JP2012003591A - Storage control device, image formation device, and storage device control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase a transfer rate without using many information storage devices and losing storage capacity, when using an information storage device of which transfer rates are different depending on areas in which information is recorded.SOLUTION: An HDD control part 160 for dividing data to store the data in a plurality of HDD 40 includes: a register part 163 for obtaining an area address of the HDD 40 to be accessed; an address conversion part 164 for determining a division to which the obtained address belongs on the basis of area division information in which divisions of an area are defined depending on transfer rates of information for each area and converting the address according to the determined division; a data control part 161 for allocating data to be stored to a plurality of the HDD 40 at a rate of capacity according to the determined division; and an HDD I/F 165 for storing the allocated data in the HDD 40 on the basis of the converted address.

Description

  The present invention relates to a storage control device, an image forming apparatus, and a storage device control program, and more particularly to control when a plurality of storage devices are operated in conjunction with each other.

  In recent years, there has been a tendency to digitize information, and image processing apparatuses such as printers and facsimiles used for outputting digitized information and scanners used for digitizing documents have become indispensable devices. Such an image processing apparatus is often configured as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) that can be used as a printer, a facsimile, a scanner, and a copier by providing an imaging function, an image forming function, a communication function, and the like. .

  Among such image processing apparatuses, a scanner used for digitizing documents may store an image generated by scanning in a storage medium such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) provided in the apparatus. Further, in an image forming apparatus used for outputting an electronic document, an image to be imaged and output may be received together with a print job and stored in a storage medium provided in the apparatus.

  Here, in the HDD, a disk-shaped recording medium is used by being divided into write / read units called “sectors”. This “sector” is arranged along the circumference from the inner circumference side to the outer circumference side of the disk. Information is written / read by accessing a “sector” provided on a disk on which a head for writing / reading rotates.

  “Sectors” are arranged at substantially constant intervals in the entire area of the recording medium. Therefore, when the rotational speeds of the discs are the same, the number of sectors that the head can access per unit time differs between the inner circumference side and the outer circumference side of the disc-shaped recording medium. As a result, the information transfer rate in the HDD is higher in the outer peripheral area than in the inner peripheral area of the disk.

  If the information transfer rate is low, the performance of the entire apparatus relating to processing using the information is degraded. Therefore, in a device using an HDD, measures against the difference in transfer rate between the inner and outer peripheral areas of the disk are taken. Is considered. For example, in the recording medium on the disk of the HDD, there is a method of using only the outer peripheral area where a predetermined transfer rate is ensured and not using the inner peripheral area where the transfer rate is low.

  In addition, when the data to be recorded is divided and recorded on two HDDs, the first half data is written from the outer peripheral side to the inner peripheral side of the recording medium in one HDD, and the latter half data is written in the other HDD. A method has been proposed in which the transfer rate in the entire area of the recording medium is kept substantially constant by writing from the inner circumference side to the outer circumference side of the recording medium (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Among the measures described above, in the method that does not use the area on the inner circumference side, the usable area is limited, so that all the storage areas of the HDD cannot be used, and the operation of the apparatus becomes inefficient. In the case of the method described in Patent Document 1, the time required for writing data to be recorded in the HDD is the time required for writing the first half data and the second half data as described in the literature. Is the sum of the time required to write That is, the problem that the time required to write data on the inner periphery of the disk becomes a bottleneck remains.

  Furthermore, in order to obtain the effect of striping using the method described in Patent Document 1, at least four HDDs are required. Therefore, in an apparatus in which four HDDs cannot be mounted, use them. I can't. Such a problem is not limited to an image forming apparatus, and may be similarly a problem if the apparatus uses an HDD. Furthermore, if the storage device has different information transfer rates depending on the area where information is recorded, it can be a problem as well.

