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IBM Assigned Fifteen Patents

On tapes

Extended diagnostic overlay control for tape storage devices
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,263,092) developed by Butt, Kevin D., Gale, Ernest S., and Nylander-Hill, Pamela R., Tucson, AZ, for a “extended diagnostic overlay control for tape storage devices.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method according to one embodiment includes monitoring a plurality of parameters relating to operation of a tape drive to collect data from the operation of the tape drive. A specification of one or more of the parameters to log during one or more collection windows is received. At least some of the data collected from the operation of the tape drive is logged to a memory during the one or more collection windows, where the at least some of the data collected is stored in a plurality of fields. The method further includes dynamically overlaying one or more of the fields with data corresponding to the one or more specified parameters.

The patent application was filed on November 19, 2014 (14/548,208).

Quasi-statically tilted head having dilated transducer pitch
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,263,087) developed by Biskeborn, Robert G., Hollister, CA, and Lo, Calvin S., Saratoga, CA, for a “quasi-statically tilted head having dilated transducer pitch.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method according to one embodiment includes reading and/or writing data to a magnetic medium using a head having an array of transducers. An axis of the array is defined between opposite ends thereof, and is tilted at an angle greater than 0.degree. from a line oriented perpendicular to an intended direction of tape travel thereacross during the reading and/or writing. The method further includes at least one of: introducing, by a controller, a timing offset to at least one servo channel to compensate for offset in servo readback signals introduced by the tilt of the head, introducing, by the controller, a timing offset to at least some read channels to compensate for offset in readback signals introduced by a tilt of the head, and introducing, by the controller, a timing offset to at least some write channels to enable writing of transitions that are readable by a non-tilted head.

The patent application was filed on October 29, 2014 (14/527,722).

Magnetic tape storage medium
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,263,073) developed by Cherubini, Giovanni, Furrer, Simeon, Jelitto, Jens, and Lantz, Mark A., Rueschlikon, Switzerland, for a “magnetic tape storage medium.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A magnetic tape storage medium includes at least one servo band with at least two sub-bands along a longitudinal extension of the medium. Servo bursts are written to the sub-bands to determine positional information of the medium. A first of the sub-bands includes a first burst with at least one servo stripe inclined at a first non-zero angle with respect to a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of the medium followed by a second burst comprising at least one servo stripe inclined at a second non-zero angle with respect to the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of the medium, which second angle is different from the first angle. A second of the sub-bands includes a first burst having at least one servo stripe followed by a second burst having at least one servo stripe, the first and the second bursts parallel to each other.

The patent application was filed on June 22, 2015 (14/745,544).

Multi-channel tape head having asymmetric channel arrays
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,263,072) developed by Koeppe, Peter Vandersalm, San Diego, CA, for a “multi-channel tape head having asymmetric channel arrays.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one general embodiment, an apparatus includes an inner module comprising an array of first transducers of a first type, and first and second outer modules flanking the inner module. Each outer module includes an array of second transducers of a second type that is different than the first type. Each of the second transducers in each array of second transducers being aligned with a corresponding one of the first transducers in a direction generally parallel to a path of tape travel thereacross. A number of active second transducers in each outer module is less than a number of active first transducers in the inner module.

The patent application was filed on February 25, 2015 (14/631,795).

Reading order search method and program for recording groups on tape
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,263,064) developed by Katagiri, Takashi, and Nishida, Mitsuhiro, Tokyo, Japan, for a “reading order search method and program for recording groups on tape.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”The present invention provides a search method used to search for the reading order of a plurality of recording groups when the plurality of recording groups written on tape are continuously read by a tape drive which manages data on tape in recording units having a fixed data length for each recording. This search method includes the steps of: receiving information on a plurality of tape groups to be read, and sorting the plurality of recording groups to be read so the reading time is shortened. In the sorting step, the time required to sort the plurality of reading groups is reduced by combining two or more recording groups into a single object to be sorted in the sorting step when at least two or more contiguous recording groups have been assigned to the same region or are assigned across adjacent regions among the plurality of regions.

