Patent Grant
9997184
The present invention relates to tape storage systems, and more specifically, to hybrid servo pattern configurations for use with magnetic tape recording systems and products.
Timing-based servo (TBS) is a technology which was developed for linear tape drives in the late 1990s. In TBS systems, recorded servo patterns include transitions with two different azimuthal slopes, thereby forming a chevron-type pattern. These patterned transitions allow for an estimate of the head lateral position to be determined by evaluating the relative timing of pulses generated by a servo reader reading the patterns as they are passed over the servo reader.
In a TBS format, the servo pattern is prerecorded in several bands distributed across the tape. Typically, five or nine servo pattern bands are included on a given tape which runs about parallel to a longitudinal axis of the tape. Data is recorded in the regions of tape located between pairs of the servo bands. In read/write heads of IBM linear tape-open (LTO) and Enterprise tape drives, two servo readers are normally available per head module, from which longitudinal position (LPOS) information as well as a position error signal (PES) may be derived. Effective detection of the TBS patterns is achieved by a synchronous servo channel employing a matched-filter interpolator/correlator, which ensures desirable filtering of the servo reader signal.
Although TBS patterns have historically been able to provide sufficient positioning data while reading from and/or writing to magnetic tape, conventional products have begun to experience setbacks in performance efficiency. Specifically, as track densities continue to increase for tape media and tape drives, accurately controlling the lateral position of a magnetic head and/or skew of the magnetic head with respect to tape by using feedback generated by reading the TBS patterns has become increasingly difficult. In fact, conventional servo based implementations may not be sufficiently accurate to ensure adequate positioning of the data readers and writers that move along data tracks of magnetic tape having a sufficiently high track density. Furthermore, the repetition rate of the head lateral position estimates may be too low to ensure proper track-following operation, as tape velocity varies during use. The repetition rate of the head lateral position estimates may additionally be unable to support future actuators with larger bandwidths. It is also important to monitor tape dimensional stability (TDS), particularly as track density and tape capacity continue to increase.
However, in the past tape skew and TDS measurements have been determined from the information from servo bands on both sides of a head module, or information from servo readers on multiple head modules. In other words, to compute skew and/or TDS, conventional products have needed to obtain valid servo information from more than one servo band and/or more than one head module. This makes such conventional head modules particularly susceptible to degraded performance and/or being rendered completely useless by servo defects, scratches caused by asperities on the surface of the magnetic tape, etc.
Some products have implemented servo bands having a hybrid servo pattern in an attempt to alleviate some of the foregoing shortcomings. Hybrid servo patterns employ a high density (HD) servo pattern in addition to the TBS pattern, thereby providing some additional information. However, products implementing hybrid servo patterns have been unable to achieve functionality while also enabling backward compatibility in a single tape drive. Backward compatibility is highly desirable for removable storage media such as magnetic tape. For instance, backward compatibility allows a given tape drive to support multiple different generations of magnetic tape. Accordingly, backward compatibility allows users to maximize flexibility of tape media resource arrangements available to them.
To achieve backward compatibility among multiple generations of magnetic tape, it is desirable that a number of data bands relative to servo bands maintain a standard ratio while the data capacity of magnetic tapes increase. Moreover, it is desirable that servo readers on a single head module are compatible with various different servo band formats. However, this has served as a significant issue for conventional products thus far. Accordingly, achieving a magnetic tape and/or system which is able to continue to increase data capacity, while also improving data track following performance, as well as maintaining a standard ratio of data bands relative to servo bands is greatly desired.
A tape drive-implemented method, according to one embodiment, includes: determining a servo band configuration of servo bands on a magnetic tape, using servo readers on a magnetic tape head to read one or more of the servo bands based on the determined servo band configuration, and using information read from the one or more of the servo bands to position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape. An array of data transducers is positioned along the magnetic tape head, the array extending perpendicular to a direction of travel of the magnetic tape. Moreover, a group of the servo readers is positioned at each end of the array of data transducers, and a distance between each of the immediately adjacent servo readers in each of the groups of servo readers is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands. The distance between each of the servo readers in each of the groups and the prespecified width are both measured in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the magnetic tape.
A product, according to another embodiment, includes: a magnetic tape having a plurality of servo bands, each of the servo bands including a high density servo pattern and at least one timing based servo pattern. A combined width of the high density servo pattern and the at least one timing based servo pattern in a given servo band is less than or equal to two thirds of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands. Moreover, the combined width and the prespecified width are each measured in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape.
A product, according to yet another embodiment, includes: a magnetic tape having a plurality of servo bands, each of the servo bands includes a high density servo pattern and two timing based servo patterns. A longitudinal axis of each of the two timing based servo patterns is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the high density servo pattern. Moreover, the two timing based servo patterns are positioned on opposite sides of the high density servo pattern along the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape. A combined width of the high density servo pattern and one of the two timing based servo patterns in a given servo band is less than or equal to two thirds of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands, the combined width and the prespecified width each being measured in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape.
Other aspects and embodiments of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, which, when taken in conjunction with the drawings, illustrate by way of example the principles of the invention.
The following description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the present invention and is not meant to limit the inventive concepts claimed herein. Further, particular features described herein can be used in combination with other described features in each of the various possible combinations and permutations.
Unless otherwise specifically defined herein, all terms are to be given their broadest possible interpretation including meanings implied from the specification as well as meanings understood by those skilled in the art and/or as defined in dictionaries, treatises, etc.
It must also be noted that, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents unless otherwise specified.
The following description discloses several preferred embodiments of magnetic storage systems, as well as operation and/or component parts thereof for improving both magnetic tape recording systems and magnetic tape products. The number and relative spacing between the servo patterns in the various approaches described herein, as well as the number and relative spacing between servo readers in the various approaches described herein allow for a corresponding magnetic tape head and tape drive to achieve improved performance while also enabling backward compatibility for various styles (e.g., generations) of magnetic tape. As a result, by implementing various ones of the following technical features, the shortcomings experienced in conventional magnetic tape products and conventional tape drives are overcome.