  The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and without using many information storage devices in the case of using information storage devices having different information transfer rates depending on the information recording area. And it aims at improving a transfer rate, without impairing storage capacity.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an aspect of the present invention is a storage control device that divides and stores data in a plurality of storage devices having different information transfer speeds according to an area in which the information is stored. The designated address acquisition unit for acquiring an address of an area to be accessed with respect to the device, and the acquired address based on area classification information in which the area classification is determined based on a transfer rate of information corresponding to the area An area classification determination unit that determines to which classification the data belongs to, an address conversion unit that converts the acquired address according to the determined classification, and the data to be stored according to the determined classification A data allocating unit that allocates the plurality of storage devices at a ratio of a predetermined capacity, and data that stores the allocated data in the storage device based on the converted address. A storage unit, and the address conversion unit is configured to designate an area having a relatively high transfer speed in all storage areas of the storage device for at least one of the plurality of storage devices, and from among other information storage media The address is converted so that at least one area having a lower transfer speed than the area having a relatively high transfer speed is designated, and the data allocating unit stores the address of the area having the high transfer speed designated. More data is allocated to a device than a storage device in which an address of an area having a low transfer rate is designated.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus including the above storage control device.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a storage device control program that divides and stores data in a plurality of storage devices having different information transfer speeds depending on an area for storing the information. A step of acquiring an address of an area to be accessed, and a section to which the acquired address belongs based on area section information in which the section of the area is determined based on a transfer rate of information according to the area Determining at least one of the plurality of storage devices, an area having a relatively high transfer rate is designated in all storage areas of the storage device, and the at least one of the other information storage media A step of converting the acquired address according to the determined category so that an area having a lower transfer speed than an area having a higher transfer speed is designated. The data to be stored so that more data is allocated to the storage device in which the address of the area having the higher transfer rate is specified than in the storage device in which the address of the area with the lower transfer speed is specified. Are allocated to the plurality of storage devices at a capacity ratio according to the determined category, and the allocated data is stored in the storage device based on the converted address. The apparatus is characterized by being executed.

  According to the present invention, when an information storage device having a different information transfer rate depending on an information recording area is used, the transfer rate can be improved without using many information storage devices and without impairing the storage capacity. Can do.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the HDD control part which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the aspect of the address conversion which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the division of the storage area which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of LUT which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the aspect of the division | segmentation and allocation of the information at the time of the writing of the information which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the aspect of the division | segmentation and allocation of the information at the time of the reading of the information which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the HDD control part which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the transfer rate of the information by the HDD control part which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the division of the storage area which concerns on other embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an image forming apparatus including a storage control device will be described as an example of a multifunction peripheral including a function of storing image information generated by scanning in a storage medium.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 1 includes an engine for realizing a scanner, a printer, and the like in addition to the hardware configuration shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes the same configuration as that of a general server or PC. That is, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 10, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 20, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 30, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 40, and an I / F 50. 80 is connected. Further, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) 60 and an operation unit 70 are connected to the I / F 50.

  The CPU 10 is a calculation unit and controls the operation of the entire image forming apparatus 1. The RAM 20 is a volatile storage medium capable of reading and writing information at high speed, and is used as a work area when the CPU 10 processes information. The ROM 30 is a read-only nonvolatile storage medium and stores a program such as firmware. The HDD 40 is a non-volatile storage medium that can read and write information, and stores an OS (Operating System), various control programs, application programs, and the like.

  The I / F 50 connects and controls the bus 80 and various hardware and networks. The LCD 60 is a visual user interface for the user to check the state of the image forming apparatus 1. The operation unit 70 is a user interface for the user to input information to the image forming apparatus 1.

  In such a hardware configuration, a program stored in a storage medium such as the ROM 30, the HDD 40, or an optical disk (not shown) is read into the RAM 20, and operates according to the control of the CPU 10, thereby configuring a software control unit. A functional block that realizes the functions of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured by a combination of the software control unit configured as described above and hardware.

  Next, the functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes a controller 100, an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) 101, a scanner unit 102, a paper discharge tray 103, a display panel 104, and a paper feed table. 105, a print engine 106, a paper discharge tray 107, and a network I / F 108. The image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment includes two HDDs 40a and 40b.

  The controller 100 includes a main control unit 110, an engine control unit 120, an image processing unit 130, an operation display control unit 140, an input / output control unit 150, and an HDD control unit 160. As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is configured as a multifunction machine having a scanner unit 102 and a print engine 106. In FIG. 2, the electrical connection is indicated by a solid arrow, and the flow of a sheet or a document bundle is indicated by a broken arrow.

  The display panel 104 is an output interface that visually displays the state of the image forming apparatus 1, and as a touch panel, when the user directly operates the image forming apparatus 1 or inputs information to the image forming apparatus 1. It is also an input interface (operation unit). The display panel 104 is realized by the LCD 60 and the operation unit 70 shown in FIG.

