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:
Mar. 14, 2000
Filed:
Jan. 29, 1998
Kamal Emile Dimitri, Tucson, AZ (US);
Frank David Gallo, Tucson, AZ (US);
John Edward Kulakowski, Tucson, AZ (US);
Rodney Jerome Means, Tucson, AZ (US);
Jesse Lee Thrall, Tucson, AZ (US);
Daniel James Winarski, Tucson, AZ (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
Disclosed are an automated data storage library and a method for operating the library. The library includes two pickers arranged on a common guideway; a plurality of media storage slots arranged in a plurality of regions alongside the guideway; a plurality of read/write stations arranged in regions alongside the guideway. Commands are received for jobs to move media amongst the storage slots and the read/write stations, and a controller queues the received commands and allocates the queued commands to the pickers and in an order of jobs which will allow the pickers to independently access and move the media so as to avoid interference in the same region, or in regions which are behind the other picker. The media storage slots may be arranged in row sets and regions alongside the guideway, each row set including one or more storage slots and each region including one or more columns, with the regions narrower than the pickers. The controller queues the received commands and allocates the queued commands to the pickers and in an order of jobs so as to allow the pickers to independently access and move the media to avoid interference in the same row set in adjacent regions, in the same region, or in regions which are behind the other picker.