JP2529488B2 - Electronic file device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic file device having a multi drive.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic file device having a plurality of drives, disks mounted on the drives, and accessed by a plurality of terminals is used. If all the drives are loaded with discs and the terminal issues a request to access a new disc, the problem is which disc to remove from the drive.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of a conventional disk changing operation in such a case. First, when a command is received (S81) and the command is a disk access command (S82), it is checked whether the disk to be accessed is in the drive (S83). If it is not in the drive, there is an unused drive. Check (S84), if there is no unused drive, remove the disk of the drive with the longest time since the disk was stored in the drive (S85). Now that there is an unused drive, access this drive. The disk to be tried is loaded (S86), and a command indicating that access is possible is transmitted (S87).

FIG. 9 is a timing chart corresponding to the flow chart shown in FIG. It is assumed that there are three workstations WS-A, WS-B, and WS-C, and two drives 1 and 2. This device is a control unit of a multi-drive device.

First, since a disk access request is received from WS-A, this apparatus carries out the work of mounting the disk on the drive 1. Since a disk access request is received from WS-B during this work, when the disk switching to the drive 1 is completed, the disk switching to the drive 2 according to the WS-B request starts. Further, when the disk switching to the drive 1 is completed, the WS-A disk access is started. When the drive 2 is completely loaded, the WS-B starts to access the disc, and the drive is finished soon. Meanwhile W
Access from S-A continues. At this time WS-C
Issues a request to access a disk that is not in the drives 1 and 2. In this case, it corresponds to S85 in FIG. Both the drives 1 and 2 have disks, but access to the disk of drive 2 has been completed. However, the time when the disk is put on the drive 1 is the drive 2
Since it is longer than the time the disc is hung on, WS-
Even though A is accessing, the disk of drive 1 is swapped with the disk to be accessed by WS-C, and WS-C is accessed.

[0006]

When it is judged whether or not the disk is switched to the drive only based on the time of the disk mounted on the drive, it is found that even if the disk is frequently accessed, the time spent on one drive is long. It will be changed frequently. Therefore, WS-A has a long waiting time. In addition, when the number of times of switching is increased in this way, the switching mechanism is consumed more and the utilization rate of the drive is also reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic file device which improves the utilization efficiency of a drive.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises a multi-drive unit having a plurality of drives, which reads and writes a specified disc by loading the drives, and a plurality of terminals. A control unit for controlling the multi-drive unit according to the access request to perform reading and writing, and when the control unit needs to apply a new disc when all the drives have discs , Within a predetermined time from this time
Exclude any burned discs, if any
Time spent on the drive among other discs
It is designed to replace the longest disc.

[0009]

[0010]

According to the present invention, with the above-described configuration, a disc that is being written (registered) by exchanging a disc that has been in the drive for the longest time other than the disc that has been written within a predetermined time is replaced. Can be reduced. In general, registration work is often registered continuously, and if you do not take registration work into consideration and judge only by the time it takes for the drive, it is irrational that disks that are frequently registered must be replaced frequently. However , the present invention can eliminate this irrationality.

[0011]

