JPS6015827A - Optical disk information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To extend the service life of a semiconductor laser to a level equal to that of the service life of an optical disk by turning off the semiconductor laser light source with respect to the optical disk driving device in stand-by state to reduce remarkably the real operating time of the said semiconductor laser. CONSTITUTION:The position just before the stop of tracking operation is detected by reading an external scale 19 such as moire placed on an optical head 13 by a sensor 20. Then a linear motor 14 is driven by a linear motor servo circuit 15 to a home position track provided to the position of the outer scale closest to the position above or an outer circumference of an optical disk 6 to move the entire optical head 13. Then the operation of an automatic focus servo circuit 17 is stopped and then the semiconductor laser light source 7 is turned off and the stand-by state is kept until the access request is given to an ODD5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an optical disk information processing system, and particularly to an optical disk control device that controls a plurality of optical disk drive devices.

[Background of the invention]

Optical disk drives are connected to computers because they have a capacity for recording data and random access, and are used as external auxiliary storage devices for computers, particularly as file devices for images, documents, and the like. Semiconductor lasers are used as light sources in optical disk drive devices for reasons such as miniaturization, low cost, and high-speed access. However, since the semiconductor laser is always in operation, including the standby time when the optical disk drive is not actually performing recording or playback operations (including access), an optical disk drive using a semiconductor laser as a light source However, there is a problem in that the life of the device itself is extremely short and limited by the life of the semiconductor laser.

To explain more specifically, for example, an optical disk drive device 1
The demand for 915 sheets/year is high, and the equipment lifespan is approximately 15 years.
Assuming that the rotational speed of the optical disc is 8 Hz and the number of tracks on the optical disc is approximately 30,000 racks, the actual writing time required to write information to the entire surface of the optical disc is approximately 50 Hz.
It will be 0 hours. In addition, if information written once is read twice, including additional writing, the actual continuous reading time required for this will be about 1500 hours. Furthermore, the access time for reading will be approximately 1,000 hours if the contents of approximately 20,000 A4 size sheets are read under the above-mentioned reading conditions, and the life of the device is approximately 15 years. The actual record shown above,
Standby time (idle time) compared to the time required for playback
Assuming the same conditions of use, it will last approximately 40,000 hours or more. On the other hand, the lifetime of a semiconductor laser used as a light source is about 100 hours or less.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned current situation, and by significantly reducing the actual usage time of the semiconductor laser, which is the light source of the optical disk drive device, the life of the semiconductor laser can be extended to the life of the optical disk device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device that can easily expand the lifespan of an optical disk device and, by extension, the entire optical disk information processing system.

[Summary of the invention]

In an optical disk information processing system, the time an optical disk device actually performs recording/reproducing operations is very short compared to the standby time when there is no access command from a control device to the optical disk drive device. On the other hand, the life of the semiconductor laser light source in the optical disk drive device is much shorter than that of the control device and drive device.

Therefore, the present invention uses an optical disk control device that controls a plurality of optical disk drive devices to monitor the operating states of the plurality of optical disk drive devices, and to use a semiconductor laser light source to control the optical disk drive devices that are on standby. The aim is to achieve the above objective by turning off the

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be described in detail below along with examples.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an optical disk information processing system according to the present invention. In the diagram, 1 is the computer (CPU)
, 2 is a system bus, 3 is an optical disk controller (ODC)
) 3. 0DC3 connects the CPU through system bus 2.
1 and is controlled and managed by the Apl CPUI. In addition, a keyboard is connected to the CPU 1 through the system bus 2.

Input/output devices such as OCR, CRT, laser printer, and FAX, and memory devices are connected, and these are also controlled and managed by the CPU. 5 is an optical disk drive device (OD
D), in which a group of ODDs having five machine numbers from +0 to 4-4 are connected to 0DC3 through bus 4.

