Patent ID: 7982988

Claim:
A timing-based servo module in a linear tape drive, comprising: a first servo channel coupled to receive a first digital servo signal read from a data tape by a servo element, the first servo channel comprising: a first output for a first unweighted metric; and a second output for a first measure of the channel reliability; a second servo channel coupled to receive a second digital servo signal read from the data tape by the servo element, the second servo channel comprising: a first output for a second unweighted metric; and a second output for a second measure of the channel reliability; a weight computation module operable to provide a first weight signal and a second weight signal using the measures of channel reliability from the first and second servo channels; a first multiplying node coupled to receive the first unweighted metric and the first weight signal and operable to output a first weighted metric; a second multiplying node coupled to receive the second unweighted metric and the second weight signal and operable to output a second weighted metric; and a summing node coupled to receive the first and second weighted metrics and operable to output a combined weighted metric to an LPOS word decoder.