ALIGNED SHINGLED WRITING FOR MAGNETIC RECORDING MEDIA AND MEDIA HAVING SHINGLE EDGE POSITIONED TRACKS

• US 20160254014A1
• Filed: 02/27/2015
• Published: 09/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Biskeborn, Robert G., Czarnecki, W. Stanley, Gale, Ernest S., Liang, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 9,911,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1201 on tapes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/00826 comprising a plurality of single poles or gaps or groups thereof operative at the same time
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/4893 relative to moving tape
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/5504 across tape tracks
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/5508 Control circuits therefor G11B5/5513 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/584 for track following on tapes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/588 by controlling the position of the rotating heads by controlling the speed of the record carrier G11B15/467; by controlling speed of the heads G11B15/473; by moving the transducing part of the head relative to the headwheel, in the direction of the scanning movement G11B15/1841

Abstract

A method according to one embodiment includes gathering information about how an array of writers write and/or are expected to write to a magnetic medium during shingled recording, and computing, using the gathered information, data describing a lateral writing position to use during writing such that shingled track edges are aligned according to a format. A method according to another embodiment includes obtaining a lateral offset from a nominal writing position, and applying the lateral offset for repositioning a writing position of an array of writers relative to a nominal writing position during writing in a first direction. A product according to one embodiment includes a magnetic recording medium; and data indicative of whether a lateral writing position offset was used while writing.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

gathering information about how an array of writers write and/or are expected to write to a magnetic medium during shingled recording; and

computing, using the gathered information, data describing a lateral writing position to use during writing such that shingled track edges are aligned according to a format.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information about how an array of writers write at nominal writing positions is gathered, wherein the data includes a lateral offset from the nominal writing position.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is gathered by writing data to a magnetic recording medium using writers of the array, reading data at various lateral reading positions relative to tracks having the written data, and analyzing the data read at the various lateral reading positions.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the data is read by a drive, the drive also having the array of writers.

5. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein the data is read by a different drive than a drive having the array of writers.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the different drive is a calibrated drive.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is gathered by writing data to a magnetic recording medium using writers of the array, repositioning the array between various lateral writing positions relative to the magnetic medium during the writing, reading data at a predefined reading position, and computing data describing a lateral writing position to use during subsequent writing based on readback information acquired during the reading.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the data is read by a drive, the drive also having the array of writers.

9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the data is read by a different drive than a drive having the array of writers.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is gathered by imaging magnetic domains of data tracks written by the array of writers.

11. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the information is gathered by determining physical characteristics of magnetic poles of the writers in the array.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, comprising applying the data describing the lateral writing position during subsequent shingled writing.

13. An apparatus, comprising:

a drive mechanism for passing a magnetic medium over the array of writers;

a controller electrically coupled to the array of writers; and

logic integrated with and/or executable by the controller to perform the method of claim 1.

14. The apparatus as recited in claim 13, comprising logic configured to apply the lateral writing position for repositioning a writing position of the array of writers from a nominal writing position.

15. A method, comprising:

obtaining a lateral offset from a nominal writing position; and

applying the lateral offset for repositioning a writing position of an array of writers relative to a nominal writing position during writing in a first direction.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein the lateral offset is obtained from a memory of an apparatus performing the method.

17. The method as recited in claim 15, comprising obtaining a second lateral offset for writing in a second direction opposite the first direction;

and applying the second lateral offset during writing in the second direction, the second lateral offset being different than the lateral offset.

18. The method as recited in claim 15, comprising appending an indication indicating that the lateral offset was used while writing.

19. An apparatus, comprising:

a drive mechanism for passing a magnetic medium over the array of writers;

a controller electrically coupled to the array of writers; and

logic integrated with and/or executable by the controller to perform the method of claim 15.

20. A product, comprising:

a magnetic recording medium; and

data indicative of whether a lateral writing position offset was used while writing.

21. The product as recited in claim 20, wherein the data is stored in a memory coupled to the magnetic recording medium.

22. The product as recited in claim 20, wherein the data is encoded on the magnetic recording medium.

23. The product as recited in claim 20, wherein data includes information usable by a drive to determine how to read back data from the magnetic recording medium.

24. The product as recited in claim 20, wherein the data indicative of whether a lateral writing position offset was used while writing includes an identification of which tracks were written using the lateral writing position offset.

25. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a controller to cause the controller to perform a method comprising:

gathering, by the controller, information about how an array of writers write and/or are expected to write to a magnetic medium during shingled recording; and

computing, by the controller using the gathered information, data describing a lateral writing position to use during writing such that shingled track edges are aligned according to a format.