  The network I / F 108 is an interface for the image forming apparatus 1 to communicate with other devices such as the client terminal 2 and the workflow server 3 via the network, and an Ethernet (registered trademark) or a USB interface is used. The network I / F 108 is realized by the I / F 50 shown in FIG.

  The controller 100 is configured by a combination of software and hardware. Specifically, a program stored in a nonvolatile storage medium such as the ROM 30 and the nonvolatile memory and the HDD 40 and the optical disk is loaded into a volatile memory (hereinafter referred to as a memory) such as the RAM 20 and operates according to the control of the CPU 10. The controller 100 is configured by a software control unit configured by and hardware such as an integrated circuit. The controller 100 functions as a control unit that controls the entire image forming apparatus 1.

  The main control unit 110 plays a role of controlling each unit included in the controller 100, and gives a command to each unit of the controller 100. The engine control unit 120 serves as a driving unit that controls or drives the print engine 106, the scanner unit 102, and the like. The image processing unit 130 generates drawing information based on image information to be printed out under the control of the main control unit 110. The drawing information is information for drawing an image to be formed in the image forming operation by the print engine 106 as an image forming unit. The image processing unit 130 processes image data input from the scanner unit 102 to generate image data. The image data is information stored in the storage area of the image forming apparatus 1 as a result of the scanner operation.

  The operation display control unit 140 displays information on the display panel 104 or notifies the main control unit 110 of information input via the display panel 104. The input / output control unit 150 inputs information input via the network I / F 108 to the main control unit 110. The main control unit 110 controls the input / output control unit 150 to access the client terminal 2 via the network I / F 108 and the network. The HDD control unit 160 is a configuration according to the gist of the present embodiment, and controls the HDDs 40a and 40b to write information and read information. That is, the HDD control unit 160 functions as a storage control device that controls the HDDs 40a and 40b, which are storage devices.

  When the image forming apparatus 1 operates as a printer, first, the input / output control unit 150 receives a print job via the network I / F 108. The input / output control unit 150 transfers the received print job to the main control unit 110. When receiving a print job, the main control unit 110 controls the image processing unit 130 to generate drawing information based on document information or image information included in the print job. At this time, the image information generated by the image processing unit 130 is stored in the HDDs 40 a and 40 b by the HDD control unit 160.

  When drawing information is generated by the image processing unit 130, the engine control unit 120 controls the print engine 106 to form an image on the paper conveyed from the paper feed table 105 based on the generated drawing information. Let it run. At this time, the image information stored in the HDDs 40 a and 40 b is read by the HDD control unit 160 and supplied to the engine control unit 120. As a specific aspect of the print engine 106, an image forming mechanism using an ink jet method, an image forming mechanism using an electrophotographic method, or the like can be used. A document on which image formation has been performed by the print engine 106 is discharged to a discharge tray 107.

  In the case where the image forming apparatus 1 operates as a scanner, the operation display control unit 140 or according to the operation of the display panel 104 by the user or the scan execution instruction input from the external client terminal 2 or the like via the network I / F 108 The input / output control unit 150 transfers a scan execution signal to the main control unit 110. The main control unit 110 controls the engine control unit 120 based on the received scan execution signal.

  The engine control unit 120 drives the ADF 101 and conveys the document to be imaged set on the ADF 101 to the scanner unit 102. In addition, the engine control unit 120 drives the scanner unit 102 and images a document conveyed from the ADF 101. If no original is set on the ADF 101 and the original is set directly on the scanner unit 102, the scanner unit 102 images the set original according to the control of the engine control unit 120. That is, the scanner unit 102 operates as an imaging unit.

  In the imaging operation, an imaging element such as a CCD included in the scanner unit 102 optically scans the document, and imaging information generated based on the optical information is generated. The engine control unit 120 transfers the imaging information generated by the scanner unit 102 to the image processing unit 130. The image processing unit 130 generates image information based on the imaging information received from the engine control unit 120 according to the control of the main control unit 110. Image information generated by the image processing unit 130 is stored in the HDDs 40 a and 40 b by the HDD control unit 160. That is, the scanner unit 102, the engine control unit 120, and the image processing unit 130 work together to function as an image input unit.

  The image information generated by the image processing unit 130 is stored in the HDD 40a, 40b or the like as it is according to a user instruction or transmitted to an external device such as the workflow server 3 via the input / output control unit 150 and the network I / F 108. Is done.

