JPH0895719A - Optical disc system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] You can freely record, play, and erase multiple optical disks so that you can handle a large capacity as storage.
To provide an inexpensive optical disc system. [Structure] At least two optical disk devices capable of reproducing at least information from an optical disk, a plurality of storage sections each capable of storing an optical disk, and any other storage from the initial position of the storage section where the optical disk is first stored. A disk storage moving means having a moving means for moving the optical disk, a storage means for storing an initial position of the optical disk and a position to which the optical disk is moved to a storage section, and an initial position stored in the storage means. A control means for determining an optimum disc moving procedure of an arbitrary disc to the target storing portion based on either the position or the moving destination position, and drivingly controlling the moving means to move the disc to the target storing position. An optical disk system characterized by the above.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disc system, and more particularly to an optical disc system including a disc changer for an optical disc.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an optical disk system in which one optical disk is loaded in one optical disk drive or a plurality of optical disks can be stored in order to perform the recording, reproducing and erasing operations of the optical disk. There is a large-scale and expensive optical disc system provided with an autochanger for loading a large optical disc into a drive device.

However, with the recent development of multimedia,
Since there is a tendency to increase the chances of handling software with a large amount of data such as moving images, an increase in storage capacity and an optical disc system capable of handling a plurality of discs at the same time are desired.

[0004]

There is a method of increasing the disk diameter in order to increase the capacity of the conventionally used optical disk system as described above, but there is a drawback that it is inconvenient to carry. . Further, in order to edit the information stored in a plurality of disks, if one file size becomes large, there arises a problem that the time required for copying or the like increases.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is possible to freely record, reproduce, and erase on a plurality of optical disks so that a large capacity can be handled as a storage, and it is inexpensive. To provide a simple optical disc system.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made based on the above problems, and at least two optical disk devices capable of reproducing at least information from an optical disk, and a plurality of storages each capable of storing an optical disk. Department,
And a disc storage moving means having a moving means for moving the optical disc from an initial position of the storage part where the optical disc is first stored to another arbitrary storage part, and an initial position of the optical disc and a storage part to which the optical disc is moved. Based on one of the storage means for storing the movement destination position and the initial position and the movement destination position stored in the storage means, the optimum disc movement procedure to the target storage portion of an arbitrary disc is determined,
An optical disc system comprising: a control unit that drives and controls the moving unit to move it to a target storage position.

Further, according to the present invention, at least two optical disk devices capable of reproducing at least information from the optical disk, storage units arranged in a plurality of rows / columns capable of storing the optical disks in each, and this storage. A disk storage moving unit provided in each of the storage units, each of which has a plurality of moving units capable of moving the optical disc to a storage unit adjacent to each other; and a plurality of storage areas corresponding to the storage units. However, a storage unit that stores the initial position of the storage unit where the optical disc is first stored and the movement destination position of the storage unit where the optical disc is moved, and either the initial position or the movement destination position stored in the storage unit are used as a basis. In addition, the optimum disk movement path for moving an arbitrary disk to the target storage unit is determined, and each of the moving means is driven and controlled for each row / column. And control means for moving the storage position,
There is provided an optical disc system comprising:

[0008]

In the optical disk system of the present invention, a plurality of optical disks can be stored at the same time, and since two or more optical disk drive devices are provided, a large capacity can be handled as a storage.

Further, since the position where the disc is inserted becomes the storage position of the disc and the disc is moved by utilizing the vacancy of another storage position, the system capacity can be increased without increasing the size of the system. .

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An optical disk system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Figure 1
It is a block diagram which shows roughly the structure of the optical disk drive device in the optical disk system of this invention.

