Format control for disk recording

Claim 1

APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING THE FLOW OF DATA TO AND FROM A STORAGE DEVICE HAVING A PLURALITY OF TRACKS FOR RECORDING AT LEAST ONE OF SAID TRACKS HAVING RECORDED THEREON A FORMAT COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF BITS WITH GAPS THEREBETWEEN DEFINING THE BOUNDARY OF DATA ON AT LEAST ONE DATA TRACK, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING: A PLURALITY OF TRANSDUCERS FOR COOPERATING WITH SAID TRACKS; A FIRST COUNTER, RESPONSIVE TO BITS SENSED BY ONE OF SAID TRANSDUCERS ASSOCIATED WITH SAID FORMAT TRACK FOR DEVELOPING OUTPUTS CORRESPONDING TO PERDETERMINED COUNTS IN SAID COUNTER; TIMING MEANS; A SECOND COUNTER RESPONSIVE TO SAID TIMING MEANS OPERATIVE TO PROVIDE OUTPUTS FOR CONTROLLING THE SENSING AND RECORDING OF DATA ON SAID DATA TRACK BY ANOTHER OF SAID TRANSDUCERS ASSOCIATED WITH SAID DATA TRACK; SAID FIRST AND SECOND COUNTERS NORMALLY OPERATIVE TO INITIATE A CONTROL FUNCTION AT THE COMPLETION OF A PLURALITY OF COUNTING CYCLES, EACH CYCLE OF SAID SECOND COUNTER REPRESENTING A DATA CHARACTER HAVING A PLURALITY OF BITS CORRESPONDING TO THE OUTPUTS OF SAID SECOND COUNTER; LOGIC MEANS CONNECTED TO THE OUTPUTS OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND COUNTERS, AND MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID LOGIC MEANS, RESPONSIVE TO THE SENSING OF THE END OF FORMAT BITS BY SAID ASSOCIATED FORMAT TRANSDUCER, FOR INITIATING SAID CONTROL FUNCTION ONLY IF SAID SECOND COUNTER HAS COMPLETED A COUNTING CYCLE CORRESPONDING TO A PREDETERMINED CHARACTER OF DATA WITHIN THE BOUNDARY DEFINED BY SAID FORMAT BITS.