5289results about "Filamentary/web record carriers" patented technology

A method and system for providing a disk drive is described. The disk drive includes media such as one or more disks, a slider, and a head residing on the slider. The head has an air-bearing surface (ABS), a portion of which contacts the media during touchdown. The head further includes a plurality of touchdown sensors. A first touchdown sensor is proximate to the ABS, while a second touchdown sensor is distal from the ABS. The touchdown sensors are capable of detecting a temperature change of 0.1 degree Celsius or, in some embodiments, smaller.

A failure predicting unit predicts a failure in a hard disk device that forms a disk array. A data transferring unit transfers data from a failure-predicted hard disk device for which the failure is predicted by the failure predicting unit to a spare disk. A data deleting unit deletes the data from the failure-predicted hard disk device after the data transferring unit completes transferring the data.

A disk drive is disclosed for executing a preemptive multitasking operating system comprising tasks of varying priority, including a disk task for processing disk commands by initiating seek operations and configuring parameters of a read/write channel, a host task for initiating disk commands in response to host commands received from a host computer, a background task for initiating disk commands to perform background operations including a defect scan of the disk, and an execution task for arbitrating the disk commands generated by the host task and the background task and for transmitting the arbitrated disk commands to the disk task.

Disclosed is a self-heating disk drive that comprises a voice coil motor (VCM), a spindle motor, and a temperature sensor. The VCM includes a VCM coil and the VCM is configured to move an actuator having a head attached to a distal end of the actuator. The spindle motor includes a plurality of spindle coils to spin a disk of the disk drive. The temperature sensor is used to read an internal temperature of the disk drive. Circuitry is configured to: command the application of current to the VCM coil without loading the head onto the disk and to the spindle coils of the spindle motor in a manner so as not to spin the disk; and, if the internal temperature reading reaches a pre-determined spindle temperature, the spindle motor is allowed to spin-up the disk.

Disclosed is an optical disk barcode forming method wherein, as information to be barcoded, position information for piracy prevention, which is a form of ID, is coded as a barcode and is recoded by laser trimming on a reflective film in a PCA area of an optical disk. When playing back the thus manufactured optical disk on a reproduction apparatus, the barcode data can be played back using the same optical pickup.

It is an object of the present invention to improve reliability of defect management. By providing a plurality of management data areas each including a defect management area typically in a lead-in zone of a disc inner-side region enclosed by a circumference having a predetermined radius on a disc-shaped recording medium, reliability of the defect management can be obtained. In addition, by placing a plurality of the defect management areas (information areas Info1 and Info2) at locations, which are separated from each other in the radial direction of the disc-shaped recording medium, sandwiching a recording/reproduction condition adjustment area OPC having a relatively large size, the reliability of the defect management areas can be further improved. Furthermore, by providing each of the defect management areas with a plurality of recording areas, which include a currently used recording area for recording defect management information and spare recording areas each usable as a substitute for the currently used recording area, the currently used recording area can be replaced with one of the spare recording areas in accordance with an update count of the currently used recording area or error status of this currently used recording area.

A computer network is disclosed comprising a plurality of interconnected computer devices including a plurality of disk drives for storing network data, each disk drive comprising a head and a disk. The computer network comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes, and a reservation facility for reserving resources within the disk drives and the nodes to support a predetermined Quality-of-Service constraint with respect to data transmitted between the disk drives through the nodes of the computer network. In one embodiment, a switched node is disclosed comprising switching circuitry having more than two bi-directional ports for simultaneously transmitting data in multiple dimensions through a computer network, a disk for storing data, a head actuated over the disk for writing data to and reading data from the disk, and a reservation facility for reserving resources associated with data read from the disk and written to the disk to support the predetermined Quality-of-Service constraint with respect to data transmitted through the computer network.

A disk drive is disclosed for connecting to a host, the host comprising loopback circuitry operable to loop a pattern received from the disk drive back to the disk drive. The disk drive comprises interface circuitry including a transmitter driver operable to transmit transmission signals at a transmission amplitude, and a receiver driver operable to receive reception signals. The transmitter driver is configured to transmit at an initial transmission amplitude, and a calibration pattern is transmitted to the host through the transmitter driver. The reception signals received by the receiver driver are monitored to detect a loopback pattern representing a loopback of the calibration pattern. The loopback pattern is processed to detect an error, and the transmission amplitude is adjusted in response to the error.

A disk drive is disclosed comprising a microprocessor and a power driver for generating at least one actuator signal applied to the VCM actuator, wherein a serial communication circuit is used to communicate with the power driver. At least one control component periodically generates a control signal, wherein the control signal is transmitted at a substantially constant periodic interval using the serial communication circuit, and a timer times the periodic interval. A job queue controller queues and arbitrates serial communication requests to access the power driver using the serial communication circuit. The serial communication requests include a request to transmit the control signal and requests generated by the microprocessor. The job queue controller services a communication request generated by the microprocessor if the communication request can be serviced before the timer expires.

A product, according to one embodiment, includes a magnetic recording tape having opposite ends, a longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape being defined between the ends. The magnetic recording tape has at least one servo track, the at least one servo track having a plurality of first magnetic bars and a plurality of third magnetic bars oriented to form chevron-like patterns with the first magnetic bars. The first magnetic bars each have a longitudinal axis oriented at a first angle between 2 and 88 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape. The third magnetic bars each have a longitudinal axis oriented at a second angle between 2 and 88 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the magnetic recording tape, the second angle having a different numerical absolute value than the first angle.

A method of and apparatus for managing disc defects in a disc using a temporary defect management area in the disc, and the disc, where the method includes recording in a data area user data; and recording in a temporary defect management area, which is present in at least one of a lead-in area and a lead-out area, which temporary defect information and temporary defect management information regarding the user data recorded in the data area are recorded. Accordingly, the method and apparatus are applicable to recordable discs and capable of effectively using the defect management area.