cartridge for write errors during the mount; determining whether the number of monitored write errors meets a predetermined threshold; and if so, fast forward and rewind the magnetic tape of the magnetic tape cartridge.

Fast forward magnetic tape cartridge at first mount

A tape cartridge having dual cartridge memory modules to provide memory redundancy, and a method and apparatus for providing redundancy of cartridge memory information within a tape cartridge. The tape cartridge comprises at least first and second cartridge memory modules, each of which stores an identical set of critical information. Each of the first and second cartridge memory modules includes enough critical information to recover from a failure of either of the cartridge memory modules. The method comprises the steps of providing at least two cartridge memory modules in the tape cartridge, and storing an identical set of critical information in each of the two cartridge memory modules. Each of the two cartridge memory modules includes enough critical information to recover from a failure of either cartridge memory module. In a preferred embodiment, the CM modules are stacked one on top of another and increase the amount of space available for tape directory storage.

Random access time to data stored on LTO tape by incorporating stacked cartridge memory (CM) modules

In an optical disk player, such as for a magnetooptic player, wherein the data recorded on the optical medium are at recording at such high densities then intersymbol interference causes the peaks of the readback signals to become closer together resulting in phase errors. A transition selecting means is operative to select a transition indicated by the readback signal or a substitute transition indicated by a timed delay means generates a signal based upon the immediately preceding transition received from optical medium. Various embodiments of the invention are illustrated.

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Roger Javier Justo