JPH051490B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing information using a disk-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as an optical disk).

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] Recently, optical disk devices have been attracting attention as high-density, large-capacity information recording and reproducing devices. This type of device focuses a laser beam to a diameter of about 1 μm, irradiates it onto an optical disk, forms a recording track with a pitch of 1.5 to 2 μm, records information as a bit string, and then uses the same type of laser beam with reduced power to record the information as a bit string. For example, on one side of a 30cm disc.
A large amount of information can be recorded at high density, with 20,000 to 30,000 A4 documents. Moreover, since it has good accessibility, it has already begun to be put into practical use as a large-capacity document image memory.

On the other hand, optical disk devices are often used by exchanging multiple disks, or even by exchanging both the front and back sides of a single disk. An important factor in designing this type of large-capacity memory is how to easily and reliably manage how much information is stored, how much information can be stored, and how to further improve usability.

For this reason, in the past, an external memory such as a floppy disk corresponding to one disk was provided, and the search information and the use of the information were managed on the external memory. However, in the conventional method, it is necessary to maintain a one-to-one correspondence between the optical disk as a recording medium and the external memory, and when considering how this type of large-capacity memory is used, there are the following drawbacks. That is, one optical disk is often used by multiple people or multiple groups. At this time, filing methods and search methods for each person and group will vary depending on each individual's purpose.
For this purpose, it is preferable to separate external memories for searching and for information management. However, with this method, every time new information is added and recorded, it becomes necessary to rewrite the information amount management data in all external memories.

Next, a method of recording this kind of management information in a certain area of the optical disk may be considered, but it would be necessary to additionally record the management information each time information is additionally recorded, which would only make the process more complicated. However, there are drawbacks such as a reduction in effective recording capacity and the need for new management of the management information area.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to provide an information recording method that allows easy management of information and the amount of information recorded on an optical disc.

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention is characterized in that the sector number of the last sector recorded on the optical disc is always self-managed.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the sector number of the last sector recorded on the optical disc is obtained after loading the optical disc and detecting the presence or absence of information, which makes it easier to manage the amount of recorded information. This makes it easier to store data, and there is no reduction in the effective recording capacity of the optical disc.

[Embodiment of the Invention] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a recordable/reproducible optical disk, in which a linear or concentric tracking guide groove 102 is formed in advance on a substrate 101, and is formed by a method such as vapor deposition or sputtering on the substrate 101. A recording film 103 is formed. FIG. 2 is a plan view of a recordable/reproducible optical disc having the above-mentioned cross-sectional shape, and information is stored in the guide groove 2.
02, data are sequentially recorded from the inner circumference to the outer circumference in units of a fixed number of bits called sectors 210. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of the sector 210, in which each sector includes a data area 320 consisting of information data and a sector number, a synchronization signal, and a data area 320 consisting of information data and a sector number.
The sector control signal area 321 includes a cue signal for detecting a 0 start bit. Here, when additional information is recorded on the optical disk, the sector number is sequentially counted up and additional recording is performed following the last sector 211 of the recorded sectors. Further, during reproduction, any recorded sector can be randomly accessed and reproduced.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical disk device to which the present invention is applied. The optical disk 400 is rotationally driven at a predetermined speed by a motor 432 connected to a motor drive circuit 431. 433 is a known recording/reproducing optical system including a laser oscillator, lenses, mirrors, etc., which irradiates the optical disk 400 with a laser beam to optically record and reproduce information; It is held on a feed motor 435 connected to a motor drive circuit 434 and can be moved to any radial position of the optical disc.

Information is recorded on the optical disk 400 using information data transferred from an input/output device 436 through an interface 437 and stored in a recording buffer 438 in sector units consisting of a fixed number of bits, and information data generated by a sector control signal generation circuit 439. The sector control signal consisting of the synchronization signal, cue signal, etc., and the sector number generated by the sector number generation circuit 441 from the final sector number recorded in the final sector number memory 440 are the sector control signal, sector This is done by giving the number and information data to the recording control unit 442 in this order.