In one general embodiment, a tape drive-implemented method includes: determining a servo band configuration of servo bands on a magnetic tape, using servo readers on a magnetic tape head to read one or more of the servo bands based on the determined servo band configuration, and using information read from the one or more of the servo bands to position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape. An array of data transducers is positioned along the magnetic tape head, the array extending perpendicular to a direction of travel of the magnetic tape. Moreover, a group of the servo readers is positioned at each end of the array of data transducers, and a distance between each of the immediately adjacent servo readers in each of the groups of servo readers is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands. The distance between each of the servo readers in each of the groups and the prespecified width are both measured in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the magnetic tape.
In another general embodiment, a product includes: a magnetic tape having a plurality of servo bands, each of the servo bands including a high density servo pattern and at least one timing based servo pattern. A combined width of the high density servo pattern and the at least one timing based servo pattern in a given servo band is less than or equal to two thirds of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands. Moreover, the combined width and the prespecified width are each measured in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape.
In yet another general embodiment, a product includes: a magnetic tape having a plurality of servo bands, each of the servo bands includes a high density servo pattern and two timing based servo patterns. A longitudinal axis of each of the two timing based servo patterns is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the high density servo pattern. Moreover, the two timing based servo patterns are positioned on opposite sides of the high density servo pattern along the direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape. A combined width of the high density servo pattern and one of the two timing based servo patterns in a given servo band is less than or equal to two thirds of a prespecified width of each of the servo bands, the combined width and the prespecified width each being measured in a direction perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape.
Referring now to
In the network storage system 10, there is a computer system/server 12, which is operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with computer system/server 12 include, but are not limited to, personal computer systems, server computer systems, thin clients, thick clients, handheld or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputer systems, mainframe computer systems, and distributed cloud computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.
Computer system/server 12 may be described in the general context of computer system-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer system. Generally, program modules may include routines, programs, objects, components, logic, data structures, and so on that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer system/server 12 may be practiced in distributed cloud computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed cloud computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer system storage media including memory storage devices.
As shown in
Bus 18 represents one or more of any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, an accelerated graphics port, a processor or local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures, etc. By way of example, which is in no way intended to limit the invention, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI) bus.
Computer system/server 12 typically includes a variety of computer system readable media. Such media may be any available media that is accessible by computer system/server 12, and may include both volatile and non-volatile media, removable and non-removable media.
System memory 28 may include computer system readable media in the form of volatile memory, such as random access memory (RAM) 30 and/or cache memory 32. Computer system/server 12 may further include other removable/non-removable, volatile/non-volatile computer system storage media. By way of example only, storage system 34 may be provided for reading from and writing to a non-removable, non-volatile magnetic media—not shown and typically called a “hard disk,” which may be operated in a hard disk drive (HDD). Although not shown, a magnetic disk drive for reading from and writing to a removable, non-volatile magnetic disk (e.g., a “floppy disk”), and an optical disc drive for reading from or writing to a removable, non-volatile optical disc such as a compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), digital versatile disc-read only memory (DVD-ROM) or other optical media may be provided. In such instances, each disk drive may be connected to bus 18 by one or more data media interfaces. As will be further depicted and described below, memory 28 may include at least one program product having a set (e.g., at least one) of program modules that are configured to carry out the functions of embodiments described herein.
Program/utility 40, having a set (at least one) of program modules 42, may be stored in memory 28 by way of example, and not limitation, as well as an operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, program data, etc. Each of the operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data or some combination thereof, may include an implementation of a networking environment. It should also be noted that program modules 42 may be used to perform the functions and/or methodologies of embodiments of the invention as described herein.
Computer system/server 12 may also communicate with one or more external devices 14 such as a keyboard, a pointing device, a display 24, etc.; one or more devices that enable a user to interact with computer system/server 12; and/or any devices (e.g., network card, modem, etc.) that enable computer system/server 12 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Such communication may occur via Input/Output (I/O) interfaces 22. Still yet, computer system/server 12 may communicate with one or more networks such as a local area network (LAN), a general wide area network (WAN), and/or a public network (e.g., the Internet) via network adapter 20. As depicted, network adapter 20 communicates with the other components of computer system/server 12 via bus 18. It should be understood that although not shown, other hardware and/or software components could be used in conjunction with computer system/server 12. Examples, include, but are not limited to: microcode, device drivers, redundant processing units, external disk drive arrays, redundant array of independent disks (RAID) systems, tape drives, data archival storage systems, etc.
Looking to
Guides 125 guide the magnetic tape 122 across the tape head 126. Such tape head 126 is in turn coupled to a controller 128 via a cable 130. The controller 128, may be or include a processor and/or any logic for controlling any subsystem of the drive 100. For example, the controller 128 may control head functions such as servo following, data writing, data reading, etc. The controller 128 may include at least one servo channel and at least one data channel, each of which include data flow processing logic configured to process and/or store information to be written to and/or read from the magnetic tape 122. The controller 128 may operate under logic known in the art, as well as any logic disclosed herein, and thus may be considered as a processor for any of the descriptions of tape drives included herein according to various embodiments. The controller 128 may be coupled to a memory 136 of any known type, which may store instructions executable by the controller 128. Moreover, the controller 128 may be configured and/or programmable to perform or control some or all of the methodology presented herein. Thus, the controller 128 may be considered to be configured to perform various operations by way of logic programmed into one or more chips, modules, and/or blocks; software, firmware, and/or other instructions being available to one or more processors; etc., and combinations thereof.
The cable 130 may include read/write circuits to transmit data to the head 126 to be recorded on the magnetic tape 122 and to receive data read by the head 126 from the magnetic tape 122. An actuator 132 controls position of the head 126 relative to the magnetic tape 122.
An interface 134 may also be provided for communication between the tape drive 100 and a host (internal or external) to send and receive the data and for controlling the operation of the tape drive 100 and communicating the status of the tape drive 100 to the host, all as will be understood by those of skill in the art.