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the electronic system device of this embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a workstation as a terminal, and three workstations A, B, and C are described, but a plurality of workstations may be used.
A file controller 2 constitutes an interface with each workstation 1. A multi-drive control unit 3 inputs a command from the file controller 2, controls a multi-drive unit 4 to be described later based on the command, and transmits the result to the workstation via the file controller 2. The multi-drive control unit 3 is composed of a first control unit 31 including a disk exchange control unit and a command control unit, and a second control unit 32 that controls the drive unit 7 according to a command from the command control unit. Reference numeral 4 denotes a multi-drive unit, and a plurality of (for example, 24 or 48) optical disks 5,
A transport mechanism unit 6 that moves a designated optical disc 5 from the plurality of optical discs 5 to a designated drive unit 7.
It is composed of two drive units 7. Further, a cache memory 8 and a memory control unit 9 for performing this control are provided for prefetching.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for replacing an optical disk after it has been loaded in a drive for a predetermined time or more. Steps S21 to S24 are the same as S81 to 84 in FIG. If there is no unused drive, the disk of the drive with the least access is swapped among the drives that have been stored in the drive for 15 seconds or more (S25). As a result, even if the disc has been in the drive for a long time, the disc that is frequently accessed is excluded from the subject of the exchange.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart of the operation shown in FIG. First, when an access request comes from WS-A, the requested disk is replaced with the drive 1. A disk access request is issued from WS-B during this work, but the transfer to drive 1 is not completed, so it is kept waiting. After switching to drive 1, WS-
The work of switching the disk requested by B to the drive 2 is started, and WS-A for the disk of the drive 1 is started.
Access is started. The transfer to the drive 2 is completed, the access is started, and the operation is ended immediately. During this time, access to the disk of drive 1 by WS-A continues. At this time, the WS-C issues an access request to a disc different from the disc loaded in the drive 1 or the drive 2. Here, step S25 in FIG. 2 is performed. In other words, the disk of drive 1 has been worn for a long time but is being accessed, so it is excluded.
The drive 2 has the disk requested by the access request of WS-B, but the access has already been completed, and if 15 seconds or more have passed after the disk was loaded at this point, the disk of the drive 2 is replaced. Is done. In addition, this
15 seconds shows one example, and it is set to the optimum value according to the usage situation.

FIG. 4 is a diagram comparing the method shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 of this embodiment with the conventional method shown in FIGS. According to the conventional example, the drive 1 is forcibly replaced with the disk 3 regardless of the access, but according to this embodiment, the disk 1 hanging on the drive 1 is continuously accessed, At 2, the disks 2 and 3 are switched. As a result, the drive 1 can prevent wasteful replacement, and the WS-A can also access the disk 1 continuously, so that the utilization efficiency of the drive is improved.

FIG. 5 is an operation flow chart in which a disc within a predetermined time after writing is not replaced even if the drive takes a long time. S51 to S54 are the same steps as those in FIGS. If you have to replace the disc in one of the drives, it is likely that the disc will be written again within 10 seconds after writing (registration). Remove the disk of the drive that has been used for the longest time (S55). Then, replace the requested disk with this drive (S56),
An accessible command is sent (S57). By doing so, the registration work is continued without changing over the disks that are continuously registered, so the drive utilization efficiency is improved. Note that 10 seconds is also an example, and the optimum value is set according to the situation.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart of the operation flow shown in FIG. First, a disk is loaded on the drive 1 in response to a write request by WS-A. During this reassignment work, a disk access request is received from WS-B, but it is waited until the reassignment work is completed. When the transfer to the driver 1 is completed, the transfer to the drive 2 is started and the writing of the drive 1 to the disk is started.
The transfer to drive 2 is over, and access will be completed soon. After a while, the WS-C issues an access request to a disk other than the disks loaded in the drives 1 and 2. During this period, drive 1
Writing by A is continuing. For this reason, the disks of the drive 2 are exchanged to perform disk access by WS-C.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the operation of FIGS. 5 and 6 in the same format as FIG. In the drive 1, writing by WS-A is continuously performed, while in the drive 2, writing by WS-A is performed.
B and WS-C are read for a short period of time.

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention is a data transfer system which is changed only by the time spent on the drive.
It was necessary to change, rather than judge the disc
Discs that have been burned within the specified time
Since we are determining which disk to remove and replace, register
I have to change frequently used disks frequently
It eliminates the adverse effect and improves the throughput of the entire device.
Can be

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flow chart for exchanging a disk stored in a drive for a predetermined time or longer.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart of the operation flow shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart comparing the operation shown in FIG. 2 with a conventional method.

FIG. 5 is an operation flow diagram of disc replacement considering a written disc.

6 is a timing chart of the operation flow shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing the operation shown in FIG. 5 in the same manner as in FIG.

FIG. 8 is an operation flow chart for replacing a conventional disk.

9 is a timing chart of the operation flow shown in FIG.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A multi-drive unit having a plurality of drives for reading and writing by loading a specified disk on the drives, and a multi-drive unit for controlling the reading and writing according to access requests from a plurality of terminals. A control unit for performing the operation, and when it is necessary for a new disc to be applied when the control unit has discs on all of the plurality of drives , within a predetermined time from this time
Exclude any burned discs, if any
Time spent on the drive among other discs
An electronic filing device characterized by changing over the longest disc .