ISO/IEC compatible digital audio tape digital data storage system with increased data transfer rate

A digital data storage (DDS) system for transferring data from a host unit to a magnetic tape in a format compatible with ISO/IEC standard DDS track format specifications, said digital data storage (DDS) system comprising:

• an interface circuit providing communication between said DDS system and said host unit;
• a formatting unit coupled to said interface circuit for formatting data received from said host unit in accordance with said ISO/IEC standard DDS track formatting specifications;
• a read/write head drum assembly coupled to said formatting unit and having a pair of read/write heads rotatably mounted therein for transferring data to and from said magnetic tape, said read/write heads rotating about an axis of rotation at a predetermined head rotation rate and rotating within a head rotation plane, said head rotation plane being tilted at an angle of 6.degree.22' with respect to an edge of said tape;
• a tape drive mechanism coupled to said formatting unit for driving said magnetic tape past said read/write head drum assembly at a predetermined tape translation rate;
• said head rotation rate and said tape translation rate being proportionately related such that said read/write heads transfer said formatted data to said magnetic tape in accordance with said ISO/IEC standard DDS track formatting specifications at a predetermined code bit transfer rate;
• an oscillator coupled to said formatting unit and said read/write head drum assembly for controlling said code bit transfer rate;
• an automatic track following system coupled to said formatting unit and to said tape drive mechanism for automatically following tracks located on said magnetic tape;
• and
• a software programmable processor coupled to said interface circuit, said formatting unit, said read/write head drum assembly, said tape drive mechanism, and said automatic track following system for controlling a flow of commands and data between and among said interface circuit, said formatting unit, said read/write head drum assembly, said tape drive mechanism, and said automatic track following system.

A digital data storage (DDS) system for transferring data from a host unit to a magnetic tape comprising:

• an interface circuit providing communication between said DDS system and said host unit;
• a formatting unit coupled to said system/host interface circuit for formatting data received from said host unit in accordance with ISO/IEC standard DDS track formatting specifications;
• a read/write head drum assembly coupled to said formatting unit and having a pair of read/write heads rotatably mounted therein, said read/write heads rotating about an axis of rotation at a head rotation rate exceeding 2000 rpm and rotating within a head rotation plane, said head rotation plane being tilted at an angle 6.degree.22' with respect to an edge of said tape;
• a tape drive mechanism coupled to said formatting unit and to said read/write head drum assembly, said tape drive mechanism driving said magnetic tape past said read/write head drum assembly at a tape translation rate exceeding 8.15 mm/sec;
• said head rotation rate and said tape translation rate being proportionately related to enable said read/write heads to transfer data to said magnetic tape in a format compatible with ISO/IEC standard DDS track formatting specifications, and to enable said read/write heads to transfer said data to said magnetic tape at a transfer rate exceeding 183 Kbytes/second;
• an oscillator coupled to said formatting unit and to said read/write head drum assembly for controlling said data transfer rate;
• an automatic track following system coupled to said formatting unit and to said tape drive mechanism for automatically following tracks located on said magnetic tape;
• and
• a software programmable processor coupled to said interface circuit, said formatting unit, said read/write head drum assembly, said tape drive mechanism, and said automatic track following system for controlling a flow of commands and data between and among said interface circuit, said formatting unit, said read/write head drum assembly, said tape drive mechanism, and said automatic track following system.

A digital data storage (DDS) system which operates at a clock rate other than 9.408 Mhz comprising:

• an interface circuit providing communication between said DDS system and a host unit;
• a formatting means, coupled to said interface circuit, for formatting,,encoding and decoding data to be transferred to and from a magnetic tape;
• an automatic track following means, coupled to said formatting means, for performing automatic track following on said magnetic tape;
• a tape drive system, coupled to said formatting means and to said automatic track following means, for driving said magnetic tape at a predetermined tape translation rate;
• read/write channel means, coupled to said formatting means, to said automatic track following means, and to said tape drive system, for channeling data thereto and therefrom;
• a read/write head drum assembly coupled to said read/ write channel means and being in communication with said magnetic tape, said read/write head drum assembly having a pair of read/write heads rotatably mounted therein for transferring data to and from said magnetic tape, said read/write heads rotating about an axis of rotation at a predetermined head rotation rate and rotating within a head rotation plane, said head rotation plane being tilted at an angle of 6.degree.22' with respect to an edge of said tape;
• said head rotation rate and said tape translation rate being proportionately related such that said read/write heads transfer data to and from said magnetic tape in a format compatible with ISO/IEC standard DDS formatting specifications, and such that said DDS system is capable of operating at a clock rate other than 9.408 Mhz;
• and
• said formatting means, said automatic track following means, said tape drive system, said read/write channel means, and said read/write head drum assembly all being under software programmable control.

A digital data storage (DDS) system for transferring data to and from a plurality of tracks located on a tape at a data transfer rate exceeding 183 kbytes/sec while maintaining compatibility with DDS standard format, said DDS system comprising:

• a tape driver for driving the tape at a predetermined tape speed;
• a read/write drum assembly having a pair of read/write heads rotatably mounted therein, said read/write heads rotating at a predetermined head rotation rate and rotating within a head rotation plane which forms a predetermined angle with respect to an edge of the tape, said read/write heads thereby reading and writing the tracks at a track angle of substantially 6.degree.22'59.5" with respect to an edge of the tape;
• and
• said predetermined tape speed and said predetermined head rotation rate proportionally related such that said read/write heads follow said tracks as the tape passes said read/write drum assembly at said predetermined tape speed.