In the optical disk drive apparatus shown in FIG. 1, an optical head 3 incorporating a photodetector 8, a semiconductor laser 10 and an optical system is mounted on a carriage (not shown), and a linear motor 24 drives the optical disk 1 to drive the optical disk 1. It is held so as to be movable in the radial direction. Such an optical head 3
In, the light beam generated from the semiconductor laser 10 is collimated by the collimator lens 11a, the optical disc 1 is rotated at a constant rotation speed by the motor 2, and is guided to the objective lens 6 via the half prism 11b. This laser beam is focused on the optical disc 1 by the objective lens 6. The optical disc 1 is rotated at a constant rotation speed by a motor 2 controlled by a motor control circuit 29.

In the reproducing mode, the semiconductor laser 10 generates a reproducing laser beam having a constant light intensity, and in the recording mode, the recording laser intensity-modulated by the recording signal to a light intensity higher than that of the reproducing beam. A beam is emitted from the semiconductor laser 10. In the erase mode, the semiconductor laser 10 emits an erase laser beam having a light intensity higher than that of the reproduction beam.

From the optical disk 1, the reflected light beam is redirected to the objective lens 6, and the reflected light beam that has passed through the objective lens 6 passes through the half prism 11b and is composed of a condenser lens 10a and a cylindrical lens 10b. It is directed to a point aberration detection optical system.

The light beam that has passed through this detection optical system is converted into four light detection cells 8a, 8b, 8c, by this optical system.
It is focused on a photodetector 8 having 8d, and a light beam spot is formed on this detector 8. Objective lens 6
Since the shape of the beam spot formed on the detector 8 changes depending on the state of the dust, the change in the beam shape is detected by the photodetection cells 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d to detect the focus. To be done.

The tracking state of the objective lens 6, which indicates whether or not the light beam is correctly tracking the track of the optical disk 1, is because the track image is formed in the beam spot on the detector 8. The tracking state is detected by detecting the spots with the light detection cells 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d. In playback mode,
Since the reproduction light beam is modulated when reflected by the optical disk and the modulated light beam is incident on the photodetector 8, a reproduction signal is generated by adding detection signals from the photodetector 8. You can

The photodetection cells 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d are connected to the amplifiers 12a, 12b, 12c and 12d, the detection signals from the amplifiers 12a and 12c are added by the adder 30a, and also from the amplifiers 12b and 12d. Detection signals are added by the adder 30b, and the addition signals from the adders 30a and 30b are supplied to the operational amplifier OP2. Therefore, a difference signal corresponding to the difference between the two added signals is generated as a focus signal from the operational amplifier OP2, and the focus signal is supplied to the focus control circuit 20.

Further, the detection signals from the amplifiers 12a and 12d are added by the adder 30c, and the amplifiers 12b and 1 are also added.
The detection signals from 2c are added by the adder 30d, and the addition signals from the adders 30c and 30d are supplied to the operational amplifier OP1. Therefore, a difference signal corresponding to the difference between the added signals is generated as a tracking signal from the operational amplifier OP1, and the tracking signal is supplied to the tracking control circuit 21.

Further, the added signals from the adders 30c and 30d are added by the adder 30e and supplied to the signal processing circuit 22 as a reproduction signal. From the focus control circuit 20, a coil drive signal for driving the focusing drive coil 5 is generated according to the focus signal, and the objective lens 6
Is driven in the optical axis direction by the focusing drive coil 5, the objective lens 6 is always kept in the focus state, and the light beam is focused on the optical disc 1 by the objective lens 6.

From the tracking control circuit 21,
A drive signal for driving the tracking drive coil 4 is generated according to the tracking signal, the objective lens 6 is moved in the direction orthogonal to the optical axis thereof, and is always directed to the track on the optical disc 1. Therefore, the objective lens 6 is maintained in the track state, and the light beam from the objective lens 6 is
It will track the target track.

When a tracking error occurs beyond the range that can be corrected by the tracking drive coil 4, a signal is given to the linear motor control circuit 23, and a drive signal is sent from the linear motor control circuit 23 to the linear motor 24. It is supplied and the linear motor 24 is driven. Therefore, the carriage on which the optical head 3 is mounted is moved, and the carriage is finely moved. At this time, the objective lens 6 is moved so that the light beam tracks the target track by the tracking drive coil 4 in association with the fine movement of the carriage. By operating the linear motor 24 in this way, the objective lens 6 is always moved to a range in which the track error can be corrected.

