Inventors:
Edward J. Rhodes - San Jose CA
Daryl K. Adams - San Jose CA
Clifford R. Berry - Fremont CA
Ta-Lin Chang - Cupertino CA
David R. Lee - San Jose CA
Assignee:
R-Byte, Inc. - San Jose CA
International Classification:
G11B 509
Abstract:
In a digital data storage audio tape system having a host device interface unit, a main data buffer manager, a main data buffer, a processor, a data separator, a tape drive unit, and a read/write channel, this invention comprises a formatter providing track construction, encoding and decoding, error correction, and direct memory access of digital data transmitted between the host device unit and the tape drive unit and a frame buffer for buffering digital data for encoding and decoding, and error correction. The formatter is coupled between the main data buffer manager, via a direct memory access channel, and the read/write channel of the tape drive, and further is coupled to the frame buffer. The formatter is coupled to and responsive to instruction control by the processor in conjunction with instruction control of the tape drive unit by the processor.