JP2011238114A - Hybrid drive device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a hybrid drive device having an optical disk device combined with a high-speed accessible memory such as flash memory; to which an extended memory allowing a high-speed access and having a larger capacity can be added.SOLUTION: In the hybrid drive device having an optical disk device and a high-speed accessible SDRAM that is connected to a control unit 50 of the optical disk device, a large capacity memory 30 is added through an interface conversion circuit 20. The interface conversion circuit 20 represents an SDRAM-eMMC Bridge using an FPGA, and an address of the large capacity memory 30 is specified by a register for specifying the address of the large capacity memory.

Description

  The present invention relates to a hybrid drive device that combines a storage device such as an optical disk device that requires a relatively long time to access but a memory such as a flash memory that can be accessed quickly.

  At present, recording / reproducing apparatuses using a large-capacity optical disk such as a BD (Blu-ray Disc) (hereinafter referred to as an optical disk apparatus) and televisions with a built-in BD recorder are widely used. Preparation time was required and it was not always easy to use.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a cache device for improving the usability of the optical disk device, and includes a primary cache memory composed of a DRAM or the like and a secondary cache memory composed of a nonvolatile memory such as an HDD or a flash memory. An apparatus is described.

  Conventionally, a hybrid drive apparatus has been proposed in which an optical disk apparatus is combined with an SDRAM (Synchronous Dynamic RAM) to improve usability.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a conventional hybrid drive device in which an SDRAM used as a cache memory is combined with an optical disk device. FIG. 6A is a diagram showing the drive unit 60 of the optical disc apparatus, and FIG. 6B is an optical disc device 70 including the drive unit 60 and a control unit 50 for controlling the drive unit 60. FIG. 6C is a diagram showing the hybrid drive device 100 in which the SDRAM device 40 is further incorporated, and FIG. 6C is a diagram showing the hybrid drive device 100 showing details of the SDRAM device 40.

  6A, the drive unit 60 of the optical disc apparatus includes an optical pickup 64 having a laser element 63, a horizontal drive motor 61 for driving the optical pickup 64 along a guide rail 62, and an optical disc 68. A spindle motor 65 that rotates, and irradiates the optical disk 68 with a laser beam from the laser element 63 as a light beam 67 focused on the optical disk by the lens actuator 66 to record a signal; The signal is reproduced by receiving the reflected light from the optical disk.

  FIG. 6B shows details of the hybrid drive device 100 having the optical disk device 70 and the SDRAM device 40 operating as a cache memory as described above. In the figure, a host system 80 such as a television set is connected via an interface unit 101.

  The control unit 50 itself for controlling the drive unit 60 of the optical disc apparatus 70 has a known configuration, and a detailed description of its operation is omitted, but the control unit 50 controls the entire hybrid drive apparatus 100. In addition to a CPU 51, a PROM 52 in which a control program is written, a RAM 53 used as a work memory for the CPU 51, a mechanical / servo control unit 54 and a servo control unit 55 are provided, and further connected via a bus 59. In addition, a modulation / demodulation circuit and ECC processing unit 58, and a reproduction control unit 56 and a recording control unit 57 connected to the modulation / demodulation circuit and ECC processing unit 58 are provided. An SDRAM 41 is connected to the bus 59 of the control unit 50 via an SDRAM bus 48. Here, the SDRAM device 40 including the SDRAM 41 and the SDRAM bus 48 is referred to as the SDRAM device 40.

FIG. 6C shows details of the SDRAM device 40. The SDRAM device 40 has an SDRAM 41 and four DMACH (direct memory access channels) 44, 45, 46, and 47 for data transfer to the SDRAM 41, and further has two ring buffers 42 and 43. is doing. Although this configuration itself is well known and detailed description of the operation is omitted, the data from the host 80 side is transmitted via the host i / F 101 as shown by the broken line 73 in FIG. Direct memory access channel 0) 44, ring buffer 43, DMACH4 (direct memory access channel 4) 45, ring buffer 42, DMACH3 (direct memory access channel 3)
46, the data is recorded on the optical disk 68 via the modulation / demodulation circuit and ECC circuit 58 and the recording control unit 57 (see FIG. 6B).