The position of the carriage on which the optical head 3 is mounted is detected by the position sensor 25, and the position signal from the position sensor 25 is used by the linear motor control circuit 23,
It is transmitted to the CPU 34 via the D / A converter 26 and the bus 32. Therefore, the CPU 34 can always recognize the position of the carriage.

When accessing the target track, the track number of the target track input from the outside and the track number of the currently searched track are C
A comparison is made by the PU 34, and a movement signal corresponding to the difference is given from the CPU 34 to the linear motor control circuit 23 via the D / A converter 26 to drive the linear motor 24. Therefore, at the time of access, the carriage is quickly moved and the target track is searched.

At the time of this access, the CPU 34 outputs D
An access signal is given to the focus control circuit 20 and the tracking control circuit 21 via the / A converter 26,
The objective lens 6 is moved to the home position for focus and track operation.

In the reproducing mode, the semiconductor laser 10 is driven by the semiconductor laser 10 being driven by the reproducing drive signal of a constant level from the laser driving circuit 28, and the reproducing light beam is generated from the semiconductor laser 10 and the signal processing circuit 22 is also generated. Generates a reproduced signal that is a binarized reproduced signal from
It is given to the data processing unit 27 and converted into reproduction data. This reproduction data is given to the CPU 34 via the bus 32 and stored in the memory 36.

In the recording mode, the interface 40 from the system controller 38 outside the optical disk drive.
The recording data is supplied to the bus 32 via the
The recording data is supplied to the data processor 27 under the control of. The recording data is converted into a recording signal by the data processing unit 27 and supplied to the laser driving circuit 28, and the semiconductor laser 10 is driven by a driving signal according to the recording signal.
The semiconductor laser 10 generates a laser beam whose intensity is modulated according to the recording signal.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view schematically showing an external appearance of an optical disk system according to an embodiment of the present invention and a partial internal perspective view thereof. Optical disc system 1 of the present invention
00 is the optical disk drive device 10 having the above-mentioned configuration inside
1, 102, and are connected to the system controller 38 via an interface 40 (not shown). In this embodiment, the system 100 includes optical disc insertion ports 111 to 1 for inserting optical discs arranged in 5 rows and 2 columns.
It has 20 disks and can handle a total of 10 disks. Further, pilot lamps L1 to L10 are provided on the left side of each disc insertion port, and eject buttons E1 to E10 for ejecting the disc are provided on the right side.

The pilot lamps L1 to L10 are turned on when the disc is inserted from the insertion ports 111 to 120 and stored in the storage position. Alternatively, it may be turned on to notify that the disc is not inserted and the storage position is empty.

Next, the disc changer mechanism in the optical disc system of the present invention will be described. Figure 3
It is a figure which shows schematically the disc changer mechanism of this invention. 3A is a front sectional view of the optical disc system 100, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a process of changing the storage position of the disc.

The optical disc system 100 is provided with driving devices 101 and 102 at the bottom thereof, and positions D1 and D2 for driving the disc 200 are secured above the driving devices 101 and 102, and a storage position for storing the disc is further provided above it. P1 to P10 and a disc changer for changing the storage position are provided.

The disc changer 54 is used for the optical disc 2
A plurality of rollers 103 for changing the storage position of 00,
It comprises a roller driving device (not shown) for driving the roller 103, a gate 203 for surrounding the periphery of the disc, and positioning the disc.

