Abstract: A dual magnetic head having a first magnetic core for reading and writing very high track density floppy disks and a second magnetic core for reading and writing conventional track density floppy disks. Neither the first nor the second magnetic cores require the trim erase elements associated with prior art magnetic cores for use with floppy disks. When writing on conventional track density floppy disks, separation between data tracks is achieved by erasing a circular region on a first rotation of the floppy disk, erasing a second region, separated from the first region by a small gap, on a second rotation of the floppy disk, and writing data during a third rotation of the floppy disk centered about the small gap. With very high density floppy disks, data is written directly between optical servo tracks on the floppy disk without use of the two erase steps.

Abstract: A diskette comprising a jacket, a liner material disposed within said jacket, a flat circular media having a magnetic coating on both sides disposed within said liner material, a hub attached at the center of said media, a plurality of servo grooves on at least one of said sides of said media that have stitched patterns that will alternate on-and-off at twenty kilohertz in the presence of a constant, unmodulated light source. The diskette is magnetically formatted with reference and data tracks recorded in such a way that extremely accurate position determinations can be made by looking at the analog amplitude of the detected tracks and comparing them at different head positions.

Abstract: A diskette comprising a jacket, a liner material disposed within said jacket, a flat circular media having a magnetic coating on both sides disposed within said liner material, a hub attached at the center of said media, a plurality of servo grooves on at least one of said sides of said media that have stitched patterns that will alternate on-and-off at twenty kilohertz in the presence of a constant, unmodulated light source. The diskette is magnetically formatted with reference and data tracks recorded in such a way that extremely accurate position determinations can be made by looking at the analog amplitude of the detected tracks and comparing them at different head positions.

Abstract: A diskette comprising a jacket, a liner material disposed within said jacket, a flat circular media having a magnetic coating on both sides disposed within said liner material, a hub attached at the center of said media, a plurality of optical positioning tracks on at least one of said sides of said media, and a media type code optically embossed on at least one of said sides of said media. The media type code contains information about the physical properties of the particular diskette that will allow a disk drive unit to auto-configure itself to allow optimum data communication and performance.

Abstract: A disk system comprising an upper and lower head gimbal assembly, a coarse positioning servo system that includes a stepper motor for 135 TPI operation and a voice coil motor type servo for 1251 TPI operation that is driven by a optical servo system which locates optical track positioning information previously recorded on 3.5 inch microfloppies. The optical system focuses a spot of infrared light on the microfloppy which is channeled back to a detector. Each head gimbal includes a ceramic slider with two air bearing surfaces. A very high density magnetic core is positioned in one air bearing surface and high density magnetic core is located in the other air bearing surface. Both upper and lower sliders are such that the floppy disk media is pinched between them. The gaps of the magnetic cores are positioned within the leading edge half of their respective air bearing surfaces and take advantage of the tendency of the sliders to plow into the floppy disk media.

Abstract: A diskette comprising a jacket, a liner material disposed within said jacket, a flat circular media having a magnetic coating on both sides disposed within said liner material, a hub attached at the center of said media, a plurality of optical positioning tracks on at least one of said sides of said media, and a media type code optically embossed on at least one of said sides of said media. The media type code contains information about the physical properties of the particular diskette that will allow a disk drive unit to auto-configure itself to allow optimum data communication and performance.

Abstract: A magnetic information storage medium, such as a floppy or rigid magnetic disk, and an apparatus and method for inscribing a plurality of indelible grooves in a surface of the medium to function as optical servo tracks. The grooves can be in the form of a plurality of continuous or noncontinuous concentric circles. The grooves can also be a continuous spiral or a plurality of continuous concentric circles having non-constant widths and/or depths. The apparatus comprises a platen and drive motor for rotating the medium, an argon ion laser light source for generating a beam of light, optical components for directing the beam of light to a beam focusing carriage and a microcomputer for controlling the apparatus. The method involves rotating the medium under the focused light beam to inscribe the grooves on the surface of the medium. Optical track densities greater than 1000 tracks per inch can be obtained with the method.

Abstract: A flexible magnetic medium having a plurality of optical servo tracks indelibly marked on the medium and a method for stamping the tracks on the medium. The optical servo tracks comprise a plurality of circular concentric regions positioned on a face of a floppy disk with each circular region comprising a plurality of pits. The optical servo tracks are imprinted on the floppy disk by placing a stamper disk bearing a template of the optical servo tracks in a hydraulic press and pressing the stamper disk and floppy disk together, typically under five to nine tons per square inch of pressure.

Abstract: An optical servo head and method for reading position information on a medium, such as a magnetic disk, having a plurality of optical servo tracks in the form of relatively nonreflective regions on a reflective surface of the medium. With a magnetic disk, the nonreflective regions comprise concentric grooves etched in the disk surface and the reflective regions comprise the land areas between the grooves. The optical servo head is mounted on a carriage/head assembly of a disk drive and comprises an infrared light emitting diode, a collection lens, a routing mirror and a multicell photodetector.

Abstract: A carriage assembly for use with high track density flexible magnetic disk drive systems that comprises a base carriage, which supports a permanent magnet, driven by a stepper motor used to achieve course positioning of the carriage assembly. A fine position acutator is attached to the base carriage by a pair of flexible metal strips that permit movement of the actuator relative to the base carriage for fine positioning of a pair of magnetic heads. The fine position actuator comprises a voice coil bobbin, an upper arm which supports an upper magnetic read/write head, a lower arm which supports a lower magnetic read/write head and a hinge which connects the upper and lower arms. An optical servo tracking assembly mounted on the actuator senses optical servo tracking information on a surface of a magnetic disk and generates a signal which activates the voice coil bobbin causing movement of the actuator relative to the base carriage.

Abstract: A magnetic information storage medium, such as a floppy or rigid magnetic disk having a plurality of indelible grooves inscribed on a surface of the medium to function as optical servo tracks. The grooves can be in the form of a plurality of continuous or noncontinuous concentric circles. The grooves can also be a continuous spiral or a plurality of continuous concentric circles having non-constant widths and/or depths.

Abstract: An optical servo head and method for reading position information on a medium, such as a magnetic disk, having a plurality of optical servo tracks in the form of relatively nonreflective regions on a reflective surface of the medium. With a magnetic disk, the nonreflective regions comprise concentric grooves etched in the disk surface and the reflective regions comprise the land areas between the grooves. The optical servo head is mounted on a carriage/head assembly of a disk drive and comprises an infrared light emitting diode, a collection lens, a routing mirror and a multicell photodetector.

Abstract: A magnetic medium including a physical reference feature for conveying positional information to a magnetic read/write head. The reference feature is made by indelibly marking a pattern on a surface of the medium such as by inscribing the metal oxide coating on the medium surface or by chemical etching or photolithography of the surface. Magnetic data is written on the surface of the medium and when data written on the reference feature is read, a modulated read back signal is observed which indicates the position of the reference feature. The position of the reference feature is used to direct the read/write head to track zero or to some other position on the medium surface. By using a second magnetic read/write head to write data on a second surface of the medium in response to the modulated readback signal, an electronic reference track can be written on the second surface for providing positional information to the second magnetic read/write head.