JPH10112163A - Optical disk drive - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] A semiconductor memory is small, power-saving, and high-speed transfer, but has a high cost per capacity and is not suitable for large-capacity recording and reproduction. In the case of a magnetic disk, the transfer speed is high and the cost per capacity is low, but since the magnetic disk cannot be replaced by itself, the capacity cannot be increased later, and replacement including the recording / reproduction drive is performed. There is a need to. For this reason, there has been a demand for a replaceable medium realizing a large capacity and low cost with small hardware. An optical disk that can be replaced by a medium alone is adopted. Then, the outer diameter of the optical disk to be used is set to φ51 or less, and the optical disk device is a PC Card Stand.
Dard compliant. Further, at least one surface of the optical disk device can be opened and closed with a sufficient area for easily replacing the optical disk, and an opening / closing portion locking member is arranged in a part of the optical disk device, and the locking member is moved to lock the opening / closing portion. , Unlock.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disk recording / reproducing apparatus utilizing magneto-optical recording.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of digital technology, data to be handled is increasing. For this reason, data recording / reproducing media suitable for each application have been developed. Recording and playback media used in computers, etc.
Examples include a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a semiconductor memory, and a tape device. Among them, the recording / reproducing media using the optical disk is excellent in low cost per capacity by replacing the optical disk, random accessibility, ease of manufacturing of the disk when the disk is exclusively used for reproduction, and the like.

On the other hand, there is a demand that hardware using such a recording / reproducing medium should be carried not only indoors but also carried and used. For example, a mini personal computer, a portable information terminal, a handy game machine, a handy karaoke, an electronic still camera, and the like correspond to this. At this time, when the data recording medium has a small amount of information, a semiconductor memory is used. Semiconductor memories have advantages such as low power consumption, no failure due to no mechanism, and high data transfer speed, but they have high cost per capacity and are not suitable for large-capacity recording media. On the other hand, a magnetic disk device called a hard disk is suitable for a large-capacity recording medium because it has a high transfer rate, though not as high as a semiconductor memory, and has a low cost per capacity. Since recording and reproduction are performed by bringing the magnetic head close to the magnetic disk and rotating the disk at a high speed, a mechanism is required.
A hard disk using an inch magnetic disk has also been developed, and a certain degree of downsizing can be realized.

[0004]

In the prior art, the semiconductor memory is small, power-saving, and high-speed transfer, but has a high cost per capacity, and is not suitable for large-capacity recording and reproduction.
In the case of a magnetic disk, the transfer speed is high and the cost per capacity is low, but since the magnetic disk cannot be replaced by itself, the capacity cannot be increased later and it is necessary to replace it including the recording / reproducing drive. There is. For this reason, there has been a demand for a replaceable medium that can be used for portable hardware and that is small, large-capacity, and low in cost.

On the other hand, there is a standard called PC Card Standard that uses a card-like medium called a PC card as an interface of a small hardware, and when a main body has a PC card connector,
By connecting a PC card having a SCSI or LAN function, a magnetic disk device or optical disk device used for a desktop personal computer can be added, or data can be transferred at a high speed by connecting to another personal computer. However, these magnetic disk devices and optical disk devices cannot be housed in a mini personal computer, which hinders portability. On the other hand, magnetic disk drives and semiconductor memories
There are products that comply with the card, and these can be stored in the mini personal computer. However, as described above, it is costly to increase the capacity of a PC card using a semiconductor memory. Further, in the case of a magnetic disk drive using a 1.8-inch magnetic disk, P is required to increase the capacity.
Although it is necessary to use a plurality of magnetic disks in the C card, the thickness of the PC card is the same as that of the PC Card Standa.
Since the rd type III is 10.5 mm at the maximum, it is difficult to increase the number of sheets, and it is difficult to increase the capacity of a magnetic disk device conforming to a PC card.

[0006]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an optical disk which can be replaced by a medium alone is adopted.
Then, the outer diameter of the optical disk to be used is set to φ51 or less,
The optical disk device is based on PCCard Standard. Further, at least one surface of the optical disk device has an openable / closable area in which an optical disk can be loaded and ejected, and an opening / closing portion locking member is arranged in a part of the optical disk device, and the locking member is moved to lock or unlock the opening / closing portion. Do a lock.

In order to make it easy to take out the optical disk, the optical disk device is deviated to the opposite side to the PC card interface connector in the front-rear direction in which the arrangement position of the optical disk is the long side of the device. To be mounted.

Further, a transparent member is used in the vicinity of the optical disk arrangement of the optical disk device so that the presence or absence of the mounting of the internal optical disk can be confirmed from the outside of the optical disk device.

