International Business Machines Corporation

Infoprintsolutions Company, LLC

Steven Michael Wallace

Ernest Stewart Gale

Eiji Ogura

Kevin Bruce Judd

Randy Clark Inch

Pamela Ruth Nylander-Hill

Kevin Dale Butt

Dale A Christiansen

Paul Merrill Greco

Paul Merril Greco

Glen Alan Jaquette

Kirby Grant Dahman

Charles D Johnson

Dennis Carney

Larry David Teklits

Russel Neil Miller

A method for characterizing a magnetic recording tape, according to one approach, includes measuring, using a magnetic head having servo readers of known pitch, a servo band difference at various locations along a length of a magnetic recording tape. The servo band difference measurements and/or derivatives thereof are stored in association with the magnetic recording tape. This procedure creates a characterization of the magnetic recording tape that is useful for assessing aging of the magnetic recording tape, as well as improving subsequent reading and/or writing operations.

Management of head and media dimensional stability

An apparatus, according to one embodiment, includes a magnetic head having servo readers of known pitch, a drive mechanism for passing a magnetic recording tape over the magnetic head, and a controller electrically coupled to the magnetic head. The controller is configured to measure, using signals from the magnetic head, a servo band difference at various locations along a length of the magnetic recording tape. The controller is also configured to cause storage of servo band difference information about the servo band difference measurements in association with the magnetic recording tape.

An apparatus configured to characterize a magnetic recording tape of a tape cartridge, according to one embodiment, includes a magnetic head having servo readers of known pitch, a drive mechanism for passing a magnetic recording tape over the magnetic head, and a controller electrically coupled to the magnetic head. The controller is configured to measure, using signals from the magnetic head, a servo band difference at various locations along a length of the magnetic recording tape of a tape cartridge. The controller is also configured to store the servo band difference measurements and/or derivatives thereof in association with the tape cartridge.

A method for characterizing a magnetic recording tape of a tape cartridge, according to one approach, includes measuring, using a magnetic head having servo readers of known pitch, a servo band difference at various locations along a length of a magnetic recording tape of a tape cartridge. The servo band difference measurements and/or derivatives thereof are stored in association with the tape cartridge. This procedure creates a characterization of the magnetic recording tape that is useful for assessing aging of the magnetic recording tape, as well as improving subsequent reading and/or writing operations.

A magnetic tape cartridge, a recording system, and a magnetic tape drive are configured to, for example, guard against tampering with a write once overwrite protection pointer which allows a rewritable magnetic tape to be treated as write once. In one embodiment, the magnetic tape cartridge comprises a magnetic tape and a cartridge memory. The magnetic tape is configured to provide at least one overwrite protection pointer, the overwrite protection pointer identifying data to be protected from being overwritten; and the cartridge memory is configured to provide the at least one overwrite protection pointer, the overwrite protection pointer identifying magnetic tape data to be protected from being overwritten.

Magnetic tape write once overwrite protection

A Job Monitor for providing printer recognition and management of a print job entity is described. The Job Monitor includes a repository of attributes and status associated with each print job that passes through the system. Interfaces to the Job Monitor provide the ability for components to process a job according to the unique requirements of the processing component, and report job attributes and processing status of the job to the Job Monitor for common access by other components. Each component has access to common variables and can present job attributes or status to its respective external interface according to the unique requirements dictated by the external interface. Additionally, internal job processing components interface with the Job Monitor to access and report current processing status. The common status repository provided by the Job Monitor is used by the Job Monitor and other components to control the sequence of processing within the printer.

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Tucson, AZ, United States of America

Steven Michael Wallace