JP2003077264A - Media - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase a storage capacity of a medium by mounting a control circuit on the medium side, and to simplify the structure of an audio system side. SOLUTION: The medium 1 is provided with a hard disk drive 10 including a hard disk for storing various data, an audio part 30 for performing A-D conversion, D-A conversion, compression, expansion, or the like of audio data, a control part 20 for controlling the hard disk drive 10 and the audio part 30 according to control signals from external equipment, and a power supply part 40 for supplying power to the hard disk drive 10, the audio part 30, and the control part 20, and data transmission to/from the external equipment is performed by serial transmission.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to media.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as a medium for reproducing / recording digital data such as music data, MD (Mini Disc)
Various media such as c), CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable), and semiconductor memory have become widespread. In addition, various players and recorders have been developed as recording and reproducing devices for these media.

[0003]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention
Since the R and MD have a small recording capacity and cannot store a large amount of data widely available in recent years with only one medium, the user has to possess a large number of media. As a medium that can be carried in a large capacity,
Although there is a removable hard disk, such a hard disk usually has a multi-pole connector of 40 pins or more at an interface portion with a mounted device, and therefore the connector contact may be deformed due to repeated insertion and removal and vibration. Further, the semiconductor memory has an advantage that the data transfer is relatively fast, but the unit price per recording capacity is relatively high as compared with MD and the like. Further, the recording / reproducing apparatus, which is a system for recording / reproducing a medium, has all the control circuits necessary for recording / reproducing, so that the system configuration is complicated and expensive.

An object of the present invention is to mount a control circuit on the medium side to increase the storage capacity of the medium and to simplify the structure of the audio system side.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a hard disk drive having a hard disk for storing various data, an audio section for subjecting audio data to a predetermined conversion process and a processing process, and a control signal from an external device. It is characterized by including a control unit that controls the hard disk drive and the audio unit, and a power supply unit that supplies power to the hard disk drive, the audio unit, and the control unit.

[0006]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration will be described.

FIG. 1 is an external view of a medium 1 to which the present invention is applied, in which a connector 1a for connecting to an audio system which is an external device is provided.

FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of the medium 1.
As shown in FIG. 2, the medium 1 includes a hard disk drive 10, a control unit 20, an audio unit 30, and a power supply unit 4.
0, connector 1a.

The hard disk drive 10 is composed of a hard disk 101 and a hard disk driver 102, and an interface portion with the control unit 20 has an ID.
E (Integrated Drive Electronics) and SCSI (Smal
l Computer System Interface) and the like are used for connection.

The hard disk 101 has a disk medium to which a magnetic material is attached, and the hard disk driver 102 has a rotary motor, a magnetic head attached to an arm, etc., and according to a control signal input from the control unit 20, A magnetic head is provided with a mechanism for reading and writing various data such as audio data on a disk medium which is rotated at a high speed by a rotary motor.

The control unit 20 controls the hard disk drive 10 and the hard disk drive 10 in accordance with a command signal input from an external device.
The audio unit 30 is controlled by the CPU 201,
Serial / parallel converter 202, buffer memory 20
3, a program memory 204, and a work memory 205.

The CPU 201 executes various controls according to various control programs for media stored in the program memory 204 in response to signals input from the external device, the hard disk drive 10 and the audio section 30.

The serial / parallel converter 202 parallel / serial (P / S) the parallel data read from the hard disk drive 10 when transferring the data stored in the hard disk drive 10 to an external device.
Convert. On the other hand, when writing data to the hard disk drive 10, such as when transferring data from an external device,
Serial / parallel (S / P) conversion of serial data input from the audio unit 30 or an external device is performed. The serial / parallel converter 202 has a function as a data transmission unit that performs data transmission by serial transmission.

The buffer memory 203 temporarily stores the audio data prefetched by the hard disk drive 10 at a speed more than double the reproduction speed during music reproduction, and sequentially outputs the audio data to the audio unit 30 in accordance with the reproduction speed.

The program memory 204 stores various control programs for media and application programs.

The work memory 205 expands various control programs executed by the CPU 201 and temporarily stores data generated during various processes.

The audio section 30 includes a compression / expansion module 301, a digital audio I / F 302, an A / D.
It is composed of a D / A converter 303.

