The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 1993
Filed:
May. 28, 1991
Refael Bar, San Diego, CA (US);
Iomega Corporation, Roy, UT (US);
Abstract
A magnetic tape drive has firmware which has been modified so that the drive will read both standard format tapes and non-standard format tapes. Non-standard tapes are detected by an absence of reference bursts in the load zone of the tape. The head is moved to successive tracks toward the edge of the tape until no data is read. This identifies the track near the edge of the tape. Then, the head is preset to a track which is a known distance from the edge of the tape. Reading of non-standard tapes is accomplished by disabling the index pulse generator in the intervals between data segments. The performance of a SKIP COMMAND is made possible by counting the transitions of data to no data during the intervals between data segments. The identification of different types of non-standard formats is made by determining the length of the data segments.