Abstract: Methods and associated structure for providing a substitute, predetermined, fixed length when transferring burst transactions from one device to another through a bridge device where the burst transaction has an indefinite length specified. In one exemplary preferred embodiment, an AMBA AHB bus bridge slave device recognizes initiation of burst transactions of a indefinite length and translates the indefinite length burst transactions on the first bus into appropriate bus transactions for application to a second bus or device having a predetermined fixed length for the transferred the burst transactions. In a second embodiment, a slave device acting as a bridge receives a burst of indefinite length and translates the bus request into one with a predetermined fixed length for application to a device controller.

Abstract: A method for rewriting track packets that fail a check-after-write test onto a track of a storage medium is presented. Local packet address information is included in the track packet itself to allow track packets to be written to the storage medium in any addressing order. This allows a single packet to be rewritten along a later track among other track packets that are being recorded for the first time, thereby reducing rewrite track overhead and eliminating the requirement for a lengthy backhitching sequence.

Abstract: A helical scan drum design for use in non-tracking tape devices which assures 70% coverage of a track to be read by overscanning with at least two read heads at approximate 1× speed. The present invention further provides a simulation method for evaluating potential drum designs for such overscan applications. The preferred drum design uses pairs of like-azimuth read heads positioned on the rotating drum such that in combination they overlap the scan of a track by 130% the track width. These dimensions assure at least 70% coverage of each track by at least one of the pair of heads at up to 1× speed while assuring no overlap with another like-azimuth recorded track. The simulation method allows for evaluation of potential drum designs by accepting parameters describing the intended drum application and then simulating track read operations over a plurality of simulated tracks to determine the efficacy of the design over a range of tape speeds and gap widths.