The compression / expansion module 301, when the compression of the audio data is designated at the time of recording the external voice,
Digital audio I / F 302 or A / D / D / A
The digital audio data input from the converter 303 is compressed by a predetermined compression method. Also, hard disk 1
When playing back the compressed audio data stored in 01,
This compressed audio data is decompressed and output to the digital audio I / F 302 or the A / D / D / A converter 303.

The digital audio I / F 302 is an interface for inputting and outputting a digital audio signal between the medium 1 and an external device.

The A / D / D / A converter 303 converts an audio digital signal input from the control unit 20 into an analog signal at the time of reproducing the audio data stored in the hard disk 101, and at the time of recording the external audio, It converts an analog audio signal input from the outside through the connector 1a into a digital signal.

The power supply unit 40 is connected to an external power supply through the power supply connector provided in the connector 1a and charged by the power supply voltage supplied from the external commercial power supply, and the hard disk drive 10, the control unit 20, and the audio unit 30 are charged. Supply power to.

The connector 1a is used to connect the media 1 to an external device or the like, and includes a digital audio input / output terminal for inputting / outputting a digital audio signal, an analog audio input / output terminal for inputting / outputting an analog audio signal, and an external device. It has a serial input / output terminal as an interface (I / F) for transmitting serial data to and from a device, and a power supply connector for connecting to an external power supply.

Next, with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5, a stationary system 2, a portable system 3, and a personal computer connection type system 4 will be described as external devices to which the medium 1 according to the present invention is mounted.

The stationary system 2 is a system which is connected to the medium 1 for indoor use or on-vehicle use, and as shown in FIG. 3, a medium insertion port 21 for inserting the medium 1 and a CD are inserted in the front surface thereof. A CD insertion slot 22 for displaying the medium, a display section 23, and an operation switch 24 are provided, and a connector 2a for connecting the medium 1 is provided therein as a contact with the medium 1.

The operation switch 24 is provided with a reproduction key, a recording key, a jog dial, etc., and operation signals by these key operations and dial operations are output to the medium 1.
According to the operation signal of the operation switch 24 input to the medium 1, the reproduction of the medium 1, the recording from the CD to the medium 1, the editing of the data recorded on the medium 1 and the like are performed.

The portable system 3 is, as shown in FIG.
A voice output connector 31 for outputting the reproduced voice of the medium 1, a voice input connector 32 for inputting an external voice during recording on the medium 1, a display unit 33, an operation switch 34, a power connector for connecting a power adapter. Three
5, a connector 3a for connecting the medium 1 is provided. For supplying power to the medium 1 and the portable system 3, in addition to a commercial power source via the power connector 35,
The battery in the figure can also be stored and used.

As shown in FIG. 5, the personal computer connection type system 4 is provided with a connector 401 for connecting to a personal computer, a power connector 402 for connecting a power adapter, and a connector 4a for connecting to the medium 1. There is.

The connector 401 is a USB (Universal Se
rial bus) and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and E)
lectronic Engineers) This connector conforms to the interface standard for serial connection such as 1394.
01 via GUI (Grap
Data transmission between the personal computer and the medium 1 and editing of the data recorded on the medium 1 are performed in accordance with an instruction signal from the hical user interface). In addition to the power supply connector 402, power is supplied to the media 1 via the power supply connector 402, a USB or an IEEE 1
A 394 power supply can also be utilized.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, with reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, a reproducing process and a recording process of the medium 1 in the stationary system 2 will be described.

By operating the reproduction key of the operation switch 24,
When there is an instruction to reproduce the audio data recorded on the medium 1, the specified audio data is read from the hard disk 101, and when the CPU 201 determines that the audio data is compressed data, the audio data is compressed. / Expanded by the expansion module 301, converted into analog by the A / D / D / A converter 303, and output from the analog audio output terminal of the connector 1a.

The audio data recorded on the CD is recorded on the medium 1
When compressing and recording on the digital audio I / F302
As a result, the audio data input from the digital audio input terminal of the connector 1a becomes
1, and the audio data is compressed by the compression / expansion module 301, and the compressed audio data is recorded in the hard disk 101 by the control unit 20. In the case of uncompressed recording, the audio data input from the digital audio input terminal by the digital audio I / F 302 is directly passed to the control unit 20 and recorded in the hard disk 101.

