Magnetic head and system having offset arrays

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016012840-A1
Application number	US-201514860464-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 21, 2015
Priority date	May 1, 2013
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A computer program product for orienting a head includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are readable and/or executable by a controller to cause the controller to: determine a desired pitch for transducers for reading and/or writing to a magnetic tape; and cause a mechanism to orient a head to achieve the desired pitch. The array of a first of the modules is offset from the array of a second of the modules in a first direction parallel to the axis of the array of the second module such that the transducers of the first module are about aligned with the transducers of the second module in the intended direction of tape travel thereacross when the axes are oriented at an angle greater than 0.2° relative to a line oriented perpendicular to the intended direction of tape travel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer program product for orienting a head, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions readable and/or executable by a controller to cause the controller to:
determine, by the controller, a desired pitch for transducers for reading and/or writing to a magnetic tape; and cause, by the controller, a mechanism to orient a head to achieve the desired pitch, the head having at least two opposing modules generally aligned with each other in an intended direction of tape travel thereacross, positions of the two modules being fixed relative to each other, each module having an array of the transducers, wherein an axis of each array is defined between opposite ends thereof, wherein the array of a first of the modules is offset from the array of a second of the modules in a first direction parallel to the axis of the array of the second module such that the transducers of the first module are about aligned with the transducers of the second module in the intended direction of tape travel thereacross when the axes are oriented at an angle between greater than 0.2° and about 10° relative to a line oriented perpendicular to the intended direction of tape travel.

2 . The computer program product as recited in claim 1 , comprising program instructions readable and/or executable by the controller to cause the controller to determine a state of the tape, the desired pitch being determined based on the state of the tape.

3 . A computer program product as recited in claim 1 , wherein the head has only two modules.

4 . A computer program product as recited in claim 1 , wherein the head has three modules, a third one of the modules being positioned between the first and second modules, wherein the array of the third module is offset from the array of the first module in the first direction, wherein an extent of the offset of array of the third module relative to the array of the first module is less than an extent of the offset of the array of the second module relative to the array of the first module.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Biskeborn Robert G
• Herget Philipp
• Lo Calvin S

Classifications

• G11B5/4893

  relative to moving tape · CPC title

• G11B5/00826

  comprising a plurality of single poles or gaps or groups thereof operative at the same time · CPC title

• G11B5/584 Primary

  for track following on tapes · CPC title

• G11B5/29

  Structure or manufacture of unitary devices formed of plural heads for more than one track {(G11B5/33, G11B5/49 and subgroups take precedence; in thin film structure G11B5/31)} · CPC title

• G11B5/56 Primary

  with provision for moving the head {support} for the purpose of adjusting the position of the head relative to the record carrier, e.g. manual adjustment for azimuth correction or track centering ({G11B5/52,} G11B5/54, G11B5/58 take precedence) · CPC title