Hitachi-LG Data Storage Korea Assigned Patent

Hitachi-LG Data Storage Co. Ltd. Korea, Asan si, South Korea, has been assigned a patent (8,341,653) developed by five co-inventors for an "optical disc storage system."

The co-inventors are Price Berrien Terzis, Los Altos Hills, CA, Artem Mishin, Pacifica, CA, Christopher Montgomery Carpenter, Sunnyvale, CA, Brian Hale Nelson, Fremont, CA, and Craig Barker, San Carlos, CA.

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: "Embodiments provide methods and systems for handling optical discs in a media library appliance and for replacing optical drives in the field. In one embodiment, the media library appliance comprises optical disc handling robotics developed for slim form factor slot load drives in a vertical orientation located on both sides of the robotics within a 19 inch rackable appliance. On the system level, the optical disc storage system provides modularity and scalability. The drives reside in field replaceable units (FRUs) that are oriented vertically on a horizontal backplane. The disc handling robotics access discs on each side stored in horizontal stacks within large disc cartridges. A small disc shuttle cartridge attaches to a large disc cartridge to provide a means to import and export a smaller number of discs from the disc cartridge."

The patent application was filed on May 7, 2010 (12/776,060).