When recording external analog voice data on the medium 1, first, the voice data input from the analog audio input terminal of the connector 1a is A / D / D /
Digitally converted by the A converter 303. In the case of compressed recording, this digitally converted audio data is compressed / compressed.
The decompression module 301 compresses the data, and the control unit 20 records the compressed audio data in the hard disk 101. In the case of uncompressed recording, the digitally converted music data is directly passed to the control unit 20, and the hard disk 1
It is recorded in 01.

The reproducing operation of the medium 1 in the portable system 3 shown in FIG. 4 and the personal computer connection type system 4 shown in FIG. 5 is similar to that of the stationary system 2 described above.
The description is omitted. In addition, the recording operation of the external sound to the medium 1 in the portable system 3 is also performed in the stationary system 2
Since it is similar to the above, the description thereof will be omitted.

In the personal computer connection type system 4 shown in FIG. 5, when transferring the data stored in the hard disk drive 10 to the personal computer, the control unit 20 is used.
The data read from the hard disk drive 10 is subjected to parallel / serial (P / S) conversion in the serial / parallel converter 202 and output from the serial output terminal of the connector 1a to the personal computer side.

On the other hand, when writing the data of the personal computer to the medium 1, the serial data input from the serial input terminal of the connector 1a is serial / parallel (S / parallel) converted by the serial / parallel converter 202.
P) Converted and written to the hard disk drive 10.

As described above, the medium 1 of this embodiment
According to the above, by providing the control unit 20, the audio unit 30, and the power supply unit 40 in the medium 1, the external system side (the stationary system 2, the portable system 3) connected to the medium 1 has a structure. Since it can be simplified, the price can be reduced. The external system side can control the medium 1 only by supplying power to the medium 1 and command control.

Further, by using the hard disk 101 as a device for storing the read / written data, a large capacity and a high speed access are possible as compared with other media, and the recording capacity unit price is higher than that of the conventional semiconductor audio memory. Will be cheaper.

Further, the medium 1 is provided with the buffer memory 203 in the control unit 20 to temporarily store the audio data prefetched from the hard disk drive 10 to prevent skipping and audio reproduction. Even when the hard disk 101 is not always accessed, the hard disk drive 10 is stopped.
Alternatively, power consumption can be suppressed by setting the standby state.

Further, the hard disk drive 10 is a general IDE or SCSI type, and has a multi-pole connector of 40 pins or more at the interface portion with the mounted device, but the parallel data output from the hard disk drive 10 is serial / serial. Since it is converted into serial data by the parallel converter 202, the number of terminals of the connector 1a can be reduced, and the reliability of the connector contact is improved.

[0040]

According to the present invention, by providing a control unit, an audio unit, and a power supply unit on the medium itself, the structure of the external device side on which the medium is mounted can be simplified.
The price can be reduced. Further, by using a hard disk as a device for storing data, a large capacity and high-speed access are possible as compared with other media, and the recording capacity unit price is low.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a medium 1 to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a medium 1 to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the relationship between the media 1 and the stationary system 2 to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the media 1 and the portable system 3 to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the relationship between the medium 1 to which the present invention is applied and the personal computer connection type system 4.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 media 1a connector 10 hard disk drive 101 hard disk 102 Hard disk driver 20 Control unit 201 CPU 202 serial / parallel converter 203 buffer memory 204 program memory 205 work memory 30 audio section 301 compression / decompression module 302 Digital audio I / F 303 A / D / D / A converter 40 power supply 2 Stationary system 2a Stationary system connector 3 Portable system 3a Portable system connector 4 PC connection type system 4a PC connection type system connector

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G06K 19/00 Q

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A hard disk drive having a hard disk for storing various data, an audio section for performing predetermined conversion processing and processing on audio data, and controlling the hard disk drive and the audio section according to a control signal from an external device. And a power supply unit that supplies power to the hard disk drive, the audio unit, and the control unit. 2. The medium according to claim 1, further comprising data transmission means for performing data transmission with the external device by serial transmission. 3. The control unit has a buffer memory for temporarily storing the preread audio data when the audio data recorded in the hard disk is preread at a high speed. Media described in 1.