Method apparatus and system for accessing discontinuous media tracks
View Patent ↗An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for accessing discontinuous media tracks. The apparatus, in one embodiment, accesses discontinuous media tracks of a storage medium having one or more independently formed storage regions thereon. Each storage region may include a set of track segments. A memory may be provided to store track offset information for each storage region. A mapping module may collect track offset information, calculate a physical offset between adjacent storage regions, define a track, create a table, and store the track offset information in the memory. The apparatus may further include a tracking module to sense a position of a head relative to a centerline of a track segment within a current storage region, access offset information, and align a storage head with a closely aligned track segment within a subsequent storage region. Consequently, discontinuous media tracks may be accessed by a storage access device.
1. A method for accessing discontinuous media tracks, the method comprising:
providing a storage medium having a plurality of independently formed storage regions thereon, each storage region comprising a plurality of track segments;
sensing a position of a head relative to a centerline of a track segment within a current storage region;
accessing track offset information corresponding to a closely aligned track segment within a subsequent storage region, wherein the subsequent storage region comprises a storage region nonadjacent to the current storage region; and
adjusting a head position to align with the closely aligned track segment within the subsequent storage region.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of independently formed storage regions comprises at least one stamped region.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the at least one stamped region is formed from a master template patterned by e-beam lithography.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of independently formed storage regions are formed by a daughter template substantially corresponding to an entire media surface, the daughter template formed from a master template corresponding to a single storage region.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of independently formed storage regions are accessed using a 2:1 interleaving scheme.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising mapping the storage medium to determine the location of the plurality of track segments.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a physical offset between adjacent storage regions.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising defining a track comprising a track segment from each storage region.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the track segment is a closely aligned track segment within a subsequent storage region.
10. The method of claim 8 , wherein accessing a track comprises advancing from a current storage region to a nonadjacent storage region.
11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising storing the table in a memory.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising collecting offset information.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising creating a table defining the location of at least one track segment within a storage region.
14. An apparatus for accessing discontinuous media tracks, the apparatus comprising:
a storage medium having a plurality of independently formed storage regions thereon, each storage region comprising a plurality of track segments;
a memory configured to store offset information for each storage region, the offset information corresponding to at least one track segment of the plurality of track segments;
a tracking module configured to sense a position of a head relative to a centerline of a track segment within a current storage region; and
the tracking module further configured to access the offset information and align a storage head with a closely aligned track segment within a subsequent storage region, wherein the subsequent storage region comprises a storage region nonadjacent to the current storage region.
15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the plurality of independently formed storage regions comprises at least one stamped region.
16. The apparatus of apparatus 15 , wherein the at least one stamped region is formed from a master template patterned by e-beam lithography.
17. The apparatus of apparatus 15 , wherein the at least one stamped region is formed from a daughter template substantially corresponding to an entire media surface, the daughter template formed from a master template corresponding to a single storage region.
18. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the storage medium comprises a disk.
19. The apparatus of claim 14 , further comprising a mapping module configured to collect the offset information.
20. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the mapping module is further configured to defining a track comprising a track segment from each storage region.
21. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the mapping module is further configured to create a table defining the location of at least one track segment within a storage region.
22. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the mapping module is further configured to calculate a physical offset between adjacent storage regions.
23. A system for accessing discontinuous media tracks, the system comprising:
a storage device comprising a storage medium having a plurality of independently formed storage regions thereon, each storage region comprising a plurality of track segments;
the storage device further configured to store offset information for each storage region, the offset information corresponding to at least one track segment of the plurality of track segments;
the storage device further configured to sense a head position relative to a centerline of a track segment within a current storage region;
the storage device further configured to access offset information and align a storage head with a closely aligned track segment within a subsequent storage region, wherein the subsequent storage region comprises a storage region nonadjacent to the current storage region; and
a storage access device configured to access the storage device.
24. The system of claim 23 , wherein the storage medium comprises a disk.
25. The system of claim 23 , wherein the plurality of independently formed storage regions comprises at least one stamped region.
26. The system of claim 25 , wherein the at least one stamped region is formed from a master template patterned by e-beam lithography.
27. The system of claim 23 , wherein the storage device is further configured to collect offset information.
28. The system of claim 23 , wherein the storage device is further configured to define a track comprising a track segment from each storage region.
29. The system of claim 23 , wherein the storage device is further configured to calculate the physical offset between adjacent storage regions.
30. The system of claim 23 , wherein the storage device is further configured to create a table defining the location of at least one track segment within a storage region.