  Further, the reproduction signal from the optical disk 68 passes through the reproduction control unit 56, the modulation / demodulation circuit and the ECC circuit 58 shown in FIG. 6B, as shown by a solid line 74 in FIG. 6C. , DMACH2 (direct memory access channel 2) 47, ring buffer 42, DMACH4 (direct memory access channel 4) 45, ring buffer 43, DMACH0 (direct memory access channel 0) 44, host 80 Sent to the side.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the hybrid drive apparatus 100 shown in FIG. FIG. 7A shows an outline of the operation when the optical disk device 70 constituting the hybrid drive device 100 is started up. FIG. 7B shows the data reproduction from the optical disk 68 in the hybrid drive device 100. FIG. 7C shows a flow at the time of data recording on the optical disc 68.

  As shown in FIG. 7A, the optical disk device 70 is started up after the power is turned on (step 1, hereinafter simply referred to as S.1) and then the optical disk 68 (hereinafter simply referred to as a disk). .) Is inserted (S.2), the spindle motor starts rotating (S.3), the focus servo is turned on (S.4), and then the disc type is determined (S.3). .5) Further, the tracking servo is turned on (S.6).

  After the confirmation of the disc / servo is confirmed (S.7), the basic data of the disc 68 is reproduced (S.8) and recorded by a higher system (for example, a television receiver to which the hybrid drive device 100 is connected). Alternatively, the preparation for the reproduction request is completed (S.9), and recording or reproduction on the optical disc 68 is performed in response to a command from the host system (S.10).

  FIG. 7B shows the flow of data when reproducing the optical disk in the hybrid drive apparatus 100, and the reproduced data from the optical disk 68 passes through the SDRAM 41 (S.11), and the host system such as the television receiver or the like. (S.12).

  FIG. 7C is a diagram showing a data flow when data from the host system is recorded on the optical disc 68. Since the host system sends data together with the command (S.13), the command with data is sent to the optical disc device 70 via the SDRAM 41 (S.14), and the data is recorded on the optical disc 68. As already described, in both the case shown in FIG. 7B and the case shown in FIG. 7C, the SDRAM 41 functions as a buffer (adjustment of the playback speed from the disk and the transfer speed of the host iF). Will serve as a cache memory.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-225714 (published August 22, 1995)

  The technique described in Patent Document 1 describes that a primary cache and a secondary cache are provided, but does not describe a specific method or the like for realizing this. Nor is it intended to reduce power consumption.

  Further, according to the technique shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, it is described that SDRAM is used as a cache. Usually, an address for reading / writing data to / from SDRAM is about 8 MB to 16 MB. However, it has a problem that it cannot be allocated linearly up to gigabytes. For this reason, it is impossible to store a large amount of data, and there is a problem that it is not a fundamental solution for improving usability. Furthermore, if an attempt is made to achieve access up to the gigabyte order with the conventional configuration, a large number of additional circuits are required, resulting in a high cost and an unrealistic system.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention is a hybrid drive device with an extended memory having an optical disc device, a cache memory, and an extended memory added to the cache memory. The expansion memory is a memory added via an interface conversion circuit.

  According to this, a large-capacity expansion memory can be easily added without specially changing the conventional configuration, and the usability of the hybrid drive device can be improved.

  In order to solve the above problems, the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory according to the present invention is characterized in that the interface conversion circuit is configured by an FPGA.

  According to this, it is possible to obtain a hybrid drive device with a high-functional expansion memory while suppressing costs by using an FPGA that is easily available and has a high degree of design freedom.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the hybrid drive device with an extension memory according to the present invention, the cache memory is an SDRAM, and the extension memory added via the interface conversion circuit may be a volatile memory. This is a memory that may be a non-volatile memory, and is characterized here as an eMMC memory.

  According to this, it is possible to obtain a hybrid drive device with a high-functional expansion memory while suppressing costs by using an inexpensive memory that is easily available. The eMMC memory has a feature that it has a dramatically large capacity, for example, the ability to store a plurality of BDs from a single BD if required by an application.

  In order to solve the above problems, in the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory according to the present invention, when accessing the expansion memory added via the interface circuit, exclusive control of data read with respect to the cache memory It is characterized by performing.

  According to this, the cache memory and the extended memory can be used separately, and the utility of the hybrid drive device with the extended memory according to the present invention can be further enhanced. Here, exclusive control refers to a control method for prohibiting simultaneous access to the same SDRAM from another bus.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory according to the present invention is characterized in that the access to the cache memory and the access to the expansion memory are DMA (direct memory access).

  According to this, it is possible to process a large amount of data at once, and high-speed data transfer is possible.

  In order to solve the above problem, in the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory according to the present invention, the cache memory is accessed by four DMA channels and two ring buffers. This access is made by sharing the DMA channel.

