Method of high speed searching for a desired tape portion in a digital audio tape recorder

A method of high speed searching a digital audio tape having a table of contents stored thereon, said digital audio tape being on a digital audio tape recorder having tape supply reel, tape take-up reel and a reel motor, said method comprising the steps of:

• reading said table of contents information from said digital audio tape for storage in a memory;
• inputting a desired search speed and a desired program number into a microcomputer of said digital audio tape recorder;
• determining whether said memory contains said table of contents information which can be read;
• reading said table of contents information from said memory, if said step of determining results in a positive determination, for input into said microcomputer;
• calculating a present tape position of said digital audio tape from data provided by said tape supply reel and said tape take-up reel;
• driving said reel motor at said desired search speed;
• determining whether a predetermined portion of said digital audio tape has been reached in response to said desired program number and said present tape position;
• returning to said calculating step if said predetermined position has not been reached;
• driving said reel motor at a speed slower that said desired speed if said step of determining whether said memory contains said table of contents information which can be read determines that said table of contents information can not be read or if said step of determining whether a predetermined portion of said digital audio tape has been reached determines said predetermined portion has been reached;
• and
• detecting program identification during said step of driving said reel motor at a slower speed, said program identification being representative of said desired program number input to said microcomputer.