Next, the position changing operation of the optical disc 200 by the disc changer 54 will be described. When the optical disc 200 is inserted from the insertion port, the positions become the storage positions P1 to P10 of the respective discs, and the periphery of the disc is held by the plurality of rollers 103 for changing the storage positions and the gate 203. . For example, when moving the disk 200 laterally from the storage position P1 to the vacant P6, first, the adjacent gate 2
03a and 203b rotate, and a conveyance path is secured.
Then, the roller 103 is driven to convey the disc 200 to the adjacent storage position P6. When the disc 200 reaches the storage position P6, the gates 203a and 203b return to their original positions to position the disc. The rollers 103 can be controlled independently.

Also in the vertical movement, the disk can be moved to an appropriate storage position by driving the gate and the roller in the same manner. The disc to be driven is moved by the disc changer 54 described above to the storage position at the bottom of the row, for example P5, utilizing the empty storage position.
The drive device 101 is loaded at a drive position D1 further below.
Driven by. If there is no free space in the storage position, for convenience, load the disk at the bottom storage position to the drive position to create a space, move the desired disk to the bottom, and load it in the empty drive position. Just drive it.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the control system of the optical disc drive and the disc changer. The system controller 38 includes an optical disk drive A101, an optical disk drive B102, a disk controller 50 that controls the operations of the disk changer mechanism 54, and a disk management memory 51 that manages the position of the disk.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state of disk position management by the disk management memory 51 and a mechanism control by the disk controller 50. The position where the disc is inserted from the insertion port is stored in the disc management memory 51 as the initial position of the disc n. When the host computer 55 is instructed to drive a desired disk by the drive, the disk controller 50 in the system controller 38 drives the disk changer mechanism 54 to use the empty storage position to load the disk. Move and lead to the drive. The disk controller 50 searches for the shortest path at the time of movement based on the information of the initial position and the current position of the disk n stored in the disk management memory 51, and the vacant storage position, and the disk changer 5
Control 4

The drive unit to be used is drive unit A10.
The determination as to whether it is set to 1 or the drive device B102 may be made by determining a rule such as alternately using each. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing how the location of the memory 51 is managed as the disk 200 moves. For example, the storage position P1
When it is desired to drive the disc 1 with the discs stored up to P4, first, the position where the disc is inserted,
That is, P1 is disk 1, P2 is disk 2, P3
Is stored in the memory 51 as initial values that the disk 3 is stored in the disk and the disk 4 is stored in the disk P4. As the disk is moved by the disk changer 54, the memory 51
, The storage positions of the respective disks are sequentially added. When the disk 1 reaches P5, it is loaded in the drive position by a loading mechanism (not shown). When the disc is taken out, since the initial position of the disc is stored in the memory 51, the disc can be ejected from the same insertion slot as when it was inserted.

Further, as another embodiment, the same control can be performed in a system in which a single insertion slot is used to insert a plurality of discs. The disc ejection operation may be managed on the host.

In the present embodiment, the storage positions are arranged in 5 rows and 2 columns, but the present invention is not limited to this.
It is extensible. Further, along with this expansion, it is possible to add an optical disk drive device.

In the above embodiment, the roller 103 for conveying the disk is independently controlled by the disk controller 50, but the control system is halved by winding and driving two adjacent rollers with a belt. (Not shown). It is also possible to divide the whole into two rows and two columns and control with four systems.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a modified embodiment in which the rollers at the storage position are controlled independently for each row / column. In this case, it is sufficient to control two systems in the vertical direction and five systems in the horizontal direction, for a total of seven systems. Since the rollers are controlled independently for each row / column, the rollers can be idled and stopped at that position when the destination of the disk is not empty.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which the disc is moved in the vertical direction. First, the disc is moved one step downward from the position shown in FIG. 8A as shown in FIG. 8B. At this time, the lowermost disk cannot move downward, so the roller idles and stops at that position. In this way, the desired disc can be moved to an appropriate position as shown in FIG. further,
It can be moved laterally as well.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process of moving a desired disc to a target position. First, when the host computer 55 specifies a disk to be activated, the disk controller 50 calculates the migration procedure (STP1). According to this moving procedure, the moving direction of the disk and the target position are set by the disk controller 50 (STP2). Then disk 1
Is searched for based on the information in the disk management memory 51 (STP11). If the storage position of the movement destination is empty (STP11, Yes), the disk controller 50 sets the movement flag of the disk 1 (STP12). If the destination is not empty (STP11, No), the movement flag is not set.
Then, the same process is repeated for the disks 2 to n (STP21 to n2).