On the other hand, when reproducing information from the optical disc 400, an electric signal corresponding to the reflected (or transmitted) laser light from the optical disc 400 modulated depending on the presence or absence of pits is extracted through the reproduction control unit 443, and from this signal. First, the sector control signal detection circuit 444 detects the cue signal, and then the sector number detection circuit 445 and the reproduction control section 443 demodulate the sector number and information data in the same manner as in the past, and the information data is transferred to the reproduction data buffer. 446 and interface 437 to the input/output device 436 in units of sectors.

Furthermore, when executing a record/playback job,
Job control information such as reproduction mode, recording/reproduction sector number, recording/reproduction information data amount, etc. is transferred by the input/output device 436 to the optical disk device control unit 447 via the interface 437, and conversely, the job control information such as the reproduction mode, recording/reproduction sector number, recording/reproduction information data amount, etc. Status information such as /abnormal end is transferred from the optical disk device control section 447 to the input/output device 436 via the interface 437.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an operation flow for detecting the last sector number recorded on an optical disc when loading the optical disc in the optical disc apparatus according to the present invention.

When the optical disc 400 is newly loaded into the optical disc apparatus, first the feed motor 435 is moved so that the light beam is positioned at the innermost circumference of the recording area. Next, it is detected whether information has already been recorded at the innermost circumferential position. If no information is recorded on the innermost circumferential position, the status of an unused disk is set and the job is completed. When information has already been recorded at the innermost circumferential position, the values of the moving position r=r _p /2 and the moving amount Δr=Δr _p /4 of the feed motor are initially set. Here, r _p = radius of the outermost recording area + radius of the innermost recording area, and Δr = radius of the outermost recording area - radius of the innermost recording area. Next, the feed motor 435 is moved to the set movement position r. After the movement of the feed motor 435 is completed, it is determined whether or not the movement amount Δr is within the specified value α. Here, α is a value that is 10 to 50 times the track pitch of the recording track on the optical disc 400. When the value of the movement amount Δr is larger than α, the movement amount is newly calculated as Δr=
Δr/2 is set to detect whether information is recorded at the current position. As a result, when the current position is in the recording area, r = r + Δr, that is, the feed motor 4 moves by Δr on the outer circumference.
35 position is increased, and conversely, when it is an unrecorded area, r = r - Δr, that is, the feed motor 4 is increased by Δr to the inner circumference.
The position 35 sets the decreased value and returns to the operation. If the result of one of the judgments is that the value of the movement amount Δr is within the value of α and the result of detecting whether or not information is recorded at the current position is an unrecorded area, the operation moves to step . As a result, when the current position is in the recording area, the light beam is turned on to the recording track, tracking is performed, and the sector number is detected from the recording area until it enters the unrecorded area, and the final sector number is stored in the final sector number memory 44.
Set to 0 to end the job.

When an unused status is detected in the job result, dummy data for 10 to 20 tracks is recorded as initial data sequentially from the innermost track, and the final sector number of the recorded initial data is set in the final sector number memory 440.

The number of sectors of information data to be additionally recorded on the optical disc 400 is specified to the optical disc control unit 447. The optical disc control unit 447 determines the remaining number of recordable sectors based on the final sector number stored in the final sector number memory 440 and the number of sectors recordable on the optical disc 400 or the maximum sector number stored in advance. is calculated, and when the designated number of sectors is greater than the number of remaining sectors, the status of the number of additional recording sectors exceeded is transferred to the input/output device 436. When the number of remaining sectors is within the specified number of sectors, the sector number generation circuit 441 generates the next sector number from the last sector number for each sector of information data to be additionally recorded, and one sector of information data is generated according to the above procedure. is recorded on the optical disk, and the last sector number memory 440 is recorded with the next sector number.
Update the contents of. Further, after the additional recording of information data is completed, the sector number at which additional recording was started and, depending on the case, the final sector number are transferred to the external memory for retrieval included in the input/output device 436.