  According to this, it is possible to provide a hybrid drive device with an expansion memory that can easily add an expansion memory and that can operate at high speed. Needless to say, the one having four DMA channels and two ring buffers is an example, and the present invention is not limited to this.

  As described above, in the hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention, the hybrid drive device with an extended memory having an optical disc device, a cache memory, and an extended memory added to the cache memory, The memory is characterized in that it is a memory added via an interface conversion circuit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a hybrid drive device with a high-functional expansion memory while suppressing costs.

It is a figure for demonstrating the principle view of the hybrid drive apparatus with an expansion memory which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the whole structure of the hybrid drive apparatus with an expansion memory based on this invention which connected large capacity memory. It is a figure which shows the detail of the connection condition of the large capacity memory which operate | moves as an extended memory. It is a figure explaining the access condition to the large capacity memory in the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory concerning the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the outline | summary of operation | movement of the hybrid drive apparatus with an expansion memory based on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the conventional hybrid drive apparatus which combined SDRAM with the optical disk apparatus. It is a figure which shows the data flow at the time of the optical disk reproduction | regeneration in the conventional hybrid drive apparatus.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, various preferred limitations for implementing the present invention are given, but the technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the description of the following examples and drawings.

  First, the basic concept of the hybrid drive device with expansion memory according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, and then the configuration of the hybrid drive device with expansion memory according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. explain. Further, the outline of the operation of the hybrid drive device with an expansion memory according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 10 denotes a large-capacity memory device newly added to a conventional hybrid drive device having a cache memory according to the present invention, and an interface conversion circuit using an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). 20 and a large-capacity memory 30 serving as an expansion memory. For example, an eMMC (Embedded Multi Media Card) or the like can be used as the large-capacity memory 30 serving as the expansion memory. Moreover, it is not limited to a non-volatile memory, and may be a volatile memory.

  An FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) itself is very easily available and has a high degree of design freedom. Therefore, it is possible to obtain a hybrid drive device with a high-function expansion memory while reducing costs. Also, an eMMC (Embedded Multi Media Card) is also easily available and inexpensive, and a hybrid drive device with a high-function expansion memory can be realized while suppressing costs. The eMMC memory has a feature that it has a dramatically large capacity, for example, the ability to store a plurality of BDs from a single BD if required by an application.

  In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 40 denotes an SDRAM device that operates as the cache memory described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1A, reference numeral 50 denotes a control unit for controlling the drive unit 60 of the optical disc apparatus 70 described in FIG. As is apparent from the description of FIG. 1A, in the invention of the present application, in the conventional hybrid drive device 100 described with reference to FIG. 6, a large-capacity memory having an interface conversion circuit 20 and a large-capacity memory 30 serving as an expansion memory. The apparatus 10 is added. That is, the interface conversion circuit 20 connected via the SDRAM bus 48 enables access to a large-capacity memory having an interface different from the interface in the conventional SDRAM.

FIG. 1B is a diagram showing in more detail the interface conversion circuit 20 when an eMMC is used as the large-capacity memory 30 that functions as an expansion memory, and includes an SDRAM interface 21, a FIFO 22, and an eMMC controller 23. . The FIFO 22 performs buffering between the SDRAM interface 21 and the eMMC controller 23, and absorbs the speed difference between the two to achieve smooth data exchange. That is, the interface conversion circuit 20 is an SDRAM-eMMC bridge circuit that bridges an SDRAM interface and a large capacity memory such as an eMMC interface. As shown in FIG. 1A, when accessing the eMMC side, exclusive control for prohibiting access to the SDRAM 41 side is performed. According to this, the cache memory and the extended memory can be used separately, and the utility of the hybrid drive device with the extended memory according to the present invention can be further enhanced. Here, exclusive control refers to a control method for prohibiting simultaneous access to the same SDRAM from another bus.

