Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval – Record transport with head stationary during transducing – Drum record
Patent
1999-01-27
2000-06-20
Cao, Allen T.
Dynamic magnetic information storage or retrieval
Record transport with head stationary during transducing
Drum record
G11B 556
Patent
active
060784784
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention broadly concerns electronic recording devices and particularly concerns supports used to position read/write recording heads especially for selected, reciprocal translational movement in multi-track recording. The present invention particularly concerns controlled movement of a read/write head along a linear axis while eliminating rotational movement thereabout in a manner that allows greater precision. With such greater precision, the present invention contemplates increasing the density of recorded data on a selected medium by increasing the plurality of tracks that may be made on that medium.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The advent of the computer has already had a profound effect upon human society, and the impact of processing technology is expected to increase. Indeed, the desirability to store information for subsequent retrieval currently grows at an exponential rate. Thus, various types of devices have been developed to store data both for on-line usage as well as for archival purposes.
Where on-line processing requires data to be readily at hand, a significant improvement was provided by the advent of the magnetic disk storage array. Here, one or more magnetic disks are provided, and a read/write recording head is used to record information on the disk as well as to retrieve information or data for use by the computer processor. Significant strides have been made in the ability to increase the density of data stored on such magnetic disk arrays.
In order to gain an even higher density for on-line data, the optical disk was developed. These devices record data based upon a very small wavelength of light so that a higher density is obtained due to this technique. Laser light is employed to read the stored information or data on the optical disk. However, once imprinted, the disk presently cannot be rewritten although significant research is underway in an effort to develop such technology.
In early days of the computer, before the advent of the magnetic disks and the optical disk storage assemblies, data was typically stored on magnetic tapes, such as reel-to-reel tapes and later cassettes. In a magnetic tape storage device, a magnetic coil is used as a transducer both to imprint data magnetically on a moving band of magnetic film; thereafter, when the film is advanced across the transducer, the data may be read and re-input into a co-processor. Magnetic tape can be erased and rewritten many times and has an advantage of low cost.
Magnetic tape is still a highly desirable format for archiving data for rapid access is of less significance and cost is of concern. However, where vast quantities of data are to be maintained, these tapes can be bulky due to the physical number necessary to store the quantity of data. The capacity for such tapes to store data, of course, is dependent upon the number of "tracks" which can be independently placed across the width of the tape. Thus, for example, a magnetic tape read/write system that is able to read and write nine tracks of data on a single strip of tape will hold four and one-half times the amount of data as a system which only utilizes two tracks. Therefore, efforts to increase the capacity of magnetic tapes to store data have included substantial efforts to increase the number of tracks which can be written on a band of magnetic tape.
In order to increase the density of data stored onto a magnetic tape, one technique has been to support a plurality of individual read/write transducers in an array on the read/write recording head. For example, where eight transducers are placed side-by-side across the head, eight tracks can be simultaneously written or read as the tape is translated across the head and the tape advance direction. In order to provide this number of transducers, however, they may need to be very small in size. Importantly, the reduction in size of the transducer results in a substantial portion of unused magnetic tape in bands extending parallel to and in between each recorded tack. Therefore,
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Cao Allen T.
Henson Michael R.
Martin Timothy J.
Weygandt Mark H.
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