Further, the thickness of the optical disk device is set to PC Ca
rd Standard TYPE III, the PC Card Standard connector of the optical disc device is arranged in two stages, one connector is used as an input / output terminal of the optical disc device, and the other connector is extended to a connector provided at a position different from the two-stage connector. In addition, the interface of the main unit using the optical disk device is TYPE II
2 PCs or 1 TYPE III PC PC
d When the PC is equipped with a two-stage Standard connector, another PC that is compliant with the Card Standard
Insert the card into the extended connector to make it usable.
When another PC card is not connected to the extension connector, a dustproof and protective cover is attached to the connector.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an appearance of an optical disk device of the present invention. The optical disk device 1 is a PC Ca
It has a shape conforming to rd Standard TYPE III. In order to make the optical disk device 1 in the shape of a PC card, the outer diameter of the optical disk 4 used is
Considering the width of the portion where the thickness of TYPE III can be taken, φ51
mm or less is used. In order to make the optical disk 4 replaceable, the case 2 where the optical disk 4 is arranged can be opened and closed as shown in FIG. The area of this openable / closable portion is set so that a sufficient area can be opened / closed so that the exchange of the optical disk 4 becomes easy. When the opening / closing section 2 is closed, 3a,
An opening / closing section lock member shown in 3b is provided on the PC card. The opening / closing lock members 3a and 3b are urged by a spring (not shown) in the direction opposite to the arrow. Therefore, when the opening / closing section 2 is closed, the opening / closing section locking members 3a, 3b
At the opening / closing portion lock joining members 16a and 16b to prevent the opening from being accidentally opened. When the opening / closing section 2 is opened, the opening / closing section locking members 3a, 3b are moved in the direction of the arrow to disengage from the opening / closing section lock joining members 16a, 16b, and the lock is released. Optical disk media can be broadly classified into single optical disk media and cartridge-incorporated types. The cartridge type optical disk has no fear of scratching or dirt, and is easy to handle. However, the thickness of the medium requires the thickness of the cartridge in addition to the optical disk. On the other hand, in the case of a cartridgeless optical disk, there is a concern that the optical disk may be scratched or stained, but the thickness is only the thickness of the optical disk. The optical disk device of the present embodiment employs a cartridge-less optical disk that can be thinned in order to realize a PC card. Although the handling of the optical disk is troublesome due to the absence of the cartridge, the frequency of optical disk replacement is reduced by re-attaching the entire PC card for data transfer between the devices because the optical disk device is a PC card type. Therefore, the optical disk needs to be replaced only when the free space of the optical disk is reduced, and the optical disk device of the present invention has less chance of directly handling the optical disk.

FIG. 2 shows an example of an interface of a mini personal computer. The mini personal computer 6 is provided with an external device or interface external to or omitted from a normal desktop personal computer or a laptop personal computer in order to ensure small size and portability. Therefore, typical interfaces of the mini personal computer 6 include a serial interface 7, an FDD interface 8, a PC card interface 9, and the like. The serial interface 7 can be connected to another desktop personal computer 11a and can perform data transfer. However, since the transfer speed is low, a large amount of time is required to transfer a large amount of data. The FDD connectable to the FDD interface 8 has a recording capacity of 1 to 2 MB.
This is also not suitable for large-capacity data transfer and cannot be stored in a mini personal computer, which hinders portability. On the other hand, devices which can be connected to the PC card interface 9 are shown by oblique lines, but these can be stored in the mini personal computer main body and the mini personal computer 6
There is no loss of compactness. SCS on this PC card
When the I card 10 is used, an optical disk, a CD-ROM, a scanner 10 and the like used in a desktop personal computer can be used. Among them, the optical disk has a large capacity and a low cost, and can be used for exchanging large-capacity data and data backup. However, these peripheral devices cannot be stored in the main body of the mini personal computer 6, which hinders the portability of the mini personal computer 6. The optical disk device of the present invention can be used for a small portable terminal such as a mini personal computer, and provides a means for realizing a PC card compliant with a PC card in order to provide a function excellent in portability.

Referring to FIG. 3, the structure of the optical disk device of the present invention will be described. The optical disk 4 is disposed so as to be deviated from the optical disk device 1 in a direction opposite to the PC card connector 5. In the optical disk device 1, a motor 15 for rotating the optical disk 4, an optical pickup 13 for performing recording and reproduction on the optical disk 4, an auxiliary magnetic field generator 14 for applying a magnetic field to the optical disk 4 during recording, and the like are arranged. Φ
When 45.7 mm (1.8 inches) is adopted, it is possible to configure a PC card size by taking the dimensions of each part as shown in the figure. Since the auxiliary magnetic field generator 14 is located on the optical disk 4, it becomes an obstacle when the optical disk 4 is taken out or attached. On the other hand, in this embodiment, the PC
When the card opening / closing section 2 is opened, the auxiliary magnetic field generating section 14 is moved to the outer peripheral portion of the disk as shown in the figure to respond.

