Claims
- 1. A method of establishing a data transfer rate, comprising:
reading a timing signal from a plurality of reference regions on a moving storage medium, wherein the moving storage medium moves at a speed in a first direction and the reference regions extend in a second direction; and writing data to the moving storage medium at a rate proportional to the speed of the moving storage medium.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second direction is perpendicular to the first direction.
- 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
locking a variable frequency oscillator to the timing signal to generate a data transfer rate.
- 4. The method of claim 3, wherein locking the variable-frequency oscillator includes bringing a phase-locked loop into lock.
- 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the variable-frequency oscillator is a voltage-controlled oscillator.
- 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
reading data from the moving storage medium at a rate proportional to the speed of the moving storage medium.
- 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving storage medium is a tape.
- 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the tape is magnetic tape.
- 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving storage medium is a disk.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the disk is one of a magnetic disk and an optical disk.
- 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference regions reside on at least one track from a plurality of tracks located on the moving storage medium.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the reference regions are interleaved with a timing-based servo pattern located on the moving storage medium.
- 13. An apparatus, comprising:
a voltage-controlled oscillator having a control input and an output; phase detector having a first input, a second input, and an output; and a first read head, wherein the first read head reads reference regions from a moving storage medium, which is moving relative to the first read head, to generate a timing signal, the timing signal is coupled to the first input of the phase detector, the output of the phase detector is fed into the control input of the voltage-controlled oscillator, and the output of the voltage-controlled oscillator is coupled to the second input of the phase detector, whereby the voltage-controlled oscillator produces a signal representing a data transfer rate.
- 14. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:
a filter, wherein the output of the phase detector is coupled to the control input of the voltage-controlled oscillator through the filter.
- 15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the filter includes a digital filter.
- 16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the filter includes an analog filter.
- 17. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:
a memory buffer; and a write head, wherein the write head writes data from the memory buffer to the moving storage medium at a rate proportional to the data transfer rate.
- 18. The apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:
a memory buffer; and a second read head, wherein the second read head reads data from the moving storage medium into the memory at a rate proportional to the data transfer rate.
- 19. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the reference regions are located on at least one track of the moving storage medium.
- 20. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the reference regions extend in an extension direction that is different from a direction of motion of the moving storage medium.
- 21. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the extension direction is perpendicular to the direction of motion of the moving storage medium.
- 22. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the reference regions are interleaved with a timing-based servo pattern located on the moving storage medium.
- 23. A storage medium product comprising:
a recording surface having at least one servo track, wherein the servo track includes a plurality of servo bands interleaved with a plurality of reference regions.
- 24. The storage medium product of claim 23, wherein the recording surface has a direction of motion.
- 25. The storage medium product of claim 24, wherein the direction of motion is circular.
- 26. The storage medium product of claim 24, wherein the direction of motion is linear.
- 27. The storage medium product of claim 24, wherein the reference regions extend in an extension direction that is different than the direction of motion.
- 28. The storage medium product of claim 27, wherein the extension direction is perpendicular to the direction of motion.
- 29. The storage medium product of claim 23, wherein the reference regions are recorded at a first frequency and the servo bands are recorded at a second frequency that is distinct from the first frequency.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present invention is related to an application entitled HIGH FREQUENCY AND LOW FREQUENCY SERVO PATTERN, Ser. No. ______, attorney docket no. 2001-071-TAP, filed even date hereof, assigned to the same assignee, and incorporated herein by reference.