Patent ID: 8054575

Claim:
A tape drive system, comprising: a reel adapted to engage a tape cartridge, the tape cartridge comprising a tape media having a servo code written along a length of the tape media; a tape head comprising at least one servo element to detect the servo code; a drive assembly to induce relative motion between the tape media and the tape head; a servo system to control the relative motion between the tape media and the tape head, the servo system comprising: a sampling circuit assembly to sample servo data based on the servo code on the tape media, wherein the sampling circuit assembly is to sample both positive readback waveforms and negative readback waveforms generated from the servo code on the tape media, to generate corresponding signals; a pulse time demodulator circuit module to generate timestamped, digital signals from the signals generated by the sampling circuit assembly; and a position signal processor to calculate a position signal using the timestamped, digital signals, wherein the position signal is based on an accumulation of (1) an aggregate of differences in timestamps associated with the timestamped, digital signals corresponding to the positive readback waveforms and (2) an aggregate of differences in timestamps associated with the timestamped, digital signals corresponding to the negative readback waveforms.