  FIG. 2 shows details when the large-capacity memory device 10 is connected to the conventional hybrid drive device 100 having the SDRAM 41. In addition to the interface conversion circuit 20 described with reference to FIG. 1, the large-capacity memory device 10 includes an in-FPGA circuit input control unit 31 that controls circuits in the FPGA, and a large-capacity memory 30 in which the hybrid drive device 100 functions as an expansion memory. The data read exclusive circuit 32 for prohibiting access to the SDRAM 41 during access to the SDRAM 41 and the large-capacity memory address designating register 33 for designating the address of the large-capacity memory 30 are provided. The SDRAM bus 48 is connected to the hybrid drive device 100. In the case of data transfer, DMA transfer is performed after designating a recording start address and length information in the large-capacity memory address designating register 33 in the FPGA in advance. The configuration of the drive unit 60 and the control unit 50 of the optical disc apparatus 70 is the same as that of the conventional example described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 shows details of connection between the conventional hybrid drive device 100 and the large-capacity memory device 10. As shown in FIG. 3, connection of the large-capacity memory device 10 is performed by DMA transfer using four DMACHs (direct memory access channels) 44, 45, 46, and 47 for data transfer to the SDRAM 41.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the physical connection is made by DMACH4 (direct memory access channel 4) 45, which is one of the four DMACHs (direct memory access channel) 44, 45, 46, 47. And the connection with the interface conversion circuit 20 of the large-capacity memory device 10. That is, by sharing the DMA channel. Data transfer by DMA can process a large amount of data at a time, and therefore, high-speed data transfer is possible, and high-speed operation of a hybrid drive device with an expansion memory is possible.

  According to the present invention, when the large capacity memory 30 in the large capacity memory device 10 is used, access to the memory of the SDRAM 41 is prohibited by a command from the data read exclusive circuit 32, and DMACH4 (direct memory access channel 4). ) 45, the large capacity memory 30 is accessed.

  Data recording to the large capacity memory 30 is recorded at an address designated by the large capacity memory address designating register 33, and reading (reproduction) of data from the large capacity memory 30 is large capacity. The data is read from the address designated via the memory address designation register 33. That is, the address of the control LSI in the conventional hybrid drive device 100 is generally 8 MB to 16 MB, and cannot be linearly allocated up to gigabytes. For this reason, an address register of the large-capacity memory 30 is configured, and the address of the large-capacity memory 30 to be accessed is first written in the register before actual data access is performed. Data can be accessed without losing high speed by performing burst transfer. Control for accessing the large-capacity memory 30 by the large-capacity memory addressing register 33 is performed by the circuit input control unit 31 in the FPGA.

  When recording data from the host 80 of the host system, the data from the host 80 is stored in the DMACH 0 (direct memory access channel 0) 44, the ring buffer 43, the DMACH 4 ( The data is sent to the optical disk device 70 (see FIG. 2) via the direct memory access channel 4) 45, the ring buffer 41, and the DMACH 3 (direct memory access channel 3) 46, and is recorded on the optical disk.

  As shown by a solid line 74 in FIG. 3, the reproduction signal from the optical disk side is stored in a large-capacity memory via a DMACH 2 (direct memory access channel 2) 47, a ring buffer 42, and a DMACH 4 (direct memory access channel 4) 45. It is sent to the interface conversion circuit 20 of the apparatus 10. As described above, the data sent to the large-capacity memory device 10 is stored at the address of the large-capacity memory 30 designated by the large-capacity memory address designating register 33, and further DMACH4 (direct memory access channel 4). ) 45, the ring buffer 43, and DMACH 0 (direct memory access channel 0) 44.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a state of access to the large capacity memory 30 of the large capacity memory device 10. FIG. 4A shows a situation when an access request is made on the optical disc side by a request from the host 80 (see FIG. 3) of the host system. The optical disk drive is currently stopped with at least one access, and as long as there is requested data in the large-capacity memory, recording / reproduction with the optical disk drive is not required (S.1). In this case, SDRAM data exclusion processing is performed (S.2), and data having one or more disk IDs is stored in the large-capacity memory 30 (S.3). When the request data from the host 80 is in the large-capacity memory 30, it is DMA-transferred from the large-capacity memory 30 via the SDRAM bus instead of the optical disk.

  FIG. 4B shows an operation when a conventional SDRAM is used as a buffer. In this case, the optical drive is always operating during access (S.1). Then, the conventional SDRAM is used as a buffer to repeatedly transfer data in small capacity units (S.2), and the completion of the requested data transfer is awaited (S.3). The host 80 (the host system) completely transfers and accepts data in an address unit (relatively small capacity) that can be specified by a control LSI command in the conventional hybrid drive apparatus 100.

  As described above, the device to which the larger-capacity memory device 10 is connected is also a hybrid drive device, but the memory of the conventional hybrid drive device 100 is further expanded and used. Therefore, in the present invention, it is particularly referred to as a hybrid drive device with an extended memory.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an outline of the operation of the hybrid drive apparatus with an expansion memory according to the present invention. FIG. 5A shows an outline of the operation at the time of starting up the optical disc device 70 constituting the hybrid drive device with an extended memory, and FIG. 5B shows data from the optical disc in the hybrid drive device with the extended memory. FIG. 5C shows a flow at the time of data recording on the optical disc.

