Phase-locked loop for an electronic sectoring scheme for rotating magnetic memory

Claim 2

Apparatus for electronically dividing a rotating memory into a whole number of equally time spaced sectors comprising: means mechanically connected to rotate in unison with said memory, said means being divided into a number of evenly spaced sectors by sector marks, means for detecting said sector marks and generating a pulse train at a frequency f + OR - Delta f, where Delta f represents the magnitude of fluctuations in frequency of the pulse train due to fluctuations in the speed of revolution of said memory, a phase-locked loop for producing an output signal at a frequency significantly greater than said train of pulses by a known factor, said loop being stabilized in phase and frequency by continual phase comparison of said train of pulses with a feedback signal produced by continually dividing said output signal by said known factor, and digital means for continually dividing said output signal by a predetermined integer to produce a timing signal having a number of cycles equal to said whole number of equally time spaced sectors.

Claim 3

In a rotating magnetic memory, apparatus for electronically dividing each revolution of the memory into a plurality of equally time spaced sectors comprising: means mechanically connected to rotate in unison with said memory, said means having sector marks evenly spaced in a circle around its center of rotation, means for sensing said sector marks and generating a train of pulses from said sector marks as they are sensed, a phase-locked loop having a voltage controlled oscillator for producing an output signal at a frequency significantly greater than said train of pulses, said oscillator being stabilized in phase and frequency by a correction voltage signal derived from a continual phase comparison of said train of pulses with a feedback signal obtained from said oscillator signal by digital frequency dividing means, and means for cyclically counting down a predetermined number of cycles of said output signal to produce a timing signal having a predetermined number of cycles during each revolution of said memory.

Claim 4

In a rotating magnetic memory, apparatus for electronically dividing each revolution of the memory into a plurality of equally time spaced sectors comprising: means mechanically connected to rotate in unison with said memory, said means having sector marks evenly spaced in a circle around its center of rotation, means for sensing said sector marks and generating a train of pulses from said sector marks as they are sensed, a phase-locked loop having a voltage controlled oscillator for producing an output signal at a frequency significantly greater than said train of pulses, said oscillator being stabilized in phase and frequency by a correction voltage signal derived from a continual phase comparison of said train of pulses with a feedback signal obtained from said oscillator signal by digital frequency dividing means, and means for cyclically counting down a predetermined number of cycles of said output signal to produce a timing signal having a predetermined number of cycles during each revolution of said memory.

Claim 5

The combination defined in claim 1 including higher order low pass filtering than second order filtering of any correction voltage signal derived from phase comparison of said sector marks and said feedback signal.

Claim 6

The combination in claim 3 including: means for providing an index mark to rotate in unison with said sector marks, means for detecting said index mark to produce an index pulse once per revolution of said memory, and means for synchronizing said means for counting down cycles of said output signal, whereby division of each memory revolution into a whole number of equally time spaced sectors begins at the same point during each revolution of said memory.

Claim 7

Apparatus for generating a sector timing signal which divides one revolution of a rotating magnetic memory into a whole number of equally time spaced sectors comprising: a surface connected to rotate on the same axis with said memory, said surface having a plurality of equally spaced sector marks on a circle, the center of said circle being on said axis, means for sensing said sector marks as they pass by a fixed point in space during each revolution of said memory to generate a continuous train of pulses at a frequency that is a function of the speed with which said memory revolves abOut said axis, a phase-locked loop for producing output pulses at a higher frequency by a known factor, said phase-locked loop being connected to receive said continuous train of pulses, whereby the output pulses of said phase-locked loop are synchronized with said continuous train of pulses, and means for counting down output pulses from said phase-locked loop to effectively divide the total number of output pulses produced during each revolution of said record medium into a whole number of equally spaced sectors thereby producing at the output of said count-down means a cyclic waveform having a period for each cycle equal to the time-space of each sector.

Claim 8

Apparatus for generating a sector timing signal which divides one revolution of a rotating magnetic memory into a whole number of equally time spaced sectors comprising: a surface connected to rotate on the same axis with said memory, said surface having a plurality of equally spaced sector marks on a circle, the center of said circle being on said axis, means for sensing said sector marks as they pass by a fixed point in space during each revolution of said memory to generate a continuous train of pulses at a frequency that is a function of the speed with which said memory revolves abOut said axis, a phase-locked loop for producing output pulses at a higher frequency by a known factor, said phase-locked loop being connected to receive said continuous train of pulses, whereby the output pulses of said phase-locked loop are synchronized with said continuous train of pulses, and means for counting down output pulses from said phase-locked loop to effectively divide the total number of output pulses produced during each revolution of said record medium into a whole number of equally spaced sectors thereby producing at the output of said count-down means a cyclic waveform having a period for each cycle equal to the time-space of each sector.

Claim 9

The combination in claim 5 including higher order low pass filtering than second order filtering of any correction signal derived from any phase error between said train of pulses generated from said sector marks and a feedback signal in said loop.

Claim 10

The combination of claim 6 including: means for providing an index mark to rotate in unison with said sector marks, means for detecting said index mark to produce an index pulse once per revolution of said memory, and means for synchronizing said means for counting down cycles of said output signal, whereby division of each memory revolution into a whole number of equally time spaced sectors begins at the same point during each revolution of said memory.