  Further, when the image forming apparatus 1 operates as a copying machine, the image processing unit 130 generates drawing information based on imaging information received by the engine control unit 120 from the scanner unit 102 or image information generated by the image processing unit 130. To do. Based on the drawing information, the engine control unit 120 drives the print engine 106 as in the case of the printer operation. When the information format of the drawing information and the imaging information is the same, the imaging information can be used as the drawing information as it is.

  Next, the HDD control unit 160 that is a configuration according to the gist of the present embodiment will be described in more detail. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the HDD control unit 160. In FIG. 3, the flow of information stored in the HDDs 40a and 40b is indicated by solid lines, and the flow of information for controlling each unit is indicated by broken lines. As shown in FIG. 3, the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment includes a data control unit 161, a buffer 162, a register unit 163, an address conversion unit 164, an HDD I / F 165a, an HDD I / F 165b (hereinafter generally referred to as HDD I / F). F165).

  Under the control of the main control unit 110, the data control unit 161 divides the information to be written into the HDD 40 into data for one sector in the HDDs 40a and 40b, generates divided data, and supplies the divided data to the HDD I / F 165. Further, the data control unit 161 restores the original data by combining the information read from the HDDs 40a and 40b while being divided for each sector.

  The buffer 162 is a storage area that temporarily holds information input to the data control unit 161 as information to be written to the HDDs 40a and 40b, and has a 1-port or 2-port input / output I / F. The register unit 163 notifies the setting value to each unit of the HDD control unit 160 under the control of the main control unit 110.

  The address conversion unit 164 converts the addresses of the HDDs 40a and 40b notified from the register unit so that the processing that is the gist of the present embodiment is executed. At that time, the address conversion unit 164 refers to a LUT (Look Up Table) indicating the correspondence between the physical address and the virtual address. The processing by the address conversion unit 164 will be described in detail later.

  The HDD I / F 165 controls the address notified from the address conversion unit by inputting it to the HDD 40a or 40b. Thereby, the HDDs 40a and 40b access the notified address. In addition, when writing data to the HDDs 40a and 40b, the HDD I / F 165 receives the divided data from the data control unit 161 together with the notification of the address and supplies it to the HDDs 40a and 40b. When reading data from the HDDs 40a and 40b, the HDD I / F 165 receives the divided data read when the HDDs 40a and 40b access the addresses and transfers them to the data control unit 161. The HDD I / F 165 includes two or more stages of toggle buffers having a data size for one sector in the HDDs 40a and 40b.

  In such a configuration, the gist of the present embodiment is that RAID 2 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) -0 by two HDDs 40a and 40b, that is, on the disk that is the storage area of the HDDs 40a and 40b when performing striping. It is to change the data division mode according to the position. Hereinafter, the operation of the gist according to the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an aspect of address conversion by the address conversion unit 164 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, when the main control unit 110 designates the data write destination and the data read source address to the HDD control unit 160, a virtual that does not recognize that the HDD 40 a and the HDD 40 b are combined. Specified as an address. The main control unit 110 specifies an address by writing address information to the register unit 163. That is, the register unit 163 and the address conversion unit 164 function as a designated address acquisition unit.

  The address conversion unit 164 first converts this virtual address into a physical address of each of the striped HDD 40a and HDD 40b. That is, when acquiring the physical address of each HDD 40, the address conversion unit 164 functions as a designated address acquisition unit. This address conversion is the same as general RAID control. In general striping processing, equally divided data is written to the same address in each HDD.

  In contrast, the address conversion unit according to the present embodiment converts the physical address of the HDD 40b into an inverted address obtained by inverting the positions of the outer peripheral side and the inner peripheral side of the disk. Thereby, when data is written on the inner circumference side of the disk in the HDD 40a, data is written on the outer circumference side of the disk in the HDD 40b.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how data is divided into the HDD 40a and the HDD 40b in the striping control according to the present embodiment, and is a diagram showing the storage area ratio according to the physical address of the HDD 40a and the inverted address of the HDD 40b. . As shown in FIG. 5, the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment divides a disk, which is a storage medium of the HDD 40, into six region sections, region 1 to region 6, from the outer peripheral side to the inner peripheral side.

