STORAGE SUBSYSTEM WITH CONTROLLER FOR MULTIPLE RECORD CARRIERS

摘要

An information-signal storage subsystem (10) has a plurality of addressable tape recorders (13) and a control unit (11), including a buffer (15). The control unit is connected to a plurality of host processors (12). Blocks of signals are transferred between the processors and the buffer and between the buffer and the tape recorders. Such blocks are counted in a block counter (52) and the counts stored in storage area (62, 64). Such counts may be compared with the physical location of a tape in a tape recorder, and may be retrieved by a host processor for use later to locate the blocks of signals and for error recovery purposes. In a buffered peripheral subsystem, such counts define current signal transfer status of the buffer.