Another embodiment of the shapes of the opening / closing section 2 and the opening / closing section locking member 3 of the optical disk apparatus 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 4 shows the same shape of the opening / closing section 2 as in the embodiment of FIG.
The opening / closing section locking member 3c is provided at one location. In order to secure the lock even if the opening / closing section lock member 3c is located at one place, the arrangement position is arranged at a portion of the opening / closing section 2 facing the hinge. The relationship between the opening / closing portion locking member 3c and the opening / closing portion locking member joining portion 16c is the same as the example shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in which the opening / closing section 2 is made detachable from the optical disk apparatus 1. The opening / closing section 2 is attached along an opening / closing section guide groove 18 provided in the optical disc device 1, and the opening / closing section locking members 3d, 3e are locked by being engaged with the opening / closing section locking member joining sections 16d, 16e. When the opening / closing section 2 is opened, the opening / closing section locking member 3
By pressing the arrow portions d and 3e, the claw portions hooked on the opening / closing portion lock member joints 16d and 16e move downward and the lock is released, and the opening / closing portion 2 opens along the opening / closing portion guide groove 18. .

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment in which the entire surface of the optical disk device 1 is the opening / closing section 2, and the entire surface is removable. The opening / closing section 2 includes opening / closing section locking members 3f, 3g, 3
h is provided, and the optical disc apparatus 1 is provided with opening / closing portion lock member joining portions 16f, 16g, and 16h. When the opening / closing section is closed, the opening / closing section locking members 3f, 3g, 3
h are the opening / closing section lock member joining sections 16f, 16
The opening / closing section 2 is locked at times g and 16h. When the opening / closing section 2 is opened, the opening / closing section locking members 3f, 3g are pushed in the direction of the arrow to thereby open / close the opening / closing section locking member joints 16f, 16
The claw on the g moves and the lock is released,
The opening / closing section 2 can be opened upward.

Next, an appropriate arrangement relationship of the optical disk 4 in the optical disk device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. Since the PC card has a rectangular shape as shown in FIG.
In consideration of the arrangement of the optical disk 4 having a length of less than 1 mm, it is possible to select whether to attach the optical disk 4 deviated from the longitudinal direction of the long side or to attach it to the center. Depending on the arrangement of the optical disk 4 and the optical pickup 13, the arrangable portion 17 of the signal processing circuit built in the optical disk device 1 is different. However, as shown in FIG. It is possible. However, considering the structure of the opening / closing unit 2, the opening / closing unit 2 has a structure that opens from the end of the optical disc device 1 as in the above-described embodiment. For this reason, the area of the opening / closing section 2 can be reduced by mounting the optical disc 4 so as to be shifted toward one end.

When the optical disk 4 is located at the center of the optical disk device 1, the auxiliary magnetic field generator 14 is insufficiently moved when the optical disk 4 is taken out, making it difficult to remove the optical disk device 1. For these reasons, it is desirable that the optical disk 4 be disposed so as to be offset to one end of the optical disk device 1. At this time, by arranging the optical disk 4 on the side opposite to the PC card connector 5, more signal processing circuit sections 17 inside the PC card can be arranged than the PC card connector 5. Since the signal read from the optical disk 4 is transmitted from the optical pickup 13 to the PC card connector 5 through the signal processing circuit 17, if the optical disk 4 is arranged as described above, the components can be arranged in the order in which the signals flow. The route can be minimized.

Referring to FIG. 8, an embodiment in which the presence or absence of the optical disk 4 in the optical disk device 1 can be easily detected will be described. FIG.
The optical disk device 1 near the optical disk 4 is constructed using a transparent member. Since a transparent member is used, this portion becomes a window 19 through which the inside of the optical disc device 1 can be checked. Therefore, when the optical disk 4 is inserted, the optical disk 4 inside can be confirmed from the window 19. Thus, the presence or absence of the optical disk 4 in the optical disk device 1 can be confirmed only by attaching the transparent member.

