Abstract: An apparatus and a method for the cleaning of magnetic tape cartridge drive, particularly such as removable data-storage media tapes, and especially an arrangement and method of providing a disposable cartridge retention spring cleaning tool.

Abstract: A housing for an information storage medium where at least one surface of that housing includes a plurality of grooves. A locomotion apparatus to move Applicants' housing within an information storage and retrieval system, where that apparatus includes at least one rotatable shaft and at least one drive member disposed on that shaft, where each such drive member has the shape of a truncated cone, and where each such drive member includes a drive surface which includes a plurality of ribs. Applicants' drive member contacts the grooved surface of Applicants' housing such that one or more of the ribs disposed on the drive surface intermeshes with one or more of the grooves in the housing. Rotation of the rotatable shaft in a first direction causes the housing the move in a second direction. Rotation of the rotatable shaft in a third direction causes the housing to move in a fourth direction.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method for the cleaning of magnetic tape cartridge drive, particularly such as removable data-storage media tapes, and especially an arrangement and method of providing a disposable cartridge retention spring cleaning tool.

Abstract: Disclosed is a library of hard disk drives with transparent emulating interface. The hard disk drives are shelved in associated storage locations in the library. A library controller translates the logical address of a requested hard disk drive known to the requesting host computer to a physical address or location within the library. A picker preferably mounts the requested disk drive to a destination receptacle which may be part of a backplane of the library, and the controller accesses the hard disk drive. Library operation is transparent to the host computer, the library emulating a selected type of storage device.

Abstract: A housing for an information storage medium where at least one surface of that housing includes a plurality of grooves. A locomotion apparatus to move Applicants' housing within an information storage and retrieval system, where that apparatus includes at least one rotatable shaft and at least one drive member disposed on that shaft, where each such drive member has the shape of a truncated cone, and where each such drive member includes a drive surface which includes a plurality of ribs. Applicants' drive member contacts the grooved surface of Applicants' housing such that one or more of the ribs disposed on the drive surface intermeshes with one or more of the grooves in the housing. Rotation of the rotatable shaft in a first direction causes the housing the move in a second direction. Rotation of the rotatable shaft in a third direction causes the housing to move in a fourth direction.

Abstract: A bit is provided in each Digital Video Disk memory sector header to indicate the type of information contained in the main data portion of the frame. A vector of video clips are stored on the DVD disk and the DVD drive examines the bit to determine whether to play a movie or to employ logic provided by the present invention that allows the DVD drive to determine which included video clip to play instead. The video clips may include cartoons, commercials, movie previews, etc. and the logic employed by the DVD drive allows for random or specific selections to be played at predetermined times, such as displaying a clip during the flipping process of a dual-sided DVD disk. Additionally, the method and apparatus may be applied to DVD disks to determine whether commercials are played before, after or during the movie or the movie is played commercial free.

Abstract: Disclosed is a library of hard disk drives with transparent emulating interface. The hard disk drives are shelved in associated storage locations in the library. A library controller translates the logical address of a requested hard disk drive known to the requesting host computer to a physical address or location within the library. A picker preferably mounts the requested disk drive to a destination receptacle which may be part of a backplane of the library, and the controller accesses the hard disk drive. Library operation is transparent to the host computer, the library emulating a selected type of storage device.

Abstract: A memory card design which adds parity for non-parity computer systems to supply error detection capabilities is provided. The apparatus includes a memory card, parity DRAM locatable on the memory card, logic for generating and checking parity bits and logic for the control of the generating, checking and storing parity bits. Also, in another embodiment, the apparatus adds error correction code to the memory card to provide error detection and correction code to systems lacking such capabilities.

Abstract: A method and device are provided for a SIMM or DIMM which has ECC on board and which is configured to operate during and only during the power-on-self-test operation to determine if an error has been detected in memory on the read cycle in the memory test during POST and flag that error to the CPU through the memory controller even though the error has been corrected on the SIMM or DIMM card.

Abstract: A library of disk media units for use in a data processing environment wherein receptacle columns hold multiple cartridges which in turn hold multiple media units comprised of caddies and recording disks. A picker system moves media into and from the drive units and receptacle columns. Drive units are also located within the receptacle columns. The caddies and cartridges are supplied with hole patterns to coact with optical sensors within the receptacle columns and thereby provide information to the library controller indicating the proper/improper operation of the picker system in positioning media units. Also, the hole pattern on the media unit enables the sensors to provide informational content about the media unit to the processor.

Abstract: An optical disk having its disk inventory at the picker level is disclosed. The library includes two library controllers and four pickers. Each library controller maintains a list of the storage media in the entire library, but has no disk location inventory. The library controllers are not coupled to each other. Each picker has exclusive access to a set of storage cells and internal peripheral storage devices. In addition, the picker controller for each picker maintains the disk location inventory for the disks accessible by such picker. During a failure condition which prevents one library controller from accessing a particular storage medium, the other library controller can be signalled to attempt to access such storage medium. The overhead associated with maintaining two identical copies of the inventory in the library controllers is therefore eliminated.

Abstract: Uncompressed data is represented in a constrained code for transmission through a channel which may include record media. A d,k code having a code rate of m/n is employed. "d" represents the minimum number of successive zeros in the channel code while k represents the maximum number of zeros in the channel code. "n" is an integer representing the number of code bits in a channel group. The encoding and decoding follows a sliding block coding and decoding algorithm. In the channel coding, the number of successive ones is limited to being not less than two, in some coding it can be a value of d-1. The modification of the d,k code results in decreasing error propagation while increasing the recorded information density. This increase is achieved by increasing the channel code dictionary.