WD获得多项与磁带存储有关的专利，或重新将其引入产品线
本帖最后由 埃律西昂 于 2023-1-21 10:42 编辑Source: TechRader StorageNewsletter
原英文标题： 《Exclusive: Western Digital could be looking to mix tape and HDD tech to create 100TB+ media》《Western Digital Technologies Assigned Three Patents》
Storage device compensating for magnetic tape distortion when shingle writing data tracks
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11532330) developed by Biskeborn, Robert G., Hollister, CA, Olson, Trevor W., San Jose, CA, and Watson, Mark L., Boulder, CO, for a “data storage device compensating for magnetic tape distortion when shingle writing data tracks.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The disclosed embodiments generally relate to a data storage device for accessing a magnetic tape. The device includes write heads writing data tracks on the magnetic tape and control circuitry configured to: (1) use the heads to write a first set of data tracks on the magnetic tape,(2) measure a distortion of the first set of data tracks after the first set of data tracks have been written,and (3) use the heads to shingle write a second set of data tracks relative to the first set of data tracks based on the measured distortion. To compensate for the distortion, a priority servo is chosen based on whether the distortion is an expansion or contraction, and/or whether the shingle writing direction is inbound or outbound. The head bar is moved during shingle writing toward the servo track associated with the priority servo.”
The patent application was filed on 2021-09-09 (17/471028).
Tape drive configured to enable magnetic media to fly above upstream or downstream head assembly
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11532320) developed by Biskeborn, Robert G., Hollister, CA, and Ruiz, Oscar J., San Jose, CA, for a “tape drive configured to enable magnetic media to fly above an upstream or a downstream head assembly.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure generally relates to a tape head and a tape drive including a tape head. The tape head comprises a first same gap verify (SGV) head assembly comprising a first media facing surface (MFS) and a plurality of first write transducer and first read transducer pairs, and a second SGV head assembly comprising a second MFS and a plurality of second write transducer and second read transducer pairs. During operation, when a tape or magnetic media moves in a first direction over the tape head, the tape contacts the second MFS and is spaced from the first MFS, and when the tape moves in a second direction opposite the first direction over the tape head, the tape contacts the first MFS and is spaced from the second MFS. As such, the tape contacts only one edge of either the first or second MFS during operation.”
The patent application was filed on 2021-10-27 (17/512127).
2D magnetic recording (tdmr) for high areal density tape drive
Western Digital Technologies, Inc., San Jose, CA, has been assigned a patent (11532325) developed by Le, Quang, Liu, Xiaoyong, San Jose, CA, Bai, Zhigang, Fremont, CA, Ho, Kuok San, Emerald Hills, CA, and Takano, Hisashi, San Jose, CA, for a “two-dimensional magnetic recording (tdmr) for high areal density tape drive.“
The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: “The present disclosure is generally related to a tape drive including a tape head configured to read shingled data tracks on a tape. The tape head comprises a first module head assembly aligned with a second module head assembly. Both the first and second module head assemblies comprises one or more servo heads and a plurality of data heads. Each data head comprises a write head, a first read head aligned with the write head, and a second read head offset from the first read head in both a cross-track direction and a down-track direction. The first read heads and the second read heads are configured to read data from a shingled data track of the tape simultaneously. In some embodiments, the tape head is able to be dynamically tilted in order to tilt the first and second reads heads when reading curved portions of shingled data tracks.”
The patent application was filed on 2021-12-15 (17/551981).
US storage giant Western Digital already covers SSD, memory cards, RAM and hard disk drives and has dipped its toes in DNA data storage (it is a founding member of the DNA Data Storage Alliance).
Now, newly-unearthed patents appear to show that the company may want to (re) add tape to complete its current media portfolio after the sun-setting of its Arkeia product range a few years ago.