First, the configuration and operation of 0DC3 will be explained. The third component is a high-level processor that decodes commands from the CPUI, manages the operation of each part inside the ODC, and monitors the operating status of the ODD.
or: HRP), 34 is a lower processor (LoW rank) which controls ODD readout under the control of HRP31;
-5sor: LRP), 35 is a data buffer f (Date Buffer 2D) that temporarily stores the data written to 0DD5 and the data read from 01)D5.
B) These are connected to an internal bus (not shown). The HRP31 uses a microprogram control method, and the microprogram is μROM (Mi
croprogram [4ead 0nly Mem
ory) 22. Furthermore, H-P31 has a memo 933 as its own data storage means. This memory 33 has an area LR1 that holds the machine number of the 0DD5 currently being controlled;
It has an area AR1 that holds internal information about the DD and an area ASR that holds internal information about each 0DLI that is currently not under control. Managed. That is, when a cPUl requests access to a certain 0DD5, the HRP31 compares the ODD machine number and the contents of the LR section under microprogram control, and if they do not match, saves the contents of the AR and section to the ASR section. and then LH
, stores the machine number of 0DD5 for which access is requested, and
Internal information corresponding to the ODD of the machine number is stored in the R section from the ASR section, and the ODD is controlled using the internal information. Note that when 0DC3 controls multiple 0DD5s, it is only necessary to retain internal information regarding the ODD currently being controlled, so the internal information regarding each ODD is retained in the main memory or system memory within the CPUI, and from this memory the 0DC3 It is also possible to allow the CPU to manage the internal information of each ODD by reading out only the internal information corresponding to the ODD currently controlled by the CPU.

However, in this case, each time you change the ODD to access,
It is necessary to transfer internal information to main memory h'), '/
Stem bus occupancy will lead to system performance degradation.

The LRP 34 includes, for example, a read subprocessor R8P that performs read control, a write subprocessor wsP that performs "if! write control, and an error subprocessor ESP that performs data error detection, and these are IIRP
31 is controlled. For example, the SP has a demodulation function and a serial/parallel data conversion function, receives disk data read from an optical disk, demodulates the data, converts it into parallel data, and stores it in the DBUF 35. At that time, disk data error detection is executed in the ESP, and the detected error data is stored in the DBUF35 as 't'.
l4RP 31 Nyo Shera - Corrected. Then, D.B.
Transfer data from the UF35 to the main memory of the CPUI. On the other hand, in the case of data writing, the data transfer direction is reversed, and the write data from cPUl is sent to DE3UF.
Once stored in 0DD5, the data is input from the DBUF to W8P, modulated, and sent to the desired 0DD5.

At this time, an error detection code is added to the write data. Note that the DBUF 35 has a capacity that can accommodate multiple tracks of data, such as images.

When used as a document file system, it has a capacity that can accommodate A4 size data (equivalent to 2 tracks, maximum 64K).
B) is preferable, and it is better to provide a plurality of them.

Note that as the memory element of the DBUF 35, static memory such as bipolar or MOS, CCD, bubble memory, etc. can be used.

In this way, the 0DC3 has a plurality of 0DDs under its control, and can constantly grasp the operating status of the pot 0DD5 and know which 0DD5 is currently in the recording or reproducing operation. Therefore, 0 is not in control.
After performing some preprocessing on the DD5, ie, the ODD5 in standby, the semiconductor laser light source in the ODD can be turned off. Hereinafter, an embodiment will be described in which the semiconductor laser light source in the standby 0DD5 is turned on and off under the control of the 0DC3.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the basic internal configuration of ODD5 in FIG. 1. The controller 50 has the function of receiving commands for various functional operations from the 0DC3 and controlling and supervising the operations of each internal mechanism of the 0DD5.

During normal operations such as recording and playback, the position control operation of the light spot with respect to the optical disc 6 is performed by two mechanisms: radial follow-up operation, that is, tracking, and automatic focusing operation of the laser beam in response to the vertical movement of the optical disc 6, that is, autofocus. It is done well.