Referring momentarily to
An exemplary tape head 302 is also shown as having two modules and as being positioned over a portion of the magnetic tape 300 according to one approach. Read and/or write transducers may be positioned on either module of the tape head 302 according to any of the approaches described herein, and may be used to read data from and/or write data to the data bands. Furthermore, tape head 302 may include servo readers which may be used to read the servo patterns in the servo bands according to any of the approaches described herein. It should also be noted that the dimensions of the various components included in
Some tape drives may be configured to operate at low tape velocities and/or with nanometer head position settings. These tape drives may use servo formats that target magnetic tape media, 4 or 8 data bands, 32 or 64 data channel operation, allow very low velocity operation, support large-bandwidth actuator operation, and improve parameter estimation to minimize standard deviation of the position error signal (PES), thus enabling track-density scaling for tape cartridge capacities up to 100 TB and beyond.
However, according to some embodiments, magnetic tape may further be augmented with additional features that provide additional functionality. Accordingly, HD servo patterns may be implemented in place of the standard TBS servo patterns, e.g., as seen in
In still further embodiments, a standard TBS servo pattern (e.g., as shown in
A hybrid servo pattern 410, which includes a standard TBS pattern 402 written in a servo band, as well as an HD pattern 404 that is written in a HD band (e.g., dedicated area) of the magnetic tape medium 408 is shown in
The HD pattern 404 may include periodic waveforms of various frequencies alternately written in the length direction L along a longitudinal axis of the magnetic tape. The standard TBS pattern 402 may be used to provide initial identification of the servo band (e.g., by providing a servo band ID); initial positioning of the head 406 on an appropriate servo location; acquisition of initial servo channel parameters, such as tape velocity, lateral head position, head-to-tape skew, longitudinal position (LPOS), etc.; etc. Moreover, the HD pattern 404 may enable more accurate and more frequent estimates of servo channel parameters, thereby achieving improved head positioning at a much wider range of tape velocities and support for larger bandwidth head actuation. As such, track-density scaling may be enabled for very large cartridge capacities, as well as improved data rate scaling with host computer requirements through the support of a wider velocity range.
The detection of the periodic waveforms forming a HD pattern may be obtained by a detector that implements a complex algorithmic conversion, e.g., such as a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT), a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), etc. However, this implementation complexity may reduce the flexibility in trade-offs between the rate of generation of servo reader lateral position estimates and the standard deviation of the estimation error. Accordingly, components (e.g., controllers) with high throughput may desirably be used to process signals derived from a HD pattern in order to reduce the processing time thereof.
In one embodiment, a detector capable of reading a hybrid of TBS and HD patterns may be implemented. The hybrid detector may be configured to obtain estimates of the energy of relevant spectral frequency components in a readback signal from the HD pattern, while also calculating estimates of the lateral position of the head based on these energies, without applying a DFT or a FFT.
Samples provided at the input of the components performing the spectral estimation may be obtained at the proper sampling instants by interpolating the sequence of readback HD servo signal samples from an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter at a fixed clock frequency in one embodiment, or at a variable clock frequency in another embodiment. The time base of the interpolator may be derived from the estimate of the tape velocity provided by the TBS channel operating in parallel with the HD detector, in some embodiments, as will be described in further detail below.
Various trade-offs between the rate of generation of spectral estimates, from which servo reader lateral position estimates are obtained, and the standard deviation of the estimation error are possible. However, a suitable and preferred implementation may be achieved with a significantly reduced complexity compared to DFT-based or FFT-based implementations. Specifically, in one embodiment, only a small set of spectral estimates are computed, compared to the fixed set of equally-spaced spectral components computed by a DFT or FFT. Furthermore, the integration interval may be freely adjusted, while a DFT/FFT-based solution involves the integration interval being multiples of the DFT/FFT size.
Even when the HD servo pattern uses a large number of tone frequencies, the maximum number of spectral estimates that are computed by the proposed detector may correspond to the maximum number of tracks that an HD servo reader reads simultaneously at any time. Also, the proposed detector may be reconfigured to provide spectral estimates corresponding to the tracks currently being read based on the coarse positioning information from the TBS channel.
Referring again to
Looking momentarily to
Table 1 below provides several exemplary values for various ones of the dimensions identified in
According to an exemplary approach, which is in no way intended to limit the invention, the height H may be about 186 μm, and the angle α may be about 6°, while the thickness t is about 2.1 μm. According to an exemplary approach, which is in no way intended to limit the invention, the spacing S may be about 5 μm, while the sub-frame length SFL is about 100 μm. As described above, patterned transitions such as that shown in
Referring again to
An HD servo pattern preferably includes periodic waveforms of differing frequencies alternately written in the lateral (cross-track) direction. Accordingly, HD servo patterns may be able to desirably provide more accurate and/or more frequent estimates of servo channel parameters according to various embodiments described herein. Looking to
The three portions 508, 506, 504 of the periodic waveforms are characterized by three different frequencies f1, f2, and f3, respectively, where f3>f2>f1. According to various approaches, each waveform may be characterized as having a number of periods in a range from about 25 to about 200, such as 30 periods, 50 periods, 75 periods, 100 periods, etc., within a predetermined spacing. More preferably, the predetermined spacing may be in a range from about 50 μm to about 150 μm, such as about 60 μm, about 75 μm, about 100 μm, etc., depending on the approach. Moreover, the symbol length may be in a range from about 0.5 μm to about 3.0 μm, e.g., such as about 1.0 μm, about 1.5 μm, about 2.0 μm, etc.
Hence, with continued reference to
Similarly, the graph 520 in
Note that the waveform periods of the three frequencies may be integer multiples of a period T, for example T=241.3 nm, which corresponds to the highest spatial frequency, which is proportional to 1/T, when spectral estimation by a DFT/FFT-based detector with a minimum number of spectral bins for given integration interval is adopted.