Next, when reproducing the information recorded on the optical disc 400, the start sector number and end sector number of the information to be reproduced are specified from the input/output device 436 to the optical disc control unit 447 through the interface 437. The optical disk control section 447
compares the specified reproduction end sector number with the final sector number, and if the reproduction end sector number is less than or equal to the final sector number, the input/output device reproduces information from the reproduction start sector according to the above procedure. 436. When the reproduction end sector number is greater than the final sector number, the status of designated sector number error is transferred to the input/output device 436.

By managing the last sector number recorded on the optical disk in this way, it becomes easy to manage the recorded information and the amount of recorded information as a memory system. Furthermore, since there are no restrictions on the method or means of information retrieval in external input/output devices, the usability and versatility of the information recording/reproducing device are greatly improved.

[Other Embodiments of the Invention] In the embodiments described above, when additionally recording information on the optical disc 400, the input/output device 436 specifies only the number of sectors to be additionally recorded to the optical disc device, but the input/output device 436 specifies only the number of sectors to be additionally recorded to the optical disc device. You can also specify the number of sectors. That is, the input/output device 436 controls the optical disk controller 44 before recording information data.
7, issues a command to transfer the final sector number or next sector number. The optical disk control section 44
7 is now the final sector number memory 44.
The sector number generation circuit 44 uses the final sector number stored in 0 or the final sector number.
The next sector number generated in step 1 is sent to the input/output device 43.
Transfer to 6. The input/output device 436 calculates the next sector number when the transferred data is the final sector number, and when the transferred data is the next sector number, uses the same sector number as the additional recording start sector number and calculates the additional recording sector. It is transferred to the optical disk control unit 447 along with the number. The optical disc control unit 447 confirms that the transferred additional recording sector number is equal to the next sector number generated by the sector number generation circuit 441 from the final sector number stored in the final sector number memory 440, When they are equal, additional recording is performed using the same procedure as described in the first embodiment. On the other hand, if the designated start sector number is different from the next sector number, the status of designated sector number error is transferred to the input/output device 436.

In the method described in Embodiment 2, the start sector number of the information data to be additionally recorded is known in advance on the input/output device side, so after the additional recording operation is completed, the optical disk device informs the input/output device of the sector number at which recording started. There is no need to transfer it again, and the above embodiment 1
It is clear that similar effects can be obtained.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, when reproducing information recorded on the optical disc 400, the same effect can be obtained by specifying the starting sector number and the number of sectors to be reproduced, or by sequentially specifying all the sector numbers to be reproduced. It is clear that this can be obtained.

Also, in the method of detecting the final sector number when loading an optical disk, the feed motor 435 may be moved to the outermost circumference and then sequentially sent to the inner circumference, or conversely, it may be sent from the innermost circumference to the outermost circumference. can also be considered. In short, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a recordable and reproducible optical disk having a tracking guide groove, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the optical disk shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an optical disc apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an operation flow for detecting the final sector number recorded on an optical disc when loading the optical disc. 400... Optical disk, 439... Sector control signal generation circuit, 440... Final sector number memory, 441... Sector number generation circuit, 444
...Sector control detection circuit, 445...Sector number detection circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. An exchangeable optical disk for recording information in units of sectors, which are information units divided into units of a fixed number of bits, in which additional recording and reproduction of information on the optical disk is performed using a light beam. The recording/reproducing head is moved by a predetermined amount of movement in the radial direction from the innermost circumference of the loaded optical disk, and by this movement, the presence or absence of information recorded on the optical disk is determined. is detected by the recording/reproducing head, and when information is detected by this detection, the sector number of the final sector is detected by detecting the sector number with the recording/reproducing head, and the sector number of the detected final sector is detected. An information recording method characterized by storing a final sector number in a memory, generating a sector number next to the sector number of the stored final sector by a sector number generating means, and additionally recording information on this sector number.