Media velocity detection for a capstanless tape transport system

摘要

An apparatus and method are disclosed for detecting the velocity of a tape in a tape transport system having a write head and a read head separated by a known distance and formatting the tape using marks. The tape transport system generates a write signal indicating when one of the marks is written to the tape by the write head and a read signal indicating when one of the marks is read from the tape by the read head. An accumulator determines the amount of time between the write signal and the read signal. A velocity detector determines the velocity of the tape based on the time determined by the accumulator and the known distance between the write head and the read head.