After searching the moving destinations for all the disks, only the disks for which the moving flag is set are moved by the rollers (STP3). If the desired disc reaches the target position (STP4, Yes), the movement of the disc is completed (STP5), and if it does not reach the target position (STP5).
(P, No) and STP11 to n2 are repeated.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of disc movement in the disc changer in which the storage positions are arranged in 4 rows and 6 columns. In order to move from the disk position of the moving target to the target position, the block B1 shown in FIG.
Move to the right twice. Next, the block B2 shown in FIG. 10B is moved downward once, then the block B3 shown in FIG. 10C is moved leftward twice, and the block B4 is moved leftward three times. Next, the block B5 shown in FIG. 10D is moved upward once. Next, the block B6 shown in FIG. 10E is moved to the right three times. Next, the block B7 shown in (f) of FIG. 10 is moved upward once. Next, the block B8 shown in (g) of FIG. 10 is moved to the left three times. Next, the block B9 shown in (h) of FIG. 10 is moved downward once. In this way, FIG.
The disc can be moved to the target position as shown in (i).

[0044]

As described above, according to the optical disc system of the present invention, it is possible to increase the system capacity without significantly increasing the cost per system, and to freely record on a plurality of optical discs. You can play and erase.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram schematically showing a configuration of an optical disc drive device in an optical disc system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of an optical disc system of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a perspective view schematically showing an internal configuration with a part thereof seen through.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a disc changer mechanism of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an optical disc drive and a disc changer control system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state of disk position management by a disk management memory and mechanism control by a disk controller.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state of position management by a disk management memory accompanying movement of a disk.

FIG. 7 is a diagram schematically showing a modified example in which the rollers in the storage position are controlled independently for each row / column.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of moving a disc in a vertical direction.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process of moving a desired disc to a target position.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of disc movement in a disc changer in which storage positions are arranged in 4 rows and 6 columns.

[Explanation of symbols]

34 ... CPU 38 ... System control device 50 ... Disk controller 51 ... Disk management memory 54 ... Disk changer 55 ... Host computer 100 ... Optical disk system 101 ... Optical disk drive A 102 ... Optical disk drive B 103 ... Roller 200 ... Optical disk 203 ... Gate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. At least two optical disk devices capable of reproducing at least information from an optical disk, a plurality of storage units each capable of storing an optical disk, and an arbitrary other than an initial position of the storage unit where the optical disk is first stored. Disc storage moving means having a moving means for moving the optical disc in the storage part of the optical disc, storage means for storing the initial position of the optical disc and the movement destination position of the storage part to which the optical disc is moved, Based on either the initial position or the destination position, the optimum disc moving procedure of the disc to the target storage unit is determined, and the drive unit is drive-controlled to move to the target storage position. An optical disk system characterized by being provided. 2. At least two optical disk devices capable of reproducing at least information from the optical disk, storage units arranged in a plurality of rows / columns capable of storing the optical disks, and storage units provided in each of the storage units. , A disk storing and moving means each having a plurality of moving means capable of moving the optical disk to a storage section adjacent to each other, and a plurality of storage areas corresponding to the respective storage sections. A storage unit for storing the initial position of the storage unit and the destination position of the storage unit to which the optical disc is moved; and an arbitrary disc based on either the initial position or the destination position stored in the storage unit. The optimum disk movement path for moving to the target storage unit is determined, and each of the moving means is drive-controlled for each row / column to move to the target storage position. Optical disc system comprising: the control means.