Hitachi, Ltd.

Exabyte Corporation

Toshio Tsuchiya

Shigeru Yamazaki

Kenkichi Inada

Kenmei Masuda

Akihisa Obata

Hidekazu Takeda

Mitsuo Abe

Masakatsu Saito

Kemmei Masuda

Kuniako Hirayama

Masamichi Yamada

Masaaki Kurebayashi

Hideo Zama

Hideki Maruyama

Katsuo Konishi

Kuniaki Hirayama

Hitoshi Yanagihara

Yukiko Ogura

Toshihiko Imachi

Yoshio Uemura

Masumi Hisatomi

Nobuo Arai

The present invention provides a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus, a magnetic recording and reproducing method, and a thin film magnetic head that enable a good contact between elements and a recording medium with a reduced track pitch even if the number of head channels is increased, thereby realizing high recording density and high transfer rate. At least one multitrack write head having N (N is an integer of 2 or more) write elements arranged along a track width direction in an integral fashion and at least one multitrack read head having L (L is an integer equal to or more than N) read elements arranged along the track width direction in an integral fashion are formed on the rotary drum. The multitrack write head writes signals to a group of N tracks aligned parallel on the magnetic tape during one rotation of the rotary drum, and the multitrack read head reads the group of N signal tracks by the use of any one of the L read elements.

Magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus and method and thin film magnetic head used therein

A recording/reproducing apparatus capable of switching over among a plurality of heads with high precision, wherein the apparatus is provided with: a recording/reproducing unit for recording/reproducing signals onto/from a recording medium with a plurality of heads; a generating unit for generating control data for controlling the recording/reproducing unit; and a transmitting unit for transmitting control data generated by the generating unit to the recording/reproducing unit, wherein priority is given in transmission to data for controlling the switching of the plurality of heads over other data.

Recording/reproducing apparatus

According to the invention, techniques for cleaning a rotary magneto-resistive head. Embodiments according to the invention are especially useful in tape drive systems, and the like. Embodiments can provide methods and apparatus for cleaning contaminant from rotary magneto-resistive heads while guarding against damage to the head from excess cleaning, and the like. Specific embodiments can control the rotational speed of a rotary magneto-resistive head in order to facilitate cleaning operations. Embodiments include a cleaning device and a control method, and are suited for use in a magneto-resistive head mounted on a rotary cylinder of a computer tape storage unit, for example, although application of the present invention is not limited to such embodiments.

Method and apparatus for cleaning a magneto-resistive head

High reliability magneto-resistive head cleaning system

An arrangement is designed to achieve satisfactory tape contact by setting a specific ratio for the width of a drum window and the head length of a double azimuth head. The head length L is defined as the distance from the front end of the preceding head to the back end of the succeeding head. When the drum window width W is defined as the distance of the drum window in the rotary direction, the preceding head and the succeeding head are arranged within the drum window to satisfy the relation 1.15 L.ltoreq.W.ltoreq.1.28 L. When the space S1 is defined as the distance from the front end of the preceding head to the front end of the drum window, and the space S2 is defined as the distance from the back end of the succeeding head to the back end of the drum window, the preceding head and the succeeding head are arranged within the drum window to satisfy the relation 0.075 L.ltoreq.S1.ltoreq.0.14 L and 0.075 L.ltoreq.S2.ltoreq.0.14 L. According to this arrangement, the magnetic tape intrudes preferably into the space between the double azimuth head and the drum window. The magnetic tape envelopes and contacts the head surface, so that the tendency for a spacing to occur between the head and the tape is suppressed. The reproducing output is increased and stabilized in this way.

Rotary drum equipment and recording/reproducing equipment using the same

Disclosed herein is a magnetic head in which the sliding surface is constructed of a transducing gap, a pair of soft magnetic metal films opposite to each other through the transducing gap, and a substrate holding the soft magnetic metal film. The substrate is 20-200 times as wear-resistant as the soft magnetic metal film. The magnetic head has a gap depth of 1-5 .mu.m and produces an overall high head output.

Magnetic head

A rotary magnetic head device utilizes a thin film magnetic head or heads having small mutual influence to external magnetic field in combination with a bulk magnetic head or heads to reduce crosstalk between recording head and reproducing head to thereby improve S/N ratio.

Rotary magnetic head device having two different kinds of heads

In a thin film magnetic head consisting of a non-magnetic substrate, and a multilayer structure superposed thereon and including a lower core, a gap material layer, a thin film coil and an upper core, etc., the head sliding surface of the lower core and that of the upper core are so formed that they become wider with increasing distance from the surface of the gap material layer.

Thin film magnetic head

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Toshio Tsuchiya