  The storage capacity of each area is the largest in area 2 and decreases in the order of area 3 and area 4, and area 1 is smaller than area 6. That is, in the present embodiment, the area division is determined so that the area division with the high transfer rate includes more areas than the area division with the low transfer speed.

  In the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the area 2 of the HDD 40a and the area 6 of the HDD 40b are the area B, and the area 3 of the HDD 40a and the area 5 of the HDD 40b are the area C. The divided areas are associated with each other by being inverted as “A”, “B”,.

  That is, in the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment, when data is written in the area 2 which is the area B in the HDD 40a, data is written in the area 6 in the HDD 40b striped with the HDD 40a. In other words, the address conversion unit 164 designates an area having a relatively high transfer speed among all the storage areas for one HDD 40, and an area having a transfer speed slower than that for the other HDD 40. Is specified.

  In the present embodiment, the ratio of the storage area between the area 2 and the area 6 is 3: 1. Therefore, when writing information in the area B, the data control unit 161 allocates each divided data divided into data sizes for one sector in the HDD 40 to the HDD 40a and the HDD 40b at a ratio of 3: 1. In other words, when allocating data, the data control unit 161 allocates more data to an area with a high transfer rate than an area with a low transfer rate.

  The area A is the area 1 for both the HDDs 40a and 40b, and is the outermost area of the disk. This area is an area used when the HDD 40 operates as a virtual memory. When the HDD 40 operates as a virtual memory, a transfer rate that is as high as possible is required. Therefore, the area 1 on the outermost periphery of the disk is reserved for a virtual memory that is used for data storage. That is, when an address included in a predetermined range is designated from the side with the highest transfer rate, such as area A, as the access destination for the HDD 40, the address conversion unit reverses addresses such as the areas B to F described above. The physical addresses designated for the HDDs 40a and 40b are used as they are.

  The transfer rate in the HDD is lower for access to the storage area on the inner periphery side than for access to the storage area on the outer periphery side of the disk. When striping is performed with two HDDs, writing or reading data can be completed at a higher speed than when accessing one HDD by dividing the data and writing or reading the data to two HDDs. .

  Here, since the transfer rate is originally high in the storage area on the outer periphery side of the disk, even if the speed is increased by striping, other parts become bottlenecks in the operation of the entire apparatus, and the high transfer rate is not utilized. There is a case. On the other hand, since the transfer rate is low in the past area on the inner circumference side of the disk, even if speeding up by striping is performed, it does not catch up with the information transfer rate in other parts in the operation of the entire device, and becomes a bottleneck. May end up.

  For such a problem, the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment does not simply write data sequentially from the inner circumference side or the outer circumference side of the disk, but in one HDD from the inner circumference side of the disk. In the other HDD, data is written from the outer peripheral side of the disk. The data to be written to the HDD is not simply divided in half and written to each HDD, but the HDD in which data is written on the outer periphery side of the disk, that is, the area with a high transfer rate, is compared to the other HDD. Write a lot of data. With such a process, if there are at least two HDDs, a high transfer rate can be realized in the entire area of the disk as a storage medium in the HDD.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an LUT that defines an address conversion mode between a physical address and an inverted address by the address conversion unit 164 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 6, in the LUT according to this embodiment, for each “area” of areas 1 to 6, “start address (physical)” and “number of sectors” for specifying each area are indicated. “Start address (inversion)” and “coefficient” for specifying the area after inversion are described and stored.

With reference to such an LUT, the address conversion unit 164 according to the present embodiment performs inversion of an address for obtaining an “inversion address” from a “physical address” based on the following equation (1).

  Expression (1) is notified from the register unit 163 by subtracting “start address (physical)” indicating the head address of the area including the address from the “physical address” notified from the register unit. 5 is an expression for applying the areas 1 to 6 shown in FIG. 5 to obtain the position in each area.

Whether the “physical address” notified from the register unit 163 is included in any of the areas 1 to 6 is based on the “start address (physical)” in the LUT and the “number of sectors”. Judgment can be made. For example, if the “physical address” notified from the register unit is included in the sector range from “FFFFFF” to “Sec ₂ ”, the “physical address” is included in the area 2. As described above, the address conversion unit 164 also functions as an area segment determination unit that performs an area segment determination process based on the physical address notified from the register unit 163. In this case, the “start address (physical)” and the “sector number” shown in FIG. 6 are information for determining the area division as shown in FIG. 5, that is, the area from the outer circumference side to the inner circumference side of the disk. It is used as area division information in which the area division is determined based on the information transfer rate according to the information.

