JPS6331849B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a read gain control method for setting the amplification gain of a magnetic tape read signal (hereinafter referred to as "read amplification gain") to an appropriate value.

Conventionally, for example, in a magnetic tape processing device that employs the GCR (group coded recording) recording method, the first
Indicates the beginning of a magnetic tape as determined by ANSI or ISO standards as shown in the figure.
ARA at the position based on the BOT marker position
(automatic read amplification) signal was recorded along with the ARA identification signal. This ARA signal is used to set the read amplification gain to an appropriate value when reading and reproducing information recorded on a magnetic tape, and the ARA identification signal is used to distinguish it from other information.

However, since the ARA signal and ARA identification signal are set at the beginning of the magnetic tape, they are placed at the position where the magnetic tape medium is most frequently used and is most likely to be damaged. Furthermore, because the magnetic tape medium is used as an information file, the information recorded from the start position is the name of the file, etc., and therefore is not normally recorded and updated. Therefore, the ARA signal once recorded will not be rewritten,
This is often bad information.

Conventionally, as a solution to the above-mentioned situation, for example, if a defective write of the ARA signal is detected during writing, the medium should be discarded, or generally the defective part should be cut out and the BOT marker reattached. A method of creating a new starting area is adopted,
Furthermore, if it has failed to set an appropriate value for the read amplification gain during reading, a method has been adopted in which an empirical average value is set. When setting this empirical average value, there is a drawback that there are many reading errors and the frequency of reprocessing increases because the suitability with the recording state of information in the information area is not considered.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned drawbacks by controlling the ARA signal to be recorded at an arbitrary position so that the read amplification gain can be set without particularly limiting the position of the magnetic tape. An object of the present invention is to provide a magnetic tape read gain control method that can perform high-quality information processing with less frequency of reprocessing.

The present invention provides a magnetic tape read gain control method that sets the amplification gain of the magnetic tape read signal using an ARA signal recorded in an area near the BOT marker position on the magnetic tape.
It detects whether or not it has failed to set the amplification gain of the read signal by the ARA signal to an appropriate value, and when a failure is detected, this failure history is stored, and when the failure history is stored, information writing is performed. The present invention is characterized in that information is written after a new ARA signal having ARA identification signals before and after is recorded in a position other than the above area.

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 2 shows a magnetic tape processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an ARA signal of an information recording area of a magnetic tape recorded using the GCR recording method. To facilitate the following explanation, the recording pattern shown in FIG. 1 will be referred to as the "ARA-A pattern", and the recording pattern shown in FIG. 2 will be referred to as the "ARA-B pattern". This ARA-B pattern is a pattern in which an ARA signal having an ARA identification signal before and after it is recorded in an area other than the ARA area based on the BOT marker position.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a magnetic tape processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. A microprogram control section 2, a write data control section 3, and a read data control section 4 are connected to the host device interface section 1. The write data control section 3, the read data control section 4, and the write/read control section 5 are connected to the microprogram control section 2. The write data control section 3 generates an ARA-B pattern in addition to the ARA-A pattern based on the control output of the microprogram control section 2. The write/read control section 5 also controls a magnetic head 9 that contacts the magnetic tape 8 via a writing section 6 and a reading section 7.
connected to. The writing section 6 is connected to the write data control section 3, and the reading section 7 is connected to the read data control section 4. Further, the reading section 7 is connected to the microprogram control section 2 via an SR flip-flop 10.

The reading unit 7 is provided with a detection circuit for detecting whether or not the amplification gain of the read signal based on the recorded ARA signal has failed to be set to an appropriate value, and the flip-flop 10 is equipped with a detection circuit that detects whether or not the amplification gain of the read signal based on the recorded ARA signal has failed to be set to an appropriate value. Stores failures in setting the optimum value of amplification gain.

With such a configuration, when the microprogram control unit 2 receives a write command through the host device interface unit 1, it checks whether the magnetic tape is at the BOT marker position or not.
If it is located at the BOT marker position, an ARA-A pattern write command is sent to the write control section 3 and the write/read control section 5 similarly to the conventional magnetic tape processing system. When the write control section 3 sends out the ARA-A pattern, the writing section 6 records this ARA-A pattern on the magnetic tape 8 via the magnetic head 9, and then the reading section 7 reads this ARA-A pattern and Set an appropriate value for read amplification gain. If the reading unit 7 detects failure in setting the appropriate value, the flip-flop 10 is set. If success is detected, the flip-flop 10 is reset.

Next, in the case of a read command from the BOT marker position, the reading unit 7 sets the appropriate value of the read amplification gain using the ARA-A pattern, but as in the case of the write command described above, the setting of the suitable value fails. If successful, flip-flop 10 is set; if successful, flip-flop 10 is reset.

Furthermore, if the write command is not at the BOT marker position, it is checked whether or not flip-flop 10 is set, and flip-flop 10 is set.
When the condition is set to 0, that is, ARA-A
When setting the appropriate value of the read amplification gain based on the pattern has failed, the microprogram control section 2 sends an ARA-B pattern write command to the write control section 3 and the write/read control section 5.
As a result, the write control unit 3 sends out the ARA-B pattern. Thereafter, the same operation as in the case of the ARA-A pattern is performed. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the above-mentioned operation of the apparatus of this embodiment. In FIG. 4, the movement within the body indicated by a dashed dotted line is a characteristic function of this embodiment.

As explained above, the present invention is capable of setting the appropriate value of the read amplification gain during reading by controlling the ARA signal to be recorded at locations other than the BOT marker location using the ARA signals other than the BOT marker location. This has the excellent effect of enabling high-quality data processing with fewer reading errors.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an ARA signal at a BOT marker position on a magnetic tape recorded by the GCR recording method.
Figure 2 shows a magnetic tape processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an ARA signal in an information recording area of a magnetic tape recorded using the GCR recording method. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a magnetic tape processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4 is a flowchart of its operation. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Upper device interface section, 2... Microprogram control section, 3... Write data control section, 4... Read data control section, 5... Write/read control section, 6... Writing section, 7... reading section,
8...Magnetic tape, 9...Magnetic head, 10...
SR flipflop.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a magnetic tape read gain control method that sets the amplification gain of the read signal on the magnetic tape using the ARA signal recorded in the area near the BOT marker position on the magnetic tape, the amplification gain of the read signal by the recorded ARA signal is set. It detects whether or not it has failed to set an appropriate value, and when a failure is detected, this failure history is recorded, and when the failure history is stored, the ARA is
A magnetic tape read gain control method characterized in that information is written after a new ARA signal having identification signals before and after is recorded in a position other than the above area.