The patent application was filed on February 10, 2014 (14/176,291).

Reading file using plurality of tape media
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,262,081) developed by Ashida, Takashi, Itagaki, Hiroshi, Masuda, Setsuko, Miyamura, Tsuyoshi, and Watanabe, Terue, Tokyo, Japan, for a “method for reading file using plurality of tape media.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A storage system includes a plurality of tape drives connected to a host, and a buffer configured to temporarily hold data read from the drives. A mechanism loads a plurality of media on which a file has been written to the plurality of drives so as to mount the plurality of media in the plurality of drives and divides the file into a plurality of data portions in an order. The mechanism determines a medium that takes the shortest time to move from a current position of a read head of a corresponding drive to a beginning position of the file and one or more media from which following data portions of the beginning data portion are to be read. The mechanism executes reading of the following data portions from the next media and temporarily holding of the read following data portions in the buffer of the storage system while reading the beginning data portion of the file from the first medium to the host.

The patent application was filed on March 31, 2015 (14/674,171).

Average response time improvement from file system
for tape library
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,256,370) developed by Hasegawa, Tohru, and Hasegawa, Yuhko, Tokyo, Japan, for a “average response time improvement from a file system for a tape library.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A mechanism is provided for improving the average response time of a tape library. Prior to receiving a next access request for data from one of a set of tape mediums, a determination is made as to whether a number of tape drives that are unoccupied is less than a predetermined minimum open tape drive threshold, (N). Responsive to the number of tape drives that are unoccupied being less than the predetermined minimum open tape drive threshold, (N), a least recently used idle tape medium is unmounted and unloaded from an associated tape drive.

The patent application was filed on December 5, 2013 (14/097,417).

Damping structure for tape head system
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,847) developed by Haeberle, Walter, Waedenswil, Switzerland, Lantz, Mark A, Adliswil, Switzerland, and Rothuizen, Hugo E, Oberrieden, Switzerland, for a “damping structure for tape head system.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A tape head system. The tape head system includes: a head for reading from and/or writing to magnetic tape, a support, and at least one leaf spring assembly supporting the head moveably relative to the support so as to allow the head to follow a motion of the tape, the at least one leaf spring assembly including at least one leaf spring and at least one damping element configured for damping a motion of the head relative to the support.

The patent application was filed on March 3, 2014 (14/195,187).

Dynamically controlling tape velocity
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,840) developed by Bui, Nhan X., Judd, Kevin B., Justo, Roger J., Tucson, AZ, Nakayama, Hirokazu, Fujisawa, Japan, and Taketomi, Tomoko, Yamato, Japan, for a “dynamically controlling tape velocity.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A maximum velocity is dynamically determined during a tape drive operation to obtain a statistical standard deviation of a position error signal, (PES) that yields an amount of stopwrite, (SW) operations that avoids backhitching. The tape velocity is adjusted to the maximum velocity.

The patent application was filed on October 3, 2014 (14/505,706).

Controlling transportation of tape medium
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,838) developed by Katagiri, Takashi, Mori, Yuhko, and Oishi, Yutaka, Kanagawa, Japan, for a “apparatus and method for controlling transportation of tape medium.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An apparatus, computer readable medium device, and method for controlling transportation of a tape medium. A determination is made whether to execute a backhitch operation in response to writing a data set to tape from the buffer. If not, a determination is made whether a transaction size at which data is transferred from the buffer to the tape is less than a buffer size. If so, then a determination is made of a a new speed and whether a current speed is different from the determined new speed. If so, then a backhitch is initiated.

The patent application was filed on May 29, 2015 (14/726,076).

Servo control
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,828) developed by Cherubini, Giovanni, Jelitto, Jens, and Lantz, Mark A., Rueschlikon, Switzerland, for a “servo control.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In a method for operating a tape storage system, while a tape is being moved in a tape drive across a tape head for one or more of reading and writing user data from/to a data track of the tape, a read element of the tape head, which read element is assigned to the data track, is moved transverse to a moving direction of the tape for a distance of more than a width of the data track. A transverse position of one or more of the following elements is subject to a signal supplied by the read element during its transverse move: The read element, another read element assigned to the data track, and a write element assigned to the data track.

