IBM Assigned Seven Patents

Portable tape storage on mobile platform
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11621019) developed by Harper, David, Vail, AZ, and Goodman, Gregory, Tucson, AZ, for a “portable tape storage on a mobile platform.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A system may include one or more tape drives. A front portion of the one or more tape drives may be exposed to allow access to one or more respective tape cartridges of each of the one or more tape drives. The system may include one or more servers. The one or more servers may control the one or more tape drives. The system may include one or more ports communicatively connected to the one or more tape drives. Each of the one or more ports may respectively be associated with a specific sensor. Each of the specific sensors may record a specific datum. The system my include one or more power supplies.”

The patent application was filed on 2019-07-30 (16/525709).

Non-volatile storage of high resolution tape directory
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11620089) developed by Abe, Atsushi, Ebina, Japan, Miyamura, Tsuyoshi, Yokohama, Japan, and Masuda, Setsuko, Toshima-ku, Japan, for a “non-volatile storage of high resolution tape directory.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An HRTD stored in the volatile memory of a tape drive is communicated for storage in an off-tape non-volatile memory prior to unloading a tape cartridge. In response to the tape cartridge being loaded into the tape drive, the HRTD is received from the off-tape non-volatile memory.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-11-24 (17/102607).

Tape acclimation acceleration for environmental calibration
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11605400) developed by Judd, Kevin Bruce, Tucson, AZ, and Ogura, Eiji, Yokohama, Japan, for a “tape acclimation acceleration for environmental calibration.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “A method according to one embodiment includes measuring a baseline servo band difference (SBD) from a beginning of a tape (BOT) to an end of the tape (EOT), and storing values of the baseline SBD measurements in a memory. A shorter length of the tape that is less than an entire length of the tape is cycled a plurality of times to acclimate the shorter length of the tape. A post cycling SBD of the shorter length of the tape is determined and an acclimation change amount of the shorter length of the tape that is a difference between the baseline SBD of the shorter length and the post cycling SBD of the shorter length is determined. The method further includes adjusting the baseline SBD values based on the determined acclimation change amount.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-07-20 (17/443098).

Automated tape library deep slot protection
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11574656) developed by Nave, Shawn M., Green, Andrew Stuart, Tucson, AZ, and Melby, Justin, Circle Pines, MN, for an “automated tape library deep slot protection.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “One or more tape cartridge restraint brackets may be generated. At least one tape cartridge restraint bracket may be positioned in one or more deep slots in a rear portion of a tape library.”

The patent application was filed on 2020-02-13 (16/789541).

Adaptive tape calibration criteria by number of dead tracks
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11561703) developed by Miyamura, Tsuyoshi, Yokohama, Japan, Tanaka, Keisuke, Tokyo, Japan, and Gale, Ernest Stewart, Tucson, AZ, for an “adaptive tape calibration criteria by number of dead tracks.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “In an approach to adaptive tape calibration criteria based on the number of dead tracks, the number of rewrite occurrences for each dead track on a tape drive is determined. Responsive to detecting that a head is in a dead track state, the number of dead tracks is stored on the tape drive. A calibration threshold is determined, where the calibration threshold includes the number of dead track rewrites and the calibration reference value for a specific tape drive type. Responsive to the number of rewrite occurrences exceeding the calibration threshold while writing a data set, a calibration of the tape drive.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-02-10 (17/172141).

Tape head pitch spacing
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11562768) developed by Liang, Jason, Campbell, CA, and Biskeborn, Robert, Hollister, CA, for a “tape head pitch spacing.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An apparatus includes a magnetic head having a first array of read transducers, an array of write transducers, and a second array of read transducers. A center-to-center pitch of the read transducers in the first array is less than a center-to-center pitch of the write transducers. A center-to-center pitch of the read transducers in the second array is greater than a center-to-center pitch of the write transducers. The read transducers in the first and second arrays are aligned with the write transducers along an intended direction of tape travel thereacross for enabling read-while-write operation.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-09-02 (17/465702).

Index file writing on tape storage media
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, has been assigned a patent (11550472) developed by Itagaki, Hiroshi, Miyamura, Tsuyoshi, Yokohama, Japan, Yamamoto, Noriko, Hasegawa, Tohru, Tokyo, Japan, Abe, Atsushi, Ebina, Japan, and Mitsuma, Shinsuke, Machida, Japan, for “index file writing on tape storage media.”

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An approach for improving the writing an index file on tape storage by switching, via a tape drive, write sequences in an index partition, in which the tape drive switches between a normal wrap sequence and a reverse wrap sequence. Further, embodiments write the index information by the normal wrap sequence during initialization of the tape media, in which the tape media is being mounted for the first time. Additionally, embodiments write the index information by the reverse wrap sequence during an unmounting the tape media for the first time, and wherein the tape media is mounted based on index information written at a rearmost end of one or more data partitions during second and subsequent mounting.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-03-23 (17/209349).