Patent ID: 8896954

Claim:
A magnetic tape media for storing data, comprising: at least one servo band extending along the magnetic tape media and comprising servo information for allowing a determination of a lateral deviation of a servo reader reading the servo information from a lateral reference position on the servo band; additional information integrated into the servo information, which additional information is encoded by an M-ary alphabet A comprising M>2 different symbols, is arranged in a set of words, wherein each of the M>2 different symbols represents a distinct binary number consisting of a same number of bits and wherein each word of the set of words contains: synchronization information, wherein each symbol used for representing the synchronization information is from a set B of m symbols, which set B is a proper subset of the symbols in the alphabet A such that 1≦m<M; longitudinal position information, wherein each symbol used for representing the longitudinal position information is from a set C of M-m symbols, which set C is a complementary set to set B; and other information, wherein each symbol used for representing the other information is from the set C of M-m symbols.