Western Digital Technologies Assigned Patent

Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11682426) developed by Hirano, Toshiki, San Jose, CA, for an “archival data storage library.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “An archival data storage system library includes magnetic-recording disk media, a storage enclosure in which the media are housed, data storage devices (DSDs) configured to write to and read from the media, an automated disk handling mechanism configured to transfer at least some of the media between the storage enclosure and the DSD, and a hermetic enclosure containing the foregoing components. The storage system may further include a gas circulation system for filtering contaminants from the hermetic enclosure. Such a storage system may be implemented as a rack-mountable unit, or as an entire cleanroom facility, as well as in intermediate form factors between those. In the context of a cleanroom storage system, the system may further include an automated disk handling shuttle to receive the media from the disk handling mechanism and an automated disk loading mechanism for accessing the media from the shuttle for installing into the DSD.”

The patent application was filed on 2021-08-13 (17/402370).