Patents Examined by Varsha Kapadia
  • Patent number: 7133226
    Abstract: A data accumulating apparatus, comprising: storage media; receiving means for receiving digital raw data about specific information from an external electronic device; first accumulating means for accumulating the digital raw data received by the receiving means into the storage media; producing means for producing first data equal to the digital raw data accumulated in the storage media; compressing means for compressing the first data produced by the producing means to produce coded data in association with the digital raw data accumulated in the storage media; and second accumulating means for accumulating the digital coded data produced by the compressing means into the storage media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yuji Kaihotsu, Takehiko Yasuda
  • Patent number: 7119973
    Abstract: A magnetic transfer apparatus magnetically transfers information carried by a master information carrier to a slave medium held in close contact with the master information carrier by a holder disposed on the holder support portion of a magnetic transfer apparatus. The holder is formed by a pair of halves movable toward and away from each other, and a transfer magnetic field is applied to the master information carrier and the slave medium held in close contact with each other by the holder. A locator mechanism is provided between the holder support portion and the holder and locates the holder at least in a direction perpendicular to the central axis of the holder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Akito Kamatani
  • Patent number: 7116505
    Abstract: A method for reducing the length of servo-wedges in a disk drive comprising a concentric tracks, each track comprising embedded servo-wedges each having a track identification field (TIF) and a servo-wedge identification field (WIF), wherein the embedded servo-wedges are grouped into servo-wedge groups comprising a first and second sub-group of servo-wedges. The method includes selecting a servo-wedge from a selected servo-wedge group; storing a first subset of a track identification data (TID) corresponding to a selected track in TIF of selected servo-wedge; storing a second subset of TID in a first portion of WIF of selected servo-wedge if selected servo-wedge is in second sub-group; storing a first wedge identification data (WID) corresponding to selected servo-wedge in a second portion of the WIF if selected servo-wedge is in second sub-group; and storing a second WID corresponding to selected servo-wedge in WIF if selected servo-wedge is in first sub-group.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2006
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Hanan Kupferman
  • Patent number: 7110200
    Abstract: A magnetic disk control apparatus is capable of reducing the overall length of synchronization fields in split sectors and hence capable of increasing the storage capacity for data fields. The apparatus records data for each sector in such a manner that when a servo field is present in a sector, the sector is split into a first split sector and a second split sector each including a synchronization field and a data field. The apparatus has a storage medium, a head, a mechanical section that controls the relative position of the storage medium and the head, a hard disk controller that controls write timing and read timing, and a read channel that modulates and writes a synchronization field and a data field according to the write timing, performs phase synchronization and frequency synchronization based on the synchronization field read according to the read timing, and demodulates the data field according to the obtained phase and frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventor: Shin Tomimoto
  • Patent number: 7106534
    Abstract: Head-to-head variations in the head gap distance between write and read heads is compensated by measuring the head gap distance in each head by writing and reading a predetermined unique pattern, and compensating the timing to start the data writing by changing it in a head-to-head manner based on a time gap that corresponds to the measured head gap distance in each head. This allows data to be written at a desired physical position regardless of the variation of the head gap distance, thereby allowing formatting efficiency to be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2006
    Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Japan, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hitoshi Yoshida, Yasuyuki Ito, Kiyotada Itou
  • Patent number: 7102842
    Abstract: A multi-head actuator data storage device reads and writes data simultaneously to one of a plurality m of heads, the plurality of m heads mounted on each of n head actuators where the plurality of n head actuators are separated from each other by an angular separation distance of 360/n degrees. The data on the disk is organized into a plurality of logical sectors, each logical sector comprising n ordered physical sectors, where the plurality n of ordered physical sectors is separated by the same angular distance separating the head actuators. During a write operation, each head actuator independently seeks to a unique physical sector, and the order of the physical sectors is communicated to a data de-multiplexer which writes de-multiplexed data to the physical sectors in a predetermined order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Inventor: Albert R. Howard
  • Patent number: 7099096
    Abstract: A heat-assisted magnetic recording head includes a thin film magnetic transducer having a pair of yokes and generating a magnetic field in a magnetic gap between two magnetic poles at the ends of the pair of yokes, and a heater placed in the vicinity of the magnetic gap and generating heat with an electric current. A part of a magnetic recording medium in the vicinity of the magnetic gap is heated by the heater to reduce a magnetic-coercive of the part of the magnetic recording medium and the magnetic field generated by the thin film magnetic transducer is applied to the part of the magnetic recording medium.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Kiichi Ueyanagi
  • Patent number: 7099095
    Abstract: The present invention may be embodied in a disk drive comprising a rotating magnetic media having tracks identified by binary codewords, and in a related method. Each track codeword for a particular track within a contiguous band of tracks differs from a track codeword for an adjacent track within the contiguous band of tracks by a defined number of bits, and differs from a track codeword for a nonadjacent track within the contiguous band of tracks by at least the defined number of bits. The defined number N of bits is greater than four such that at least two bit errors may be corrected when reading a track codeword.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2006