  Expression (2) is an expression for obtaining an “inverted address” based on the “in-area position” obtained by the expression (1). As described above, since the ratio of data allocation is different between the HDD 40a and the HDD 40b in each area, the “in-area position” is obtained by multiplying the “in-area position” by the “coefficient” set to match the ratio. Adjust “”. Then, the “inverted address” is obtained by adding the adjusted “in-area position” to the “start address (inverted)” indicating the start address of the inverted area. With this calculation, the address conversion unit 164 converts the address specified for the HDD 40b by switching the section of the area having a high transfer speed and the section of the area having a low transfer speed. That is, “start address (physical)” and “start address (inverted)” shown in FIG. 6 are used as information indicating a correspondence relationship between a segment of a region with a high transfer rate and a segment of a region with a low transfer rate.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a data division mode when data is stored in the area B illustrated in FIG. 5 in the HDD control unit 160. When data is stored in the HDD 40, data to be stored in the data control unit 161 is input by the main control unit 110, and addressing by the virtual address shown in FIG. 4 is performed on the register unit 163. As a result, the data control unit 161 temporarily stores the input data in the buffer 162.

  The address conversion unit 163 acquires the virtual address designated by the main control unit 110 from the register unit 163, converts the address in accordance with the mode shown in FIG. 4, and in the region determined in the process of address conversion as described above. The corresponding division mode is notified to the data control unit 161. This division mode is a mode indicating at what ratio data is allocated to the HDD 40a and the HDD 40b. If the determined area is the area B, the division mode indicating that the HDD 40a is allocated at a ratio of 3 and the HDD 40b is allocated at a ratio of 1 is notified.

  The data control unit 161 divides the data stored in the buffer 162 for each data size of one sector in the HDD 40 and reads it as divided data, and reads the read divided data according to the division mode notified from the address conversion unit 164. The data is input to the HDD I / F 165a or the HDD I / F 165b. That is, the data control unit 161 functions as a data allocation unit.

  The physical address converted by the address conversion unit 164 is notified to the HDD I / F 165a, and the inverted address converted by the address conversion unit 164 is notified to the HDD I / F 165b. As a result, the HDD I / Fs 165a and 165b write the divided data input from the data control unit 161 to the address notified from the address conversion unit 164. That is, the HDD I / F 165 functions as a data storage unit.

  As described above, in the case of the area B, the ratio of the storage area between the area 2 in the HDD 40a and the area 6 in the HDD 40b is 3: 1. The data control unit 161 first stores the divided data divided into data 1 to data 4 as shown in FIG. Data 1 is transferred to the HDD I / F 165a, data 2 is transferred to the HDD I / F 165b, and data 2 is input to the toggle buffer of the HDD I / F 165a.

  Since the transfer rate is different between the area 2 and the area 6, the transfer rate of the area 2 is higher. Therefore, even if the writing of the data 1 and data 2 is completed in the HDD 40a, the writing of the data 3 is completed in the HDD 40b. Absent. Therefore, the data control unit 161 transfers the data 4 to the HDD I / F 165a. When data is stored in the area C, the same process as the procedure without the data 2 or 4 in FIG. 7 is executed.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a processing mode when the HDD controller 160 reads data from the area B shown in FIG. When reading data from the HDD 40, the main control unit 110 inputs a data read command to the data control unit 161, and the register unit 163 is addressed by a virtual address shown in FIG.

  The address conversion unit 163 acquires the virtual address designated by the main control unit 110 from the register unit 163, converts the address in accordance with the mode shown in FIG. 4, and in the region determined in the process of address conversion as described above. The corresponding division mode is notified to the data control unit 161. The data division mode at the time of reading data from the HDD 40 determines the combination mode of the read divided data.

  The address conversion unit 163 notifies the HDD I / F 165a and 165b of the physical address of the HDD 40a and the reverse address of the HDD 40b acquired by the conversion. As a result, the data 1 is read from the HDD 40 a and the data 2 is read from the HDD 40 b and held in the toggle buffer of the HDD I / F 165. Further, in the HDD 40a, when the reading of the data 1 is completed, the reading of the data 2 is executed and held in the toggle buffer of the HDD I / F 165a.