Ideally, the two periodic waveforms, whose energies are estimated by the DFT/FFT-based detector 608, are sinusoidal waveforms at frequencies f1 and f2. However, a DFT/FFT-based detector 608 when used for HD patterns has an inherent drawback where the number of spectral components, for which an estimate of the energy is provided, depends on the integration interval for the DFT (or FFT) computation, and may be very large when the integration interval extends over several periods of the fundamental frequency, as is typically the case when a low-noise estimation process is used.
As the number of periodic waveform components forming the readback signal of an HD pattern is usually limited to two or three for a given lateral position, it is advantageous to resort to a low-complexity implementation of the detector, whereby only estimates of the energy of the relevant spectral components at two or three frequencies in the readback signal of an HD pattern are efficiently computed.
Now referring to
For an accurate estimation of the energies of the three periodic waveform components in a finite integration interval, the frequencies of the periodic waveform components preferably match the characteristic frequencies of the three digital filters 702, 704, 706, denoted by ω0/2π, ω1/2π, and ω2/2π, respectively. When a match is not possible, it is preferred that the frequencies are within about 0.001% to 1.0% of the frequencies set for the three digital filters 702, 704, 706, and more preferably a difference of less than about 0.1%. This may be achieved by resampling the output sequence of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 708 at appropriate time instants, which may be provided by an interpolator 710, with a time base obtained from the tape velocity and a given interpolation distance ΔxHD, as shown in
In one embodiment, the interpolator 710 may be a cubic Lagrange interpolator to achieve smaller signal distortion than a linear interpolator. Of course, any suitable interpolator may be used, as would be understood by one of skill in the art. The output signal samples of the interpolator 710 are obtained that correspond with HD servo signal samples taken at points on the magnetic tape that are separated by a step interpolation distance equal to ΔxHD, independently of the tape velocity. ΔxHD is preferably selected such that the condition T/ΔxHD=K is satisfied independently of the tape velocity, where K is a positive integer number. The time base for the generation of the interpolator output samples may be provided by an interpolation time computation unit 712, which yields the sequence of time instants {tn}, at which the resampling of the ADC output sequence takes place. Time instants {tn} may furthermore be provided to circular buffer 722.
The detector 700 illustrated in
For a fixed tape velocity, the time instants {tn} may be uniformly spaced by T1 seconds, where T1 denotes the time interval that it takes for the magnetic tape to travel over a distance equal to the step interpolation distance ΔxHD. The estimation of the time interval T1 is performed by a step interpolation time computation unit 714, which computes T1=ΔxHD/νest, i.e., the ratio between ΔxHD and the estimate of the instantaneous tape velocity νest, which may be obtained from the TBS channel in one approach. The TBS channel may operate as a synchronous TBS channel according to one embodiment. The average number of interpolated signal samples generated per ADC clock interval is given by the ratio T1/Ts, where Ts=1/fs denotes the clock interval. The ADC clock frequency, fs, may be a fixed frequency in one approach, or a variable frequency in another approach.
In one embodiment, the HD detector 700 may be configured to estimate the tape velocity to determine time instants at which to obtain interpolated signal samples to input to the Goertzel algorithm, as filtering elements based on an output of a TBS channel of the tape drive configured to process a TBS pattern written on the servo band of the magnetic tape medium may not be available.
In another embodiment, the HD detector 700 may be configured to compute a head lateral position estimate for coarse positioning of the servo reader based on an output of a TBS channel of the tape drive. Also, the HD detector 700 may be configured to adjust settings for at least one digital filter according to waveform frequency components of the HD servo signal estimated based on the head lateral position estimate. For example, the setting coy of the i-th digital filter may be adjusted based on the coarse position estimate and the known frequency ωi=2πfi of the HD patterns located at that estimated (coarse) lateral position. In another example, the settings of the i-th digital filter may be adjusted based on the coarse position estimate and the combination of symbol length, integration interval, etc., of the HD patterns located at that estimated (coarse) lateral position.
The HD detector 700 receives, as inputs, values of the three characteristic frequencies {ω0, ω1, ω2}, with ωi=2πfi from which the coefficients of the digital filters 702, 704, 706 are obtained. These frequencies may be obtained from the knowledge of the servo reader lateral position provided by the TBS channel in one embodiment, as described above. Assuming the number “Q” represents the number of samples over which the estimates of the energies of the periodic waveforms are computed, Q may determine the length of the integration interval, and therefore may also determine the spatial frequency resolution. Assuming the value of Q is even, Q/2 represents the number of frequencies for which energy estimates would be provided by a DFT/FFT-based HD detector that operates over Q samples. Q may be obtained from the tape drive memory in one embodiment. Moreover, Q is typically about 100 or larger.
Multiplication of the three energy estimates by gain factors gi, for i=0, 1, 2, is provided to compensate for the different attenuations that the readback HD servo signal may experience at different frequencies, where the normalization g1=1 may be assumed. Hence, a lateral position estimate of the HD servo reader 716, and hence a position error signal from the knowledge of the target head position, may be obtained by a linear combination of the three energy estimates. Note that the maximum number of spectral estimates that are computed at any time is determined by the maximum number of tracks that may be read by the HD servo reader 716, which may equal three in some approaches, and not by the overall number of tones in the HD servo pattern, which may be larger than three. In a case where the number of tones is larger than three, the values of the three characteristic frequencies {ω0, ω1, ω2} that are provided to the HD detector 700 may be derived from knowledge of the lateral position estimate obtained from the TBS channel, as mentioned above.
In another embodiment, the HD detector 700 may be implemented without an interpolator 710, but with digital filters configurable to adjust their settings according to the waveform spatial frequency components of the HD servo signal read from the magnetic tape medium and the tape velocity. Adjustment of the digital filters settings may be based on a coarse head lateral position estimate and/or a tape velocity estimate computed based on an output of a TBS channel of the tape drive.
In an alternate embodiment, an HD detector may implement additional digital filters, in excess to the digital filters used to estimate the energies at the frequencies corresponding to the patterns written on the tracks being read simultaneously by the HD servo reader 716. The one or more excess digital filters may be used to simplify reconfiguration of the detector when the target lateral position changes and, therefore, the input values of frequencies {ωx} vary dynamically.