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Jai N. Subrahmanyam, Jack M. Chue
  • Patent number: 7092192
    Abstract: The object of the present invention is to reduce the load and specification requirements on the network and the video server. The buffer usage rate is counted and supplied to the tape driving controller 7. In the reproduction mode, the tape driving controller 7 decreases the running speed of a video tape when the buffer usage rate is larger than the proper value. And when the buffer usage rate is smaller than the proper value, the tape driving controller 7 increases the running speed of the video tape. Moreover, in the recording mode, the tape driving controller 7 stops the tape motion temporarily if the transmission speed of the network is slow and the buffer usage rate declines lower than the proper value. And if the buffer usage rate increases over the proper value, the tape driving controller 7 resumes the tape driving to record signals. Thus, the reproduction speed or the recording speed by the tape driving device 3 can be coincided with the transmission speed of the network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2006
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Mitsugu Yoshihiro
  • Patent number: 7092188
    Abstract: A method of erasing information on one or more disks in a disk drive uses a high strength magnetic field to erase the disks while the disks are in the HDD assembly. The design of the head disk enclosure provides a reduced thickness in a localized region over the disks. This allows a narrower working magnetic gap of the HDD level disk erase apparatus. The localized region of the HDD may be a formed indentation on the top cover, elimination of flange, and reduced floor thickness of the HDD base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2006
    Inventors: Kirk Price, Neal Bertram Schirle
  • Patent number: 7088534
    Abstract: An apparatus, method, and system for writing data to a hard disk drive synchronous with an apparent disk speed. The apparatus, method, and system has a phase-locked loop (PLL) to generate am output clock signal, wherein a clock interpolator responsive to phase rotation control is in the PLL feedback loop. The phase rotation control is proportional to the apparent disk speed, and the PLL output clock signal is also proportional to the apparent disk speed. A second clock interpolator further modifies the PLL output clock signal to provide pre-compensation control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2006
    Assignee: Marvell International Ltd.
    Inventor: Pantas Sutardja
  • Patent number: 7085086
    Abstract: A storage apparatus for sequentially writing a plurality of blocks of data generated by dividing data on a data recording medium, the storage apparatus including: a sequential writing unit for sequentially associating and writing each of the plurality of blocks with validity information indicating whether or not data contained in the block is valid, on the data recording medium; an error detecting unit for detecting that writing of a single block causes the validity information of the single block to be written in an error area that generates a write error on the data recording medium; a write-area changing unit for changing a write-area in which an additional block is written to cause the additional block written before the single block, excluding the validity information of the additional block, to be written in the error area and the validity information of the additional information to be written in an area other than the error area; and an error circumventing unit for writing the single block in a write-
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 2004
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Tomoaki Kimura
  • Patent number: 7079336
    Abstract: A magnetic transfer wherein the exchange of master mediums is made easy to perform is provided, whereby the operational efficiency and transfer efficiency are improved, leading to an overall improvement in productivity in the manufacture of preformatted slave mediums. A master fixing base for determining and supporting the position of a master medium, which bears transfer data, and a conjoining apparatus for conjoining the master medium and the slave medium that is to receive the transfer therefrom are provided. The master medium is exchanged along with the master fixing base. It is preferable that a cleaning means be provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2006
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Akito Kamatani, Tsuneo Inui, Masashi Aoki, Masakazu Nishikawa
  • Patent number: 7068450
    Abstract: A preamplifier device (26) for a thin film transducer disk drive system having operation speeds up to and greater than 2 Gb/s. The device (26) includes a low power/high speed driver (203) having a cascaded Class AB buffer. In at least one embodiment the device (26) includes separated drive devices in the driver (203) and H-bridge circuit (205) realized in multiple smaller devices biased separately to reduce transistor self-heating effects and a further embodiment includes a reference (201) having a base cancellation scheme and a Class AB current source for improving accuracy and stability is such high speed devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
    Inventors: Tuan Van Ngo, Raymond Elijah Barnett
  • Patent number: 7068453
    Abstract: A thermally-assisted perpendicular magnetic recording head includes a write pole tip for generating a magnetic write field in the perpendicular magnetic recording layer, a magnetic shield that confines the write field essentially to the data track to be recorded, an electrically resistive heater for heating the recording layer in the presence of the write field, and a return pole. The write pole tip width essentially defines data track width and is substantially surrounded by the magnetic shield. The shield may include side shields with ends located on opposite sides of the write pole tip and a trailing shield having an end spaced from the write pole tip. The resistive heater is wider than the data track and heats both the data track and adjacent tracks, but thermally-assisted magnetic recording occurs only in the data track because the confined magnetic field in the adjacent tracks is less than the required write field.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2006
    Assignee: Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.