  Here, the data 1 held in the toggle buffer of the HDD I / F 165 a is read by the data control unit 161 and stored in the buffer 162. When the data control unit 161 stores the data read from the HDD I / F 165 in the buffer 162, the data control unit 161 combines the data according to the division mode notified from the address conversion unit 164. That is, the data control unit 161 functions as a data combining unit.

  As described above, in the case of the area B, data is read from the area 2 in the HDD 40a and from the area 6 in the HDD 40b. Since the transfer rate in the area 2 is higher, the reading of the data 3 is not completed in the HDD 40b even if the reading of the data 1 is completed in the HDD 40a. Therefore, the data control unit 161 reads the data 2 from the HDD I / F 165a and transfers it to the buffer 161. Thereafter, when the reading of the data 3 is completed in the HDD 40b, the data control unit 161 transfers the data 3 to the buffer 162, and further transfers the data 4 read from the HDD 40a to the buffer 162. At this time, as described above, the divided data are combined according to the notified division mode.

  By such processing, it becomes possible to transfer data at a substantially constant transfer speed from the outer peripheral side area to the inner peripheral side area of the disk having different data transfer rates. Next, the operation of the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 9, when access to the HDD 40 is started, the main controller 110 first designates an address in the register unit 163 (S901). Further, the main control unit 110 sets a sector counter in the register unit 163 (S902). In the HDD control unit 160, the address conversion unit 164 acquires the address designated in S901 from the register unit 163, converts the address according to the mode described in FIG. 4, determines the area, and sends it to the data control unit 161. Notifies the HDD I / F 165 of the divided address corresponding to the determined area, and the converted address (S903).

  Further, a read / write command is set in the register unit 163 by the main control unit 110, and the data control unit 161 determines a subsequent operation according to the command set in the register unit 163 (S904). In the case of a write command (S904 / YES), the data control unit 161 temporarily holds the write data input from the main control unit 110 in the buffer 162, and the HDD I / F 165a, 165b according to the division mode notified in S903. The divided data is allocated to (S905). Thereby, the HDD I / Fs 165a and 165b transfer the write data to the HDDs 40a and 40b, respectively, and the data is stored (S906), and the processing is completed.

  On the other hand, in the case of a read command (S904 / NO), the HDD I / Fs 165a and 165b read the data of the address notified from the address conversion unit 164 from the HDDs 40a and 40b according to the control of the data control unit 161 (S907). Thereby, the data control unit 161 receives the divided data from the HDD I / Fs 165a and 165b and transfers them to the buffer 162, and combines the divided data according to the division mode notified from the address conversion unit 164 (S908). Is completed.

  FIG. 10 is a graph showing the transfer rate when the HDD control unit 160 according to this embodiment is used as a solid line, and the transfer rate when the HDD 40 is simply striped as a broken line. In the graph of FIG. 10, the vertical axis is the transfer rate, and the horizontal axis is the storage area from the outer peripheral side to the inner peripheral side of the disk, which is a storage medium included in the HDD 40. As shown in FIG. 10, by using the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment, the transfer rate from the outer peripheral side to the inner peripheral side of the disk is averaged.

  As described above, in the image forming apparatus 1 including the HDD control unit 160 according to the present embodiment, the areas 1 to 6 are defined based on the transfer rate according to the information storage area in the HDD 40. The address notified as the access destination is converted according to the classification, and information is allocated at a ratio according to the classification when writing information. As a result, by using at least two HDDs, it becomes possible to average the transfer rates on the outer peripheral side of the disk and the inner peripheral side of the disk, and the storage capacity is impaired without using many information storage devices. Therefore, the transfer rate can be improved.

  In the above embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the case where the area A is provided as an area section when the HDD 40 is used as a virtual memory has been described as an example. Not only this but the aspect which does not provide the area | region for virtual memories as shown in FIG. 11 is also possible. Region classification as shown in FIG. 5 or FIG. 11 is determined by the LUT described in FIG. Therefore, the modes shown in FIGS. 5 and 11 can be switched by changing the information of the LUT.

  The switching of the LUT is performed, for example, when the user instructs the switching of the LUT via the operation unit such as the display panel 104, so that the main control unit 110 receives the command via the operation display control unit 140, and addresses according to the command. This can be realized by changing the information of the LUT stored in the conversion unit 164.