In a further embodiment, the one or more excess digital filters may be used to distinguish HD patterns characterized by a small number of spectral components/lines from broadband noise and/or data signals. This may be achieved by choosing the characteristic frequency ωi of the excess digital filter such that it measures a spectral component at a frequency that is not used by the HD patterns.
The outputs |Xi,f|2 from the three digital filters 702, 704, 706 are provided to a PES computation unit 724, which provides a position error estimate (ϵt) at given time t.
Other components of the HD detector 700 may operate as would be known to one of skill in the art, and are omitted here for the sake of clarity of the described embodiments.
As described above, in the past tape skew and TDS measurements have been determined from the information from servo bands on both sides of a head module, or information from servo readers on multiple head modules. In other words, to compute skew and/or TDS, conventional products have needed to obtain valid servo information from more than one servo band and/or more than one head module. This makes such conventional head modules particularly susceptible to degraded performance and/or being rendered completely useless by servo defects, scratches caused by asperities on the surface of the magnetic tape, etc.
Although hybrid servo patterns provide some additional information which may be used to improve track following performance, conventional products have been unable to implement such hybrid servo patterns while also achieving backward compatibility. Backward compatibility is highly desirable for removable storage media such as magnetic tape. For instance, backward compatibility allows a given tape drive to support multiple different generations of magnetic tape. Accordingly, backward compatibility allows users to maximize flexibility of tape media resource arrangements available to them.
To achieve backward compatibility among multiple generations of magnetic tape, it is desirable that a number of data bands relative to servo bands maintains a standard ratio while also complying with data transducer configurations employed to achieve further increases in data capacity of the magnetic tapes. Moreover, it is desirable that servo readers on a single head module are compatible with various different servo band formats. However, this has served as a significant issue for conventional products thus far. Accordingly, achieving a magnetic tape product and/or system which is able to continue to increase data capacity, while also improving data track following performance, as well as maintaining a standard ratio of data bands relative to servo bands is greatly desired.
Looking momentarily to
As previously mentioned, conventional products implementing conventional servo bands and conventional head modules, e.g., such as those illustrated in
It should be noted that the embodiments illustrated in
Looking now to
As shown, product 900 of
When produced, the extents of the servo bands 904 and/or data bands 906 (represented in
The prespecified width W of the servo bands 904 effectively defines the outer lateral edges of the servo band itself. Thus, data may be written immediately adjacent the outer extents of the servo bands 904 along the cross-track direction 910 in some approaches. In other approaches, the magnetic tape 902 may implement guard bands which separate the servo bands 904 from the data bands 906 along the cross-track direction 910. Referring momentarily to
Referring again to
The format of a magnetic tape may be stored differently in different approaches. In some approaches, the format corresponding to the magnetic tape 902 of
Although the lateral extents of the servo bands 904 and/or data bands 906 may not actually be formed on the magnetic tape 902, the magnetic tape 902 preferably does have servo patterns (not shown in
Looking now to
Each of the servo band configurations 920, 930, 940, 950 depicted in
Referring specifically to
A width WHD2 of the HD servo pattern 922 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) may be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Moreover, a width WTBS2 of the first TBS servo pattern 924 and a width WTBS2′ of the second TBS servo pattern 926 (both measured in the cross-track direction 910) are each less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Accordingly, a combined width of the HD servo pattern 922 and one of the TBS servo patterns 924, 926 may be less than or equal to two thirds of the prespecified width W of the servo band. The upper TBS pattern 926 may be located in a region of the servo band that otherwise is reserved as an unused region. Therefore, the servo band configuration 920 may extend fully across the prespecified width W of the servo band. For approaches in which the magnetic tape does not include a guard band, one or both of the TBS patterns 924, 926 may abut (e.g., be immediately adjacent) a location where a first data track may be written in the adjacent data band. However, for approaches in which a data band is present, one or both of the TBS patterns 924, 926 may still be separated from the location where a first data track may be written by a guard band, e.g., as would be appreciated by one skilled in the art after reading the present description.
Now looking to
A width WHD3 of the HD servo pattern 932 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) may be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Moreover, a width WTBS3 of the TBS servo pattern 934 is also less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Accordingly, a combined width of the HD servo pattern 932 and the TBS servo pattern 934 may be less than or equal to two thirds of the prespecified width W of the servo band.
Referring specifically to
A width WHD3 of the HD servo pattern 932 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) may be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Moreover, a width WTBS3 of the TBS servo pattern 934 may also be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Preferably, the width WHD3 of the HD servo pattern 932 and the width WTBS3 of the TBS servo pattern 934 are each less than or equal to one sixth of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Accordingly, a combined width of the HD servo pattern 932 and the TBS servo pattern 934 may be less than or equal to two thirds, preferably the width of the servo patterns 932 and 934 are each less than or equal to one third, of the prespecified width W of the servo band.
A width WHD4 of the HD servo pattern 942 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) may be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Moreover, a width WTBS4 of the first TBS servo pattern 944 and a width WTBS4′ of the second TBS servo pattern 946 (both measured in the cross-track direction 910) may each be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. However, it is preferred that the width WHD4 of the HD servo pattern 942 and the width WTBS4, WTBS4′ of each respective one of the TBS servo patterns 944, 946 are each less than or equal to one sixth of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Accordingly, a combined width of the HD servo pattern 942 and one of the TBS servo patterns 944, 946 may be less than or equal to two thirds, preferably less than or equal to one third, of the prespecified width W of the servo band.
Now looking to
A width WHD5 of the HD servo pattern 952 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) may be less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Moreover, a width WTBS5 of the TBS servo pattern 954 is also less than or equal to one third of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Preferably, the width WHD5 of the HD servo pattern 952 and the width WTBS5 of the TBS servo pattern 954 are each less than or equal to one sixth of the prespecified width W of the given servo band Servo Band 4. Accordingly, a combined width of the HD servo pattern 952 and the TBS servo pattern 954 may be less than or equal to two thirds, preferably less than or equal to one third, of the prespecified width W of the servo band.
