Patent ID: 7123444

Claim:
A tape cassette comprising: a housing; a magnetic tape wound on at least one hub in said housing, said magnetic tape having tape data recorded thereon in a magnetic recording procedure having procedure parameters associated therewith, said tape data representing information and said procedure parameters being necessary to be known for receiving said information; a semiconductor memory in said housing containing memory data characterizing said tape data; an optical transmitter in said housing which emits outgoing optical signals; an optical receiver in said housing which receives incoming optical signals containing data including said procedure parameters; said housing having at least a region thereof which is transparent to said incoming and outgoing optical signals and said optical transmitter and said optical receiver being disposed in said housing so that said incoming optical signals and said outgoing optical signals pass through said region; and an electronic control circuit in said housing connected between said semiconductor memory and said optical transmitter and said optical receiver, for writing said data contained in said incoming optical signals into said semiconductor memory as at least a portion of said memory data, for reading out said memory data from said semiconductor memory upon a readout request contained in said incoming optical signals, and for embodying memory data read out from said semiconductor memory into said outgoing optical signals.