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EP0535921A2 Expired / Lapsed EP ⏱️ 0.0 years remaining

Automated storage library

Assignee: International Business Machines Corp
•
Filing: 1992-09-30
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2012-09-30
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Abstract

Abstract An automated storage library includes four library boxes 1A, 1a, 1B and 1b, each of which contains four optical disk drives 4 and a robotic picker 5. The picker and drives of each box are connected through a switch 60 to two library controllers 17A and 17a. Each library controller 17 maintains an inventory (70) of all storage media in the entire library, but has no disk location inventory. The library controllers are not coupled to each other. Each picker 5 has exclusive access to a set of storage cells and internal peripheral storage devices 4. In addition, a picker controller for each picker maintains a disk location inventory (71) for the disks accessible by such picker. During a failure condition which prevents one library controller from accessing a particular storage medium, the other library controller can be signalled to attempt to access such storage medium.

Inventors

  • 👤 Kamal Emile Dimitri
  • 👤 Dennis Lee Willson

Bibliographic Details

Application Number —
Jurisdiction EP
Data Source google_patents
Last Synchronized 2026-11-05 20:35
CPC Classifications
G; G11; G11B; G11B27/00; G11B27/002; G11B17/00; G11B17/22; G11B17/225; G11B27/10; G11B27/11; G11B2220/00; G11B2220/20; G11B2220/40; G11B2220/41; G11B2220/60; G11B2220/65

Claims Analysis

Total Claims: 12
Claim 1
Independent Claim 85 words
An automated storage library for storing a plurality of storage media, including at least two library controllers (17) and at least two groups of locations for storage media, each group with automated means (5,18) to enable the transfer of storage media to and from locations, characterised by means in each automated means (5,18) for maintaining an inventory (71) of the locations of all storage media in the group of locations associated with that automated means, the library controllers (17) being connected to all automated means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim 25 words
A library according to claim 1, characterised by means in each library controller (17) for maintaining an inventory (70) of storage media in the library.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim 54 words
A library according to claim 2, including means for using the inventory (71) of the locations of all storage media in a group of locations to expand the inventory (70) of storage media in the library in a library controller (17) upon failure of another library controller (17) associated with that group of locations.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim 18 words
A library according to claim 2, wherein each inventory (70) is of all storage media in the library.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim 19 words
A library according to any preceding claim, wherein the automated means comprises a picker (5) and picker controller (18).
Claim 6
Dependent Claim 21 words
A library according to claim 5, wherein the means for maintaining the inventory (71) is stored in the picker controller (18).
Claim 7
Dependent Claim 24 words
A library according to any preceding claim, wherein the means for maintaining an inventory (71) in the automated means, includes non-volatile random access memory.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim 32 words
A library according to any preceding claim, wherein each group of locations includes at least one peripheral storage device (4) to and from which storage media are transferable by the automated means.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim 23 words
A library according to claim 8, wherein the storage media are optical disks and the peripheral storage devices are optical disk drives (4).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim 21 words
A library according to claim 8 or 9, wherein the peripheral storage devices (4) are connected to the library controllers (17).
Claim 11
Dependent Claim 21 words
A library according to any preceding claim, wherein the locations are storage cells, each capable of storing a storage medium therein.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim 21 words
A library according to any preceding claim, wherein each automated means has exclusive access to the group of locations associated therewith.

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