Patent ID: 7681793

Claim:
A magnetic head, comprising: a first module having a closure, a substrate, and a gap between the closure and substrate, the gap having: a first array of elements associated with a first data format, the elements of the first array being selected from a group consisting of readers, writers, and combinations thereof; and a second array of elements associated with a second data format, the elements of the second array being selected from a group consisting of readers, writers, and combinations thereof, wherein the first and second arrays of elements are adjacent each other generally laterally in a direction transverse to a direction of travel of a magnetic medium over the head; a second module having a tape bearing surface spaced from a tape bearing surface of the first module and aligned with the first module parallel to the direction of travel of the magnetic medium, the second module having a closure, a substrate, and a gap between the closure and substrate, the gap having: a third array of elements associated with the first data format, the elements being selected from a group consisting of readers, writers, and combinations thereof; and a fourth array of elements associated with the second data format, wherein the third and fourth arrays of elements are positioned generally laterally adjacent each other in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of the magnetic medium over the head, wherein outer elements of the third array of elements are aligned with outer elements of the first array of elements along lines oriented parallel to the direction of travel of the magnetic medium, wherein outer elements of the fourth array of elements are aligned with outer elements of the second array of elements along lines oriented parallel to the direction of travel of the magnetic medium, wherein the first and second arrays share a servo reader, wherein the servo reader shared by the first and second arrays is used to read servo tracks in the first and second data formats.