The company was recently assigned a number of patents mentioning “tape embedded drive” in recent years:
[*]11393498 (PDF) (head assembly with suspension system for a tape embedded drive)
[*]20200258544 (PDF) (Tape embedded drive)
[*]11081132 (PDF) Tape embedded drive with HDD components
[*]And a few more
What this alludes to is the intriguing possibility of getting the basic components of a tape drive merged with the actual tape media in a bid to reduce the inherent environmental and technological complexity of tape libraries as well as improving the access time by at least one order of magnitude.
Having the read and write heads closer to the media in an enclosed form factor is nothing new. That’s what hard disk drives do and what others, most notably Iomega with its Zip Drive, has tried to do in the past. Western Digital’s patent suggests adopting a standardized form factor, 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch, for easier adoption by data centers and hyperscalers.
The cost factor
An embedded tape would still be more expensive than a normal one (LTO-9 tapes retail for about $130 a pop) because of the extra electronics but you don’t need a tape drive to get started. As long as it sits somewhere between tapes ($4 per TB) and enterprise hard drives ($20 per TB), there will be a significant market for it.
A standard LTO (Linear Tape-Open) tape is 102 x 105 x 21mm while your average 3.5-inch hard drive is about 147 x 101 x 26mm while weighing about a quarter of the weight. LTO-9 has a compressed capacity of 45TB (18TB uncompressed) with the next generation - likely to come in the second half of this decade - doubling in capacity (obviously, there might be some adjustments as it was the case going from Gen 8 to Gen 9).
A sealed LTO-based tape drive would likely be lighter, cheaper, consume/dissipate less power but also have more onboard compute capabilities than your standard hard disk. Thicker and wider tape reels would also allow far bigger capacities (LTO-9 uses 1Km of tape with a 5.2µm thickness and 12.65mm width).
100TB uncompressed capacities should be achievable and Western Digital is uniquely positioned to convert this into a workable reality especially as it can use its expertise in hard drive components.
That new tape could, all things considered, use a similar PCB and interface as an enterprise hard disk drive; it doesn’t need to have the traditional tape look. It will still have to solve the issue of physically spooling the tape to reach the desired data.