The patent application was filed on July 4, 2012 (14/241,931).

Servo pattern of tape storage medium
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,827) developed by Cherubini, Giovanni, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, Engelen, Johan B. C., Zurich, Switzerland, Furrer, Simeon, Altdorf, Switzerland, Jelitto, Jens, Rueschlikon, Switzerland, and Lantz, Mark A., Thalwil, Switzerland, for a “servo pattern of a tape storage medium.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A tape storage medium comprises at least one servo band along a longitudinal extension of the tape storage medium for comprising positional information. The servo band comprises a first servo subband and a second servo subband extending along the longitudinal extension of the tape storage medium. The first servo subband comprises a frame servo pattern containing a first set of servo frames, wherein each servo frame of the set comprises a first burst and a second burst. Each burst comprises at least two servo stripes inclined at an angle with respect to a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal extension of the tape medium. The second servo subband contains a set of servo tracks extending along the longitudinal extension of the tape storage medium and arranged next to each other, wherein each servo track of the set contains a servo pattern of magnetic transitions.

The patent application was filed on November 27, 2013 (14/646,084).

Mapping encrypted and decrypted data via key management system
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,251,382) developed by Astigarraga, Tara L., Vail, AZ, Baran, Evren O., Highland, NY, Browne, Michael E., Staatsburg, NY, DeRobertis, Christopher V., Hopewell Junction, NY, and Venkatraman, Ashwin, Poughkeepsie, NY, for a “mapping encrypted and decrypted data via key management system.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data processing system having a host computer including a key manager, a control unit connected to the host computer, a data storage unit, (such as a tape drive) controlled by the control unit, and data storage medium for storing data thereon to be written to or read from by the data storage unit. The key manager stores a data structure having at least one record having a volume serial number, as start location, a length entry, and a key for encrypting and decrypting data on the data storage medium. A data storage medium, such as data tape) is mounted on the data storage unit, and a volume recorded on the tape is retrieved. The control unit retrieves the data structure from the key manager and matches the volume serial number recorded in the retrieved data structure with the volume serial number retrieved from the data storage medium. It they match, the control unit passes to the data storage unit, commands to turn on or turn off encryption dependent upon the location where data is written by the data storage unit onto the data storage medium, or to turn on or turn off decryption dependent upon the location where data is read by the data storage unit from the data storage medium.

The patent application was filed on December 20, 2007 (11/961,015).

Transferring multiple records including video data
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,247,193) developed by Abe, Atsushi, Masuda, Setsuko, Ohta, Yumiko, and Watanabe, Terue, Tokyo, Japan, for a “transferring multiple records including video data.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In one embodiment, a method includes receiving from the host a video special mode for reading video data, and sequentially reading the records included in data sets from the tape medium into segments of a buffer. When there is a C2 error during reading of the data sets, a predetermined error recovery process is skipped in accordance with the video special mode. When management information, (DSIT) for the data set having the C2 error is available for reading, sending of the record(s) included in the data set having the C2 error to the host is skipped. For the data set having the C2 error, the number of records to be skipped included in the data set having the C2 error based on and from the DSIT is obtained and indicated to the host.

The patent application was filed on June 17, 2014 (14/307,363).

Dynamic tape storage library for data management
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (9,242,796) developed by Krick, Frank, Ockenheim, Germany, Muehge, Thorsten, Budenheim, Germany, Rueger, Erik, Ockenheim, Germany, and Wendler, Daniel P., Schlangenbad, Germany, for a “dynamic tape storage library for data management.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Embodiments of the present invention provides systems for a tape library shelf. In one embodiment, a tape library shelf is disclosed including a chassis, which contains tape cartridge slots for storing one or more tape cartridges. The tape library shelf includes at least one tape drive module, a control unit, and a moving device coupled to the chassis. The moving device is operatively connected to the control unit to move the chassis according to instructions received from the control unit.

The patent application was filed on September 10, 2014 (14/481,945).

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