An embodiment in which the PC card interface can be effectively used will be described with reference to FIG. TYPE
Many products with a PC card interface of III have two types of TYPE II or TYPE
One EIII can be used. In this case, the PC card connectors 21a and 21b of the mini personal computer 6 are connected as shown in FIG.
It is shown as follows. When the thickness of the optical disk device 1 of the present invention is the PC card type III, the PC card connector 21a is used but the PC card connector 2 is used.
1b cannot be used and the efficiency is poor. Therefore, the PC card connectors 5a and 5b should be connected
The PC card connector 20 used on the hardware side is arranged on the rear surface of the optical disk device 1. P
The C card connector 5a is used in the optical disc device 1,
C card connector 5b is extended to PC card connector 2
Connect to 0. By extending the PC card connector 5b to the PC card connector 20, another PC card can be connected to the outside of the optical disk device 1, and
The card connector can be used effectively. Of course, either of the two-stage connectors may be used in the optical disk device and either may be connected to the extension connector.

In the above embodiment, when another PC card is not connected to the outside, the terminal portion is exposed, and the PC card connector 20 may be oxidized.
Garbage may be attached. If the PC card connector 20 is oxidized or dust adheres thereto, contact failure occurs when another PC card is connected, which may cause a malfunction or the like. In order to prevent oxidation, the terminal may be prevented from being exposed when the PC card connector 20 is not used.
A dust-proof and protective cover 23 for this purpose may be attached.

[0021]

According to the above construction, an optical disk which can be replaced by a single medium can be used as a portable recording / reproducing medium of hardware, and the cost per recording capacity can be reduced. In addition, since the interface is compatible with a PC card, connection to many small devices is easy, and recording data can be easily transferred as it is to another device having a PC card connector.
When the thickness of the optical disk device is TYPE III, the interface of the computer of the main body can be two TYPE II or TYPE II by incorporating the extension connector.
When one III card is supported, another PC card can be connected in addition to the optical disk device of the present invention.

In the present invention, the TYPE III shape is described as an embodiment.
There is no problem in responding to the use of the YPEI and TYPEII shapes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an optical disk device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an interface and connectable devices of a small computer.

FIG. 3 is a view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and is a view showing a structure of an optical disk device.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention, and is a view showing an external appearance of an optical disk device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an optical disk device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an optical disk device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram showing an arrangement position of an optical disk in a PC card.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which a transparent window is provided near an optical disk of a PC card so that the presence or absence of a disk in the apparatus can be confirmed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, and is a diagram illustrating a connection relationship between a connector of a main body computer and a PC card and a connection relationship of an extension connector.

FIG. 10 is a view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and shows a state in which a dustproof cover is attached to the extension connector.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical disk apparatus (PC card TYPEIII) 2 ... PC card opening / closing part 3, 3a-h ... Opening / closing part lock member 4 ... Optical disk 5, 5a, 5b ... PC card connector 6 ... Small computer 7 ... Serial interface 8 ... FDD interface 9 ... PC card interface 10 ... PC card (computer can be built-in) 11a-c ... PC peripheral device (computer external device) 12 ... Built-in hard disk 13 ... Optical pickup 14 ... Auxiliary magnetic field generator 15 ... Motor 16a-h ... Open / close lock Member joining section 17: Signal processing circuit arrangement section 18: Opening / closing section guide groove 19: Disc confirmation window 20: External PC card connector 21: Internal PC card connector 22: PC card 23: PC card connector dustproof / protective cover

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An optical disk device for recording and reproducing signals on an optical disk, wherein an outer diameter of an optical disk to be used is φ51 or less, the optical disk device conforms to PC Card Standard, and at least one surface of the optical disk device has an optical disk mounted thereon.
An optical disc device having an openable / closable opening / closing portion lock member disposed in a part of an optical disc device and moving the lock member to lock and unlock the open / close portion. 2. The optical disk device according to claim 1, wherein the optical disk device is deviated to a side opposite to a PC card interface connector in a front-rear direction in which an arrangement position of the optical disk is a long side of the device. An optical disk device characterized by being mounted by mounting. 3. An optical disk device according to claim 1, wherein a transparent member is used in the vicinity of the optical disk arrangement of said optical disk device so that the presence or absence of an internal optical disk can be confirmed from outside the optical disk device. . 4. The optical disk device according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the optical disk device is set to TY of PC Card Standard.
The PC Car of the optical disk device is made compatible with PEIII.
The dStandard connector is arranged in two stages, and one of the connectors is used as an input / output terminal of the optical disk device.
The other connector is extended and connected to a connector provided at a different position from the two-stage connector, and the interface of the main body using the optical disk device is a PC Card Standard TYPE II or a PC Card Standard TYPE II.
Supports one card, PC Card Standard
When equipped with two connectors, another PC Car
An optical disk device wherein a PC card conforming to d Standard can be used by inserting it into the extended connector. 5. The optical disk device according to claim 4, wherein when another PC card is not connected to the extension connector of the optical disk device, a dust-proof and protective cover is attached to the connector portion.