The tracking operation is performed as follows.

The laser light emitted from the semiconductor laser light source 7 is a lens.

The light is guided by a prism 10, a galvano mirror 9, and an object lens, and is irradiated onto the optical disc 6.

The reflected light from the optical disk 6 passes through an object lens and a galvanometer mirror 9, is reflected by a prism 10, and enters a photodetector 11. The output of the photodetector 11 is supplied to a tracking signal detection circuit 12, and the tracking information B detected here is applied to a tracking servo circuit 8 via a controller 50 to drive a galvanometer mirror 9. Further, for a large movement in the track direction, the linear servo circuit 15 is operated and the linear motor 14 is driven to move the entire optical head 13. On the other hand, autofocus operation is performed as follows. The autofocus voice coil 16 provided in the object lens is
Although it is controlled by the autofocus servo circuit 17,
This control information A is obtained from the output of the photodetector 11 by the autofocus signal detection circuit 18.

First, a sequence for turning off the semiconductor laser light source 7 when the standby time of 0DD5 exceeds the set time will be described. In this embodiment, when the standby time exceeds a certain set time, the semiconductor laser light source is turned off by the ODD.
This is so that if the CPU requests access again within a relatively short period of time, it can be handled immediately. 0DC3 causes the HRP 31 to perform the following series of operations on the standby 0DD5 via the controller 50. Since this operation can be performed while the ODC is disconnected from the CPU, the ODD access time is zero from the CPU side and can be performed without reducing system throughput.

First, in order to turn off the tracking operation, the operation of the tracking servo circuit 8 is stopped. Next, the external scale 19 for moire etc. installed on the optical head 13 is placed on the sensor 20.
The position immediately before the tracking operation stops is detected, and the linear motor servo circuit 15 moves the linear motor 14 to the position of the external scale value closest to that position or to the home position track provided on the outermost circumference of the optical disc 6. is driven to move the entire optical head 13. Next, the operation of the autofocus servo circuit 17 is stopped, and then the semiconductor laser light source 7 is turned off, and the zero
The DD5 remains in a standby state until an access request is given.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing the sequence when turning off the above semiconductor laser light source.

The key is a time count clock built into the controller 50. Here, for a certain 0DD5, CPU
A case will be explained in which the time period during which no access request is made exceeds a certain set time.

The 0DD5 turns off the built-in timer ■ and at the same time
Issues a status indicating that the idle link time has exceeded the set time to the DC3 0° Upon receiving this status signal, the 0DC3 issues a tracking off command 0 to the 0DD5. As a result, the tracking servo (g) of the 0DD5 is stopped. Next, a command C) is given to ODD5 from 0DC3 to move the optical head 13 to the nearest external scale position or to the outermost position of the optical disk 6. The controller 50 of the ODD starts the linear motor servo (Q) and moves the optical head 13 to the above position.
, and at the end of the movement, a status 0 indicating the end of the movement is issued to 0DC3. Next, an autofocus stop command (I) is given to the ODD, and the autofocus servo (J) is stopped.

Finally, the semiconductor laser 7 in the ODD is turned off by giving the semiconductor laser off command (3) to the ODD from 0DC3 (G). When the above processing is completed, the ODD sends a status signal to 0DC3 indicating that it has entered the standby state (M).

Next, a sequence will be described when the CPU issues an access request to the ODD that is in standby state.

The CPUI sends commands and parameters to 0DC3 through the system bus 2, and initializes 0DC3. The parameter type is the machine number of 0DD5.

Optical disk number etc.! l) After receiving all the parameters from the CPU, the 0DC3 first stores the machine number base of the 0DD5 to which access is requested in the LR section in the memory 33, and stores the internal information corresponding to the ODD in the AR section.

This internal information includes status information of the semiconductor laser light source 7, and when the light source 7 is off, a semiconductor laser on command is issued from 0DC3 to turn on the semiconductor laser light source 7.