  In the above embodiment, the case where two HDDs 40 are used has been described as an example, but the present invention can be similarly applied even when there are three or more HDDs. In this case, the same effect as described above can be obtained by adjusting the ratio of data allocation by the data control unit 161 and the value of “coefficient” shown in FIG.

1 image forming apparatus,
10 CPU,
20 RAM,
30 ROM,
40, 40a, 40b HDD,
50 I / F,
60 LCD,
70 operation unit,
80 bus,
100 controller,
101 ADF,
102 scanner unit,
103 Output tray,
104 display panel,
105 paper feed table,
106 print engine,
107 Output tray,
108 Network I / F,
110 Main control unit,
120 engine control unit,
130 image processing unit,
140 operation display controller,
150 I / O control unit,
160 HDD controller,
161 data control unit,
162 buffers,
163 register section,
164 address converter,
165, 165a, 165b HDD I / F

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-188447

Claims (8)

A storage control device that divides and stores data in a plurality of storage devices having different information transfer speeds according to an area for storing information,
A designated address obtaining unit for obtaining an address of an area to be accessed with respect to the storage device;
An area classification determination unit that determines which classification the acquired address belongs to based on area classification information in which the area classification is determined based on a transfer rate of information according to the area;
An address conversion unit that converts the acquired address according to the determined classification;
A data allocation unit that allocates the data to be stored to the plurality of storage devices at a capacity ratio according to the determined classification;
A data storage unit that stores the allocated data in the storage device based on the converted address;
In the address conversion unit, for at least one of the plurality of storage devices, an area having a relatively high transfer rate is designated in all storage areas of the storage device, and the comparison is performed for at least one of the other information storage media. The address is converted so that an area having a slower transfer speed than an area having a higher transfer speed is designated,
The data allocating unit allocates more data to a storage device in which an address of an area with a high transfer rate is specified than in a storage device in which an address of an area with a low transfer rate is specified. Storage controller. In the area classification information, the area division is determined so that the area division in which the transfer speed of the information is fast across all the storage areas of the storage device includes more areas than the area division in which the transfer speed is low. Information,
The address acquired by the designated address conversion unit is a physical address in each of the storage devices, and an address in which a common area is designated for the plurality of storage devices,
The address conversion unit swaps the section of the area where the information transfer speed is fast and the section of the slow area for at least one of the plurality of storage devices, and the physical address for at least one of the other storage devices. The storage control device according to claim 1, wherein the address is converted to be used as it is.   The address conversion unit replaces the area of the area where the information transfer speed is fast and the area of the slow area based on the information indicating the correspondence between the area where the information transfer speed is fast and the area where the information transfer speed is slow. The storage control device according to claim 2.   The address conversion unit obtains an interval from the head of the section including the acquired address to the address among the sections according to the transfer rate of the information, and the section including the address and the section corresponding to the section The product obtained by multiplying the obtained interval by a coefficient corresponding to the ratio of the area and the value of the product as the interval from the beginning of the section corresponding to the section including the acquired address to the address after conversion The storage control device according to claim 3, wherein the converted address is obtained by applying.   The address conversion unit, when it is determined that the acquired address is included in a predetermined area including the area with the fastest transfer speed in all the storage areas of the storage device, all of the plurality of storage devices 5. The storage control device according to claim 2, wherein the physical address is used as it is.   6. A data combining unit that combines data read from the plurality of storage devices based on the converted address according to the determined division. The storage control device described.   An image forming apparatus comprising the storage control device according to claim 1. A storage device control program that divides and stores data in a plurality of storage devices having different information transfer speeds according to an area for storing information,
Obtaining an address of an area to be accessed with respect to the storage device;
Determining which section the acquired address belongs to based on area section information in which the section of the area is determined based on a transfer rate of information according to the area;
For at least one of the plurality of storage devices, a region having a relatively high transfer rate is designated in all storage regions of the storage device, and for the at least one other information storage medium, the region having a relatively high transfer rate Converting the acquired address according to the determined classification so that an area having a slower transfer speed is specified;
The data to be stored so that more data is allocated to the storage device in which the address of the area having the higher transfer rate is specified than in the storage device in which the address of the area with the lower transfer rate is specified. Allocating to the plurality of storage devices at a capacity ratio according to the determined category;
A storage device control program causing an information processing device to execute the step of storing the allocated data in the storage device based on the converted address.

Images