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:
Sep. 28, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 24, 1997
Steven F Hartung, Boulder, CO (US);
Mark R Ayres, Boulder, CO (US);
Exabyte Corporation, Boulder, CO (US);
Abstract
In serpentine recording on magnetic tape (32), a warning marker (CEW) is generated and recorded on tape in a write mode and is read in a read mode. The warning marker indicates that a head is approaching a boundary position on the tape at which the head must change tracks in order to continue recording or reading frames. The warning marker is preferably included in an auxiliary portion of at least some frames. In one embodiment, the warning marker has a value related to a number of frames that can yet be recorded on the track before the boundary position is encountered. Monitoring of the warning marker serves to apprise the drive of a potential need to cache data in anticipation of a change of track. Caching of data can occur either by sending a caching signal to the host, or can occur internally in the drive without taxing the drive's buffer. In the drive-internal caching, the relative speed between the tape and the head is adjusted in anticipation of the head being repositioned for a change of track.