Patent Document ID: 8082388
Application ID: 12057128
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for retrieving blocks of data from a tape media, the method comprising: receiving a request to retrieve multiple groups of at least one block of data; retrieving a device block map from a tape media indicating positions of the groups of at least one block of data on the tape media and storing said device block map in a memory location; generating from the device block map in memory an image of a physical layout of the requested groups of at least one block of data on the tape media; determining an optimal order to retrieve the requested groups of data based on the physical layout of the requested groups indicated in the image in a manner that minimizes an operational time of retrieving the requested groups of at least one block of data; and retrieving the requested groups of at least one block of data from the tape media using the determined optimal order; and wherein the determining the optimal order further comprises: determining a plurality of retrieval paths based on the image of the layout of the requested groups of the at least one block of data in memory, wherein each of the retrieval paths comprises an ordered sequence of the requested groups of the at least one block of data and the manner in which the tape media is to be traversed to accomplish the retrieval of the ordered sequence; determining a sum of operational times for each of the retrieval paths; selecting an optimal one of the retrieval paths based on the lowest sum of the operational times; and retrieving the blocks of data from the tape media using the optimal retrieval path.