It should be noted that, while the various servo band configurations illustrated in the different approaches of
Referring back to
Looking now to
Each of the servo reader configurations 960, 970 depicted in
Referring specifically now to
A distance D1 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) between each of the immediately adjacent servo readers 980, 982 and 984, 986 in each of the groups 962, 964 respectively, may be less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width W of the given servo band. A magnetic tape head having immediately adjacent servo readers which are separated by a distance D1 which is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width W of the given servo band is highly desirable as the servo readers are thereby able to read servo patterns with added granularity and achieve improved track following efficiency for various different types (e.g., generations) of magnetic tape. For example, referring momentarily to
Looking now to
A distance D2 (measured in the cross-track direction 910) between the center of each of the immediately adjacent servo readers 988, 990, 992 and 994, 996, 998 in each of the respective groups 972, 974 may be less than or equal to one third, preferably less than or equal to one sixth, of a prespecified width W of the given servo band. A magnetic tape head having immediately adjacent servo readers which are separated by a distance D2 which is less than or equal to one sixth of a prespecified width W of the given servo band is highly desirable as the servo readers are thereby able to read servo patterns with added granularity and achieve improved track following efficiency for various different types (e.g., generations) of magnetic tape. For example, referring momentarily to
It follows that a magnetic tape may have a hybrid servo band configuration which includes servo patterns which each have a width which is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of the given servo band. Moreover, a magnetic tape head may have two groups of servo readers, each group having at least two individual servo readers. Each of the immediately adjacent servo readers in a group are separated by a distance which is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of the given servo band, thereby allowing the magnetic tape head to be positionable relative to a magnetic tape such that two or more of the servo readers in a single group are able to read servo information from one or more servo patterns in the given servo band simultaneously. The number and relative spacing between the servo patterns in the various approaches described above in
Each of the steps of the method 1000 may be performed by any suitable component of the operating environment. For example, in various embodiments, the method 1000 may be partially or entirely performed by a controller, a processor, etc., or some other device having one or more processors therein. The processor, e.g., processing circuit(s), chip(s), and/or module(s) implemented in hardware and/or software, and preferably having at least one hardware component may be utilized in any device to perform one or more steps of the method 1000. Illustrative processors include, but are not limited to, a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc., combinations thereof, or any other suitable computing device known in the art. According to one illustrative approach, logic may be integrated with and/or executable by controller 128 of tape drive 100 of
As shown in
In other approaches, the servo band configuration on a magnetic tape may be determined by sweeping a servo reader over an anticipated location of a servo band (e.g., near an outer lateral edge of the magnetic tape) and reading the servo patterns. Moreover, the servo information gathered from the signals read may be used to determine the servo band configuration of the servo bands on the magnetic tape. In still other approaches, the servo band configuration of servo bands on a magnetic tape may be determined by visually inspecting the servo bands on the magnetic tape, or any other process which would be apparent to one skilled in the art after reading the present description.
Furthermore, operation 1004 includes using servo readers on a magnetic tape head to read one or more of the servo bands based on the determined servo band configuration. Again, depending on the servo band configuration and/or the arrangement of servo readers included on the magnetic tape head, reading one or more of the servo bands may include a number of different sub-processes (e.g., as will be described in further detail below with reference to
With continued reference to method 1000, operation 1006 includes using the servo information read from the one or more of the servo bands to position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape. The servo information read from the one or more servo bands may be used to determine positioning information of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape. As a magnetic tape is passed over a magnetic tape head, the relative position of the magnetic tape head with respect to the magnetic tape orientation changes constantly. For example, tape skew, lateral tape motion, TDS, etc., vary while reading from and/or writing to magnetic tape. Moreover, the velocity at which the magnetic tape is passed over the magnetic tape head varies as well. Accordingly, the servo information read from one or more of the servo bands may be used to determine tape skew, lateral tape motion, TDS, tape velocity, etc., which may in turn be used to improve performance by maintaining a desired position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape with significantly improved efficiency compared to conventional products, e.g., as will be described in further detail below.
Depending on the servo band configuration determined in operation 1002, and/or the arrangement (e.g., number) of servo readers included on the magnetic tape head, the operations included in method 1000 may include various sub-processes given the particular approach, e.g., servo reader configuration corresponding to the magnetic tape head. Accordingly,
Looking to
Referring specifically to
With continued reference to
It should be noted that each of the servo readers in a group of servo readers on a given magnetic tape head according to any of the approaches described herein may be able to read HD servo patterns as well as TBS servo patterns in the sense that each of the servo readers may be able to generate a readback signal which corresponds to the respective servo pattern when passed thereover while operational (e.g., powered on). However, depending on which type of servo pattern a particular readback signal corresponds to (e.g., TBS or HD), circuitry electrically coupled to the magnetic tape head which the servo readers correspond to may route the readback signal to a combination of components (e.g., a circuit) which is able to decode the readback signal and produce readback information based on the type of servo pattern the readback signal originated from, e.g., refer back to
Moreover, the servo information derived from the servo patterns of a servo band may be further used by the magnetic tape head and/or various other components. For instance, sub-operation 1106 includes determining (e.g., decoding, calculating, etc.) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern, as well as the information read from the HD servo pattern. Moreover, sub-operation 1108 includes determining (e.g., decoding, calculating, etc.) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern, as well as the information read from the HD servo pattern. The lateral position of the magnetic tape head and/or the velocity of the magnetic tape may be determined using any process which would be apparent to one skilled in the art after reading the present description.
The lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape may be used to reposition the magnetic tape head such that the data transducers on the magnetic tape head are desirably positioned over the data tracks of the corresponding data band. Moreover, the velocity of tape may be used to determine how fast or slow the data tracks should be written to the magnetic tape in some approaches. Accordingly, the lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape and the velocity of the magnetic tape may be used to desirably position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape.