Perhaps the biggest challenge of all is to take this novel approach to tape to the LTO consortium, an organization that oversees the development of LTO and comprises IBM, HPE and Quantum, all of whom may have different commercial strategies that require having an expensive drive and cheap tapes.
机翻：
美国存储巨头西部数据已经涵盖了SSD，存储卡，RAM和硬盘驱动器，并涉足DNA数据存储（它是DNA数据存储联盟的创始成员）。
现在，新出土的专利似乎表明，该公司可能希望在几年前Arkeia产品系列日落后（重新）添加胶带以完成其当前的介质组合。
该公司最近获得了多项近年来提及“磁带嵌入式驱动器”的专利：
[*]11393498 （PDF） （带悬挂系统的磁头组件，用于磁带嵌入式驱动器）
[*]20200258544 （PDF） （磁带嵌入式驱动器）
[*]11081132 （PDF） 带有 HDD 组件的磁带嵌入式驱动器
[*]还有更多
这暗示了一种有趣的可能性，即将磁带机的基本组件与实际的磁带介质合并，以减少磁带库固有的环境和技术复杂性，并将访问时间至少缩短一个数量级。
在封闭的外形中使读写磁头更靠近介质并不是什么新鲜事。这就是硬盘驱动器所做的，也是其他人，尤其是带有Zip驱动器的Iomega过去试图做的事情。西部数据的专利建议采用标准化的外形，2.5英寸或3.5英寸，以便于数据中心和超大规模企业采用。
成本因素
由于额外的电子设备，嵌入式磁带仍然比普通磁带（LTO-9磁带零售价约为130美元）更昂贵，但您不需要磁带驱动器即可开始使用。只要它介于磁带（每TB4美元）和企业硬盘驱动器（每TB20美元）之间，它就会有很大的市场。
标准 LTO（线性磁带打开）磁带为 102 x 105 x 21 毫米，而平均 3.5 英寸硬盘驱动器约为 147 x 101 x 26 毫米，重量约为四分之一。LTO-9的压缩容量为45TB（未压缩的18TB），下一代 - 可能在本十年的下半叶 - 容量翻倍（显然，可能会有一些调整，因为从第8代到第9代的情况）。
与标准硬盘相比，基于 LTO 的密封磁带机可能更轻、更便宜、消耗/耗散更少的功率，但也具有更多的板载计算能力。更厚更宽的卷带也将允许更大的容量（LTO-9使用1公里的胶带，厚度为5.2μm，宽度为12.65mm）。
100TB未压缩容量应该是可以实现的，西部数据具有独特的优势，可以将其转化为可行的现实，特别是因为它可以利用其在硬盘组件方面的专业知识。
考虑到所有因素，新磁带可以使用与企业硬盘驱动器类似的PCB和接口;它不需要具有传统的磁带外观。它仍然必须解决物理假脱机磁带以达到所需数据的问题。
也许最大的挑战是将这种新颖的磁带方法带到 LTO 联盟，这是一个监督 LTO 开发的组织，由 IBM、HPE 和昆腾组成，所有这些组织可能都有不同的商业战略，需要昂贵的驱动器和廉价的磁带。 磁带是不是寻道时间慢的一批但是不容易坏,而且坏了部分剩下的部分还能用? 磁带在数据中心是作为数据备份的 lxg503 发表于 2023-1-20 23:27
磁带是不是寻道时间慢的一批但是不容易坏,而且坏了部分剩下的部分还能用? ...
是啊 存储时间也比机械盘长能放几十年 不会消磁当然要看环境
现在新款也不是特别慢了。好像有新功能。。。
只是这玩意起手机器贵盘很便宜 lxg503 发表于 2023-1-20 23:27
磁带是不是寻道时间慢的一批但是不容易坏,而且坏了部分剩下的部分还能用? ...
磁带基本只能从头读到尾，想象一下一盘英语磁带放到头之后想直接放第四章的内容。 顺序读写速度不亚于普通机械硬盘 随机读写能力约等于没有 这玩意应该是数据中心来用的，民用市场恐怕没啥存在的意义。 RedMomoe 发表于 2023-1-21 10:32
是的，最关键的一点的是容量大，价格低！适用于存储不需要经常使用的数据。 ...
那适合放纯当类型,冷备份 磁带最大的问题是顺序读写，我们磁盘SSD都是随机读写。速度已经不是问题。 家用冷备份我还是青睐千年蓝光盘 momo77989724 发表于 2023-1-21 11:40
是啊 存储时间也比机械盘长能放几十年 不会消磁当然要看环境
现在新款也不是特别慢了。好像有新功 ...
顺序读写速度很快！不过仅限于顺序读写[晕倒] 56413477 发表于 2023-1-22 12:25
这玩意应该是数据中心来用的，民用市场恐怕没啥存在的意义。
民用主要是个磁带保存的问题，需要恒温恒湿定期拿出来转一转避免粘连，就跟之前的音乐磁带一样，两者原理相同。 毛毛叉 发表于 2023-1-23 10:00
家用冷备份我还是青睐千年蓝光盘
光盘的 容量/体积 真是扶不起的阿斗。至少做到1T一张，才算有点儿吸引力。毕竟隔壁磁带一盘500T+。 声色茶马 发表于 2023-1-26 11:19
光盘的 容量/体积 真是扶不起的阿斗。至少做到1T一张，才算有点儿吸引力。毕竟隔壁磁带一盘500T+。 ...
那你说的是应该指向这个：
https://www.ithome.com/0/668/177.htm 本帖最后由 声色茶马 于 2023-1-27 09:00 编辑
埃律西昂 发表于 2023-1-27 00:07
那你说的是应该指向这个：
https://www.ithome.com/0/668/177.htm
这个好。个人数据备份和企业级的数据备份逻辑还是不太一样。早期的单次写入不可擦写的光盘对于个人数据永备很有优势。至少不担心什么勒索病毒之类。
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