Optical card for data storage for use in a data recording and retrieving apparatus

Claim 1

An optical card for storing data as optically readable pits comprising: (a) a substrate having a data storage area; and (b) a plurality of track units formed in the data storage area, each of said track units comprising: (i) a data section comprised of two sets of data tracks, wherein, each set of data tracks includes an equal number of a plurality of adjacent data tracks, each data track comprises a plurality of optically readable data pits in linear alignment, all data tracks within both sets of data tracks are aligned in a first direction in parallel with each other and are aligned in a second direction perpendicular to said first direction so that said data pits are aligned in a column in said second direction thereby forming one or more bytes of simultaneously readable data, and wherein there is no vacant space between adjacent pits within a set of data tracks when viewed in either the first or second direction; (ii) a control track situated between the two sets of data tracks and aligned in the first direction in parallel with said data tracks, said control track being comprised of a plurality of control blocks each having the same configuration and being equidistantly spaced from each other as viewed in the first direction; and (iii) a track address section disposed at one or both ends of each track unit as viewed in the first direction, said track address section being comprised of data tracks wherein information identifying a track unit is recorded, said information including a track unit identifier that generically identifies a track unit, and a track number that uniquely identifies a track unit.