Implementing the various processes described in
Now looking to
With continued reference to
Referring back to
It follows that servo information may preferably be read from a certain servo pattern with a certain servo reader depending on the direction in which the magnetic tape is traveling. For instance, referring momentarily back to
Referring again to
Implementing the various processes described in
Moving to
With continued reference to
The flowchart proceeds to sub-operation 1144 in response to determining that the second servo reader of the one of the groups of servo readers is not currently oriented over the TBS pattern. There, sub-operation 1144 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the first servo reader. Moreover, sub-operation 1146 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the first servo reader. The lateral position of the magnetic tape head and/or the velocity of the magnetic tape may be determined using any process which would be apparent to one skilled in the art after reading the present description.
Returning to decision 1142, the flowchart may proceed to sub-operation 1148 in response to determining that the second servo reader of the one of the groups of servo readers is currently oriented over the TBS pattern. There sub-operation 1148 includes reading information from the TBS pattern with the second servo reader of the one of the groups of servo readers.
The flowchart of
Further still, sub-operation 1154 includes determining (e.g., compute) a skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape, and sub-operation 1156 includes determining (e.g., compute) TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape. As previously mentioned, according to an exemplary approach, the skew of the magnetic tape head may be determined using the servo information read by the servo readers in a same group. Accordingly, when two or more servo readers are able to read the same TBS pattern at one end of the magnetic tape head, the skew between the relative orientation of the magnetic tape head and magnetic tape may be determined, e.g., as described below with reference to
As a result, implementing a magnetic tape head which is able to perform one or more of the various processes described in
According to some approaches, skew may be determined by using any of the processes described below with reference to
The skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape may be used to reposition (e.g., rotate) the magnetic tape head such that the data transducers on the magnetic tape head are desirably positioned relative to the data tracks of the corresponding data band. Moreover, the TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape may be used to reposition (e.g., laterally adjust) the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape in some approaches. Accordingly, the skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape and the TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape may be used to desirably position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape.
Looking now to
Referring specifically to
With continued reference to
Moreover, it should again be noted that each of the servo readers in a group of servo readers on a given magnetic tape head according to any of the approaches described herein may be able to read HD servo patterns as well as TBS servo patterns in the sense that each of the servo readers may be able to generate a readback signal which corresponds to the respective servo pattern when passed thereover while operational (e.g., powered on). However, depending on which type of servo pattern a particular readback signal corresponds to (e.g., TBS or HD), circuitry electrically coupled to the magnetic tape head and the servo readers corresponding thereto may route the readback signal to a combination of components (e.g., a circuit) which is able to decode the readback signal and produce readback information based on the type of servo pattern the readback signal originated from, e.g., refer back to
Moreover, the servo information derived from the servo patterns of a servo band may be further used by the magnetic tape head and/or various other components. For instance, sub-operation 1206 includes determining (e.g., decoding, calculating, etc.) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern, as well as the information read from the HD servo pattern. Moreover, sub-operation 1208 includes determining (e.g., decoding, calculating, etc.) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern, as well as the information read from the HD servo pattern. The lateral position of the magnetic tape head and/or the velocity of the magnetic tape may be determined using any process which would be apparent to one skilled in the art after reading the present description. The lateral position and/or velocity of tape may be used according to any desired approach.
Implementing the various processes described in
Now looking to
With continued reference to
Referring back to
The flowchart also proceeds to sub-operation 1226 in response to determining that the magnetic tape is traveling in the forward direction. There, sub-operation 1226 includes reading information from a second of the two TBS patterns with the second servo reader of the one of the groups of servo readers (e.g., see 998 of
It follows that servo information may preferably be read from a certain servo pattern with a certain servo reader depending on the direction in which the magnetic tape is traveling. For instance, referring momentarily back to
Referring again to
The flowchart is also shown as proceeding from sub-operation 1230 to sub-operation 1236 which includes determining (e.g., decoding) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the second of the two TBS patterns by the second servo reader, and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the first servo reader. Moreover, sub-operation 1238 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the second of the two TBS patterns by the second servo reader, and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the first servo reader.
Additionally, a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape as well as a tape velocity are determined from the servo information read from the information read from the first of the two TBS patterns. Accordingly, sub-operation 1240 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the first of the two TBS patterns by the third servo reader. Moreover, sub-operation 1242 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the first of the two TBS patterns by the third servo reader.
Further still, sub-operation 1244 includes determining (e.g., compute) a skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape, and sub-operation 1246 includes determining (e.g., compute) TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape. Again, according to an exemplary approach, the skew of the magnetic tape head may be determined using the servo information read by the servo readers in a same group. Accordingly, when two or more servo readers are able to read two respective TBS patterns at one end of the magnetic tape head, the skew between the relative orientation of the magnetic tape head and magnetic tape may be determined. This resulting ability is highly desirable, as single servo band detection with multiple servo readers on a single magnetic tape head allows skew and/or TDS measurements to be determined even while other servo band information is invalid or unobtainable. Moreover, this improvement is further exemplified when contrasted to conventional products which must check the timing to detect identifier from two different servo patterns on two different servo bands to assure skew information is decoded from same servo frame. As a result, implementing a magnetic tape head which is able to perform one or more of the various processes described in
According to some approaches, the skew of the magnetic tape head may be determined using any of the processes described below with reference to
Again, the skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape may be used to reposition (e.g., rotate) the magnetic tape head such that the data transducers on the magnetic tape head are desirably positioned relative to the data tracks of the corresponding data band. Moreover, the TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape may be used to reposition (e.g., laterally shift) the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape in some approaches. Accordingly, the skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape and the TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape may be used to desirably position the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape.
Implementing the various processes described in
Moving to
With continued reference to
In response to determining that the second servo reader positioned adjacent to the one of the groups of servo readers is not also currently oriented over the bottom half of the TBS pattern, the flowchart proceeds to sub-operation 1256. There, sub-operation 1256 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the second servo reader, and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the first servo reader. Furthermore, sub-operation 1258 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the second servo reader, and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the first servo reader.
However, returning to decision 1254, the flowchart proceeds to sub-operation 1260 in response to determining that the first servo reader positioned adjacent to the one of the groups of servo readers is also currently oriented over the TBS pattern. There, sub-operation 1260 includes reading information from the TBS pattern with the first servo reader as well.