    Inventors: Bruce David Terris, Jan-Ulrich Thiele
  • Patent number: 7054088
    Abstract: A timing recovery unit detects a phase offset and a frequency offset from a head area of reproduction data and initially corrects them. The timing recovery unit stores data in which a head reproduction signal has been made to be discrete by a fixed clock into a buffer. A phase offset detector detects the phase offset from the data head area in parallel with the operation for writing the data into the buffer. At the same time, a frequency offset detector detects the frequency offset from the data head area in parallel with the operation for writing the data into the buffer. A correction value of the detected phase offset and a correction value of the detected frequency offset are initially set into a digital PLL. While the data is read out from the buffer, a frequency lead-in and a phase lead-in are executed in the head area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2006
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Akihiro Yamazaki, Takao Sugawara, Motomu Takatsu, Masaru Sawada
  • Patent number: 7050248
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a magnetic transition pattern in a magnetic material by contact printing, comprising: (a) a stamper having an imprinting surface comprising a plurality of projections and depressions arranged according to the magnetic transition pattern, the stamper being formed of at least one high saturation magnetization, high permeability magnetic material; (b) means for supporting a workpiece such that a surface thereof comprised of the magnetic material is in contact with the imprinting surface; (c) magnet means for applying a unidirectional re-alignment magnetic field to the stamper and workpiece to effect selective re-alignment of magnetic domains of portions of the magnetic material facing the depressions of the imprinting surface, such that the pattern of selectively re-aligned magnetic domains forms a pattern replicating the pattern of projections and depressions; and (d) means for applying sufficient pressure to the stamper and workpiece to overcome magnetic attraction between the stamp
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC
    Inventor: Li-Ping Wang
  • Patent number: 7050250
    Abstract: There are provided a storage apparatus and a computer-readable recording medium, on whose storage areas, servo frames are arranged at uniform intervals in a spoke-like pattern. Each of the servo frames has an index bit storing section storing, as an index bit, part of an index pattern, which is operable to identify a storage area. The apparatus and the recording medium have a storage area recognizing unit for recognizing the storage areas based on the index bits, which are obtained by an index bit obtaining unit. The index bits, stored one in each of the index bit storing sections of the servo frames, are adapted to form, when being sequentially arranged, an index bit string in which such an index pattern repeatedly appears.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2006
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Tatsuhiko Kosugi, Isamu Tomita, Kazunori Mori, Yoshiyuki Kagami, Ryuki Kubohara
  • Patent number: 7046467
    Abstract: A method is disclosed for selecting format specific parameters in a disk drive comprising a control system and a plurality of disk surfaces each having a surface format for storing data, wherein at least one surface format is different than other surface formats. The method includes initializing the disk drive for operation, receiving a data transfer command, and selecting a disk surface for performing data transfer operations based on the received data transfer command. The method further includes selecting a format specific data structure corresponding to the selected disk surface, generating a second format specific data structure from the first format specific data structure, and performing the data transfer operations by the control system based on the calculated variable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2006
    Assignee: Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Nalin H. Chheda
  • Patent number: 7038869
    Abstract: A recording control apparatus includes a waveform rectification section for receiving a digital signal generated from an analog signal representing information reproduced from an information recording medium, and rectifying a waveform of the digital signal; a maximum likelihood decoding section for performing maximum likelihood decoding of the digital signal having the waveform thereof rectified, and generating a binary signal representing a result of the maximum likelihood decoding; a reliability calculation section for calculating a reliability of the result of the maximum likelihood decoding based on the digital signal having the waveform thereof rectified and the binary signal; and an adjusting section for adjusting a shape of a recording signal for recording the information on the information recording medium based on the calculated reliability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2006
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Harumitsu Miyashita, Takeshi Nakajima, Naohiro Kimura