Next, a restart command is given to the autofocus servo circuit 17 to restart the autofocus operation.

At this point, since υ0DC3 knows where the optical head 13 is located on the optical disk 6 from the above-mentioned off sequence, it gives a restart command to the tracking servo circuit 8. When the tracking operation is restarted and the target track is relatively far away, a seek command is given to the linear motor servo circuit 15 to move the optical head 13 to an arbitrary target track. This is a normal seek operation, CP
It is executed under the control of 0DC3 according to instructions from the UI. After executing the above operations, an interrupt is issued to CPU1,
Resume normal recording and playback operations.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing the sequence for returning from the standby state to the normal operating state. Essentially, the process shown in FIG. 3 is reversed. For example, CP for 0DD5 which is currently in standby state.
When an access request is given from the UI, the on/off control of the semiconductor laser light source is checked using the internal information of the ODD for which the access was requested, and if the ODD is in the off state, the ODD is
D Give a command to turn on the semiconductor laser to 5 (to).

The 0DD5 receives this command and turns on the semiconductor laser light source 7 (0). Next, in response to the autofocus restart command [F] from 0DC3, the autofocus servo of the ODD is operated (Q). Finally, the tracking servo (S) is activated by the tracking restart command (R). Similar to the off sequence shown in FIG. 3, after the above processing is completed, the ODD returns a status signal (1) indicating that it has entered the normal operating state to 0DC3, and 0DC3 interrupts the CPUI.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the main internal configuration of the controller 50 related to on/off control of the semiconductor laser light source. The controller 50 has an interface 51 and pODc3 via a data bus 41 and a control bus 42.
is combined with

First, the operation of the controller 50 when transitioning from the normal operating state to the standby state will be described. When there are no access requests from CPUI to 0DD5, 0DC
3 is a control bus 42, an interface 51, and a decoder J for the controller 750 in the 0DDS.
A command is sent to set the flip 70 knob (hereinafter abbreviated as FF) 53 for starting and stopping the bamboo 5 now. Timer 54 is activated and begins counting clock pulses from clock generator 55. When the count exceeds the set value, the timer 54 sends a reset signal to FF5.3 and 0DC3 via the decoder 52 (QQODC3
After receiving the reset signal, a tracking stop command (2) is sent to the controller 50, the tracking servo start/stop FF 56 is reset, and the operation of the tracking servo circuit 8 is stopped (2). At the same time, a command to move the optical head to the set position is sent to the linear motor servo circuit 15.
), set the linear motor servo start/stop FF 57, and start the servo circuit 15.

After receiving the processing end signal 0 from the linear motor servo circuit 15, 0DC3 issues an autofocus servo stop command (
0) to send I) to FF58 and stop the auto 7 orcus servo circuit operation. Finally, the semiconductor laser light source 7 is turned off by sending the semiconductor laser off command signal C0 to the FF 34. When the above processing is completed, the controller 5o returns a stator signal to the 0DC3 to notify that it has entered the standby state, and the 0DC3 receives this and returns a status to the CPU1. The CPU 1 can read the status information from the 0DC3 and check the execution results of the instructions.

The transition process from the standby state to the normal operating state is essentially performed in the reverse order of the above process. First, a command to turn on the semiconductor laser is set to the FF 59, and the semiconductor laser light source 7 is turned on (0).

Next, an autofocus start command signal α) FF'
58 is set, and the autofocus operation is restarted (by the tracking start command signal (R) at the end!
1) FF56 is set and tracking operation is restarted (■).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart sequentially showing various operations between the above-mentioned normal operating state and standby state.

In the explanation of FIGS. 5 and 6, the alphabetical symbols correspond to the signals shown in the time charts of FIGS. 3 and 4. In addition, in this embodiment, the function of controlling each processing order, that is, the function of the sequencer, is all controlled by the HRP31 of the 0DC3, but each ODD is provided with a sequential function, and the normal operating state and standby state are locally controlled. Migration may also be implemented.