Sub-operation 1262 further includes determining (e.g., decoding) a lateral position of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the second servo reader, and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the third servo reader, while sub-operation 1264 includes determining (e.g., decoding) a velocity of the magnetic tape using the information read from the TBS pattern by the second servo reader and the information read from the HD servo pattern by the third servo reader. Furthermore, sub-operation 1266 includes determining (e.g., computing) a skew of the magnetic tape head relative to the magnetic tape, and sub-operation 1268 includes determining (e.g., computing) TDS information corresponding to the magnetic tape.
According to an exemplary approach, the skew of the magnetic tape head may be determined using any of the processes described below with reference to
Implementing the various processes described in
Looking now to
Referring specifically to
The graphs 1320, 1330 of
The following equations Equation 1 and Equation 2 represent the interrelations of the relative orientations of the magnetic tape head 1306 and the magnetic tape 1304. Accordingly, Equation 1 and/or Equation 2 may be used to determine (e.g., calculate) skew related information depending on the desired approach as follows:
φ=v(τ2−τ1+Δ1−Δ2) Equation 1
where v is the velocity of the magnetic tape (e.g., tape speed).
where α is the azimuth angle of the servo bursts in the servo pattern depending on the type of magnetic tape (e.g., see Table 1 in relation to
Similarly, looking now to
The graphs 1420, 1430 of
The following equations Equation 3 and Equation 4 represent the interrelations of the relative orientations of the magnetic tape head 1406 and the magnetic tape 1404. Accordingly, Equation 3 and/or Equation 4 may be used to determine (e.g., calculate) skew related information depending on the desired approach as follows:
φ=v2(τ4−τ3+Δ3−Δ4) Equation 3
where v2 is the velocity of the magnetic tape.
Again, any of the processes for determining the skew of a magnetic head relative to a magnetic tape being passed thereacross described in relation to
As previously mentioned, the magnetic tape 902 illustrated in
The data storage cartridge 1500 is shown as having an outer housing 1502, which may include plastic(s), metal(s), rubber(s), etc., and/or combinations thereof. The outer housing 1502 preferably defines an inner region (which is obstructed from view) which is large enough to store a magnetic medium. Accordingly, the inner region of the data storage cartridge 1500 may include a magnetic tape. While the magnetic tape may be stored in the data storage cartridge 1500 in any desired manner, it is preferred that the magnetic tape is wound on a flanged or flangeless spool which is in turn stored in the inner region of the data storage cartridge 1500.
The data storage cartridge 1500 also includes a cartridge memory 1504 which is stored in the inner region of the data storage cartridge 1500 and shown in a cutaway portion of the Figure, which is in no way intended to limit the invention. It follows that certain information corresponding to the magnetic medium stored in the data storage cartridge 1500 may be saved in the cartridge memory 1504. For example, a format in which a magnetic tape in the cartridge 1500 was produced may be stored in the cartridge memory 1504. Thus, a prespecified width of each of the servo bands included in the magnetic tape may be determined from the information stored in the cartridge memory 1504.
However, any configuration of data storage cartridge may be used whether or not it includes the cartridge memory 1504. According to some approaches, in place of or in addition to the cartridge memory 1504, the data storage cartridge 1500 may include a barcode coupled to an outer surface of the outer housing 1502, a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag coupled to the outer housing 1502, etc., and used to store additional information corresponding to a magnetic medium in the data storage cartridge 1500.
Accordingly, various approaches described and/or suggested herein are able to successfully improve tape drive performance. As described above, it is preferred that magnetic tapes have a hybrid servo band configuration which include servo patterns which each have a width which is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of the given servo band. Moreover, a magnetic tape head preferably includes two groups of servo readers, each group having at least two individual servo readers. Each of the immediately adjacent servo readers in a group are separated by a distance which is less than or equal to one third of a prespecified width of the given servo band, thereby allowing the magnetic tape head to be positionable relative to a magnetic tape such that two or more of the servo readers in a single group are able to read servo information from one or more servo patterns in the given servo band simultaneously. It follows that the number and relative spacing between the servo patterns in the various approaches described herein, as well as the number and relative spacing between servo readers in the various approaches described herein allow for a corresponding magnetic tape head and tape drive to achieve improved performance while also enabling backward compatibility for various styles (e.g., generations) of magnetic tape. As a result, by implementing the foregoing technical features, the shortcomings experienced in conventional products are overcome.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable CD-ROM, a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
Moreover, a system according to various embodiments may include a processor and logic integrated with and/or executable by the processor, the logic being configured to perform one or more of the process steps recited herein. By integrated with, what is meant is that the processor has logic embedded therewith as hardware logic, such as an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA), etc. By executable by the processor, what is meant is that the logic is hardware logic; software logic such as firmware, part of an operating system, part of an application program; etc., or some combination of hardware and software logic that is accessible by the processor and configured to cause the processor to perform some functionality upon execution by the processor. Software logic may be stored on local and/or remote memory of any memory type, as known in the art. Any processor known in the art may be used, such as a software processor module and/or a hardware processor such as an ASIC, a FPGA, a central processing unit (CPU), an integrated circuit (IC), etc.
It will be clear that the various features of the foregoing systems and/or methodologies may be combined in any way, creating a plurality of combinations from the descriptions presented above.
It will be further appreciated that embodiments of the present invention may be provided in the form of a service deployed on behalf of a customer.
The inventive concepts disclosed herein have been presented by way of example to illustrate the myriad features thereof in a plurality of illustrative scenarios, embodiments, and/or implementations. It should be appreciated that the concepts generally disclosed are to be considered as modular, and may be implemented in any combination, permutation, or synthesis thereof. In addition, any modification, alteration, or equivalent of the presently disclosed features, functions, and concepts that would be appreciated by a person having ordinary skill in the art upon reading the instant descriptions should also be considered within the scope of this disclosure.
While various embodiments have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of an embodiment of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
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