Data handling techniques

Claim 1

IN A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM UTILIZING A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF DIFFERENT DATA CHARACTERS TO FORM DESIRED WORDS OF DATA, SAID DATA CHARACTERS BEING BINARILY ENCODED IN THE FORM OF ELECTRICALLY REPRESENTED ONE AND ZERO DIGITS, DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR OPERATING ON SAID DATA WORDS WHEN EACH OF SAID DATA CHARACTERS IS REPRESENTED IN A FIRST BINARY CODE, SAID FIRST BINARY CODE COMPRISING THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF BINARY DIGITS NECESSARY TO UNIQUELY REPRESENT EACH OF SAID DATA CHARACTERS PLUS A PARITY CHECK DIGIT FOR EACH DATA CHARACTER, DATA STORAGE APPARATUS FOR STORING SAID DATA WORDS IN A SECOND BINARY CODE, SAID SECOND CODE HAVING ITS DIGITS STORED IN SERIAL FORM AND HAVING THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF BINARY DIGITS NECESSARY TO UNIQUELY REPRESENT EACH OF SAID DATA CHARACTERS WHILE MAINTAINING THE NUMBER OF SUCCESSIVE, LIKE BINARY DIGITS BELOW A PREDETERMINED MAXIMUM, EACH OF THE DATA CHARACTERS REPRESENTED IN SAID SECOND CODE COMPRISING EQUAL NUMBERS OF ONE AND ZERO DIGITS TO PROVIDE A SELF-CHECK, SAID MINIMUM NUMBER OF BINARY DIGITS PER DATA CHARACTER OF SAID SECOND CODE BEING LARGER THAN THE CORRESPONDING MINIMUM NUMBER OF SAID FIRST CODE, THE USE OF SAID SECOND CODE PROVIDING A MORE COMPLETE CHECK OF EACH DATA CHARACTER THROUGH A GREATER REDUNDANCY OF INFORMATION, FIRST TRANSLATING MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID DATA STORAGE APPARATUS FOR TRANSLATING THE DATA ADDRESSED THERETO INTO SAID SECOND CODE, SECOND TRANSLATING MEANS INTERMEDIATE SAID DATA STORAGE APPARATUS AND SAID DATA PROCESSING APPARATUS FOR TRANSLATING THE DATA ADDRESSED TO THE LATTER APPARATUS INTO SAID FIRST CODE, SAID DATA STORAGE APPARATUS INCLUDING A HIGH DENSITY MAGNETIC DATA STORAGE MEDIUM WHEREIN A TRANSITION BETWEEN ONE AND ZERO BINARY DIGITS PRODUCES OPPOSITELY ORIENTED MAGNETIZED AREAS IN SAID MEDIUM, A READOUT CIRCUIT INTERMEDIATE SAID DATA STORAGE APPARATUS AND SAID SECOND TRANSLATING MEANS FOR OBTAINING A READOUT WAVEFORM CORRESPONDING TO SAID STORED DATA, SAID READOUT CIRCUIT FURTHER INCLUDING MEANS FOR DERIVING CLOCK PULSES UPON THE OCCURRENCE OF POLARITY REVERSALS IN SAID READOUT WAVEFORM CORRESPONDING TO A SUCCESSION OF OPPOSITE BINARY DIGITS, SAID CLOCK PULSES BEING USED TO SAMPLE SAID READOUT WAVEFORM TO OBTAIN A READOUT SIGNAL, MEANS FOR RECIRCULATING THE LAST OCCURRING CLOCK PULSE IN THE ABSENCE OF A NEW CLOCK PULSE SO DERIVED, AND THE LIMITS OF RELIABLE CLOCK PULSE RECIRCULATION DETERMINING THE MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE NUMBER OF SUCCESSIVE LIKE BINARY DIGITS.