FIG. 7 shows the main internal configuration of the controller 50 in an embodiment that locally performs sequential operations.

First, the case of transition from the normal operating state to the standby state will be described. When the timer 54 clock count start command (to) is sent from 0DC3, the timer 54 starts a monomultipipe leak (to) if the count exceeds the set value.
Sends a signal (Q) indicating that the set time has been exceeded to the MM60 (hereinafter abbreviated as MM). At the rising edge of the MM60 output, D) resets the ranking servo stop flip-flop (hereinafter abbreviated as FF) 61, The operation of the tracking servo circuit 8 is stopped (g). Next, the MM60 output falls! lll
(2) Set the FF62 for starting and stopping the linear motor servo to operate the linear motor servo circuit 15 to move the optical head to the outermost position of the disk. Send the 0° movement processing end signal 0 to the FF62 to operate the linear motor servo circuit 15. At the same time, it also sends a movement processing end signal 0 to the MM63, resets the autofocus servo FF64 by the rise of the MM63 output D (I), and instructs the autofocus servo circuit 17 to stop operating ( J).

Finally, due to the fall of MM63 (K), p, F F 65
and turn off the semiconductor laser light source 7 (L
). At the same time, a processing end signal (M) is returned to 0DC3 to notify that all transition processing to the standby state has been completed, and the processing ends.

Next, the case of transition from the standby state to the normal operating state will be described. Semiconductor laser on command (N) from 0DC3
is given to the FF 66 in the controller 50, F
F66 is set to turn on the semiconductor laser light source 7 (0). The laser-on command (to) is also given to MM67 at the same time, and the rise of the output of MM67 causes FF68 to turn on.
is set, and the autofocus servo circuit 17 is restarted (Q). Finally, the fall of the output of MM67 D(R)
Seriton the ``69'' and restart the tracking servo circuit (S).

At the same time, a processing end signal (1) is returned to 0DC3 to notify that all transition processing to the normal operating state has been completed, and 0DC3 receives this and interrupts the CPU1.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, by turning off the semiconductor laser light source for a standby optical disk drive device, the life of the semiconductor laser can be substantially extended. It also has the effect of dramatically improving the lifespan of.

Compared to the fact that the lifespan of a semiconductor laser light source that records on and plays back from an optical disk is less than 100 hours, the standby time during which recording and playback are not actually performed on an optical disk is equivalent to the lifespan of a semiconductor laser under normal equipment usage conditions. It is more than four times as large. Therefore, keeping the semiconductor laser off during standby time greatly contributes to extending its life.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an optical disk information processing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an optical disk drive device, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are each in a standby state. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the controller that realizes the transition between the normal operation and the standby state, and FIG. Flowchart showing the sequence, No. 7
The figure is a configuration diagram showing another embodiment of the controller. 1... Computer, 3... Optical disk control device,
5... Drive device, 50... Controller, 6...
Optical disk, 7... Semiconductor laser light source, 8... Tracking servo circuit, 13... Optical head, 15...
Linear motor servo circuit, 17...Auto focus servo circuit, Fig. 1 □□□□F Fig. 3 Fig. 4 cT)o□

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of optical disk drive devices using a semiconductor laser as a light source, and the plurality of optical disk drive devices are connected,
An optical disk information processing device comprising a control device for selectively controlling the plurality of optical disk drive devices, the control device turning on a semiconductor laser of an optical disk drive device not selected by the control device. . 2. In the optical disk information processing apparatus according to claim 1, the unselected optical disk drive device turns off the track following function of the optical disk according to a command from the control device, and 1. An optical disk information processing device characterized in that the semiconductor laser is turned off after an automatic focusing function is turned off. 3. In the optical disk information processing device according to claim 1 or 2, the optical disk drive device that has turned off the semiconductor laser turns on the semiconductor laser in response to an access request from the control device. 1. An optical disk information processing device characterized in that a track following function is operated after an automatic focus function for the optical disk is operated.