  In the hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention, the operation when starting up the optical disc device 70 is the same as the start-up of the optical disc device 70 in the conventional hybrid drive device described with reference to FIG. As shown in (a), after the power is turned on (step 1, hereinafter simply referred to as S.1), an optical disc (hereinafter simply referred to as a disc) is inserted (S.2). The spindle motor starts rotating (S.3), the focus servo is turned on (S.4), the disc type is determined (S.5), and the tracking servo is turned on (S.4). .6).

  Next, after confirmation of the disc / servo is confirmed (S.7), the basic data of the optical disc is reproduced (S.8), and the host system (for example, the television to which the hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention is connected). The preparation for the recording or reproduction request by the receiver etc. is completed (S.9), and the recording or reproduction to the disk is performed in response to the command from the host system (S.10). .

  FIG. 5B shows an operation when data is reproduced from the optical disc in the hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 5B, when data is first reproduced from the optical disk, the reproduced data is stored in the large-capacity memory 30. When a plurality of optical disks are reproduced, all data are stored together with the ID of the optical disk (S.11). When the reproduction of the optical disc is completed, the optical disc apparatus is shifted to a standby state, and the operation of the drive unit itself of the optical disc apparatus is stopped (
S. 12). When there is a playback command from the host system (S.13), first, the large capacity memory 30 is accessed, and if data is stored there, the data is read from the large capacity memory 30. Then, the read data is transferred to the host system (S.14).

  FIG. 5C shows an operation when data is recorded on the optical disc in the hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to the present invention.

  When recording data on the optical disk, first, a large amount of data is transferred to the large-capacity memory 30 (S.15). The start address of the large-capacity memory 30 is designated by the large-capacity memory address designation register 33, and a large amount of data is stored in the large-capacity memory 30 (S.16). When a recording optical disk is loaded into the drive unit 60 of the optical disk device 70, the drive unit 60 is slowly started up (S.17), and recording is performed after the start-up or when the host system is not accessed during idle time. After recording, the optical disk device is stopped.

  In the present invention, as described above, when the optical disk device 70 is shifted to the standby state, the operation of the drive unit 60 of the optical disk device 70 is stopped, which contributes to power saving. In general, when the optical disk device 70 is started up, it takes a relatively long time, so that the power consumption increases. Further, in order to increase the access speed, the high speed startup is performed, resulting in high power consumption. On the other hand, according to the present invention, coupled with being able to record a large amount of data in the large-capacity memory 30, there is a period during which the drive unit 60 of the optical disc device 70 is stopped. It is also possible to slow up the drive unit 60 without causing a decrease in access speed, and the power saving effect by these is great. In addition, since data is read from the large-capacity memory 30 that is accessed faster than the optical disk device, it is not necessary to wait for the time until the optical disk is started up, and a hybrid drive device with an extended memory that is extremely easy to use can be obtained.

  Further, according to the present invention, a large-capacity memory can be easily added to the conventional hybrid drive device by adding an interface conversion circuit using FPGA, thereby greatly improving the usability of the hybrid drive device. I can do it.

  The present invention provides an extremely easy-to-use hybrid drive device with an expansion memory that can add a larger capacity memory to a hybrid drive device in which a cache memory is added to an optical disk device, and is industrially applicable. Is expensive.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Large-capacity memory device 20 Interface conversion circuit 30 Large-capacity memory 31 FPGA internal circuit input control part 32 Data read exclusive circuit 33 Large-capacity memory addressing register 40 SDRAM device 41 SDRAM
42, 43 Ring buffer 44, 45, 46, 47 DMACH (direct memory access channel)
50 Control Unit of Optical Disk Device 51 CPU
52 PROM
53 RAM
54 Mechanical / Servo Control Unit 55 Servo Control Unit 56 Playback Control Unit 57 Recording Control Unit 58 Modulation / Demodulation Circuit ECC Processing Unit 60 Optical Disc Device Drive Unit 80 Host System Host 100 Hybrid Drive Device

Claims (6)

A hybrid drive device with an expansion memory having an optical disk device, a cache memory, and an expansion memory added to the cache memory,
The hybrid drive device with an extension memory, wherein the extension memory is a memory added via an interface conversion circuit.   2. The hybrid drive device with expansion memory according to claim 1, wherein the interface conversion circuit is configured by an FPGA.   3. The hybrid drive device with an extension memory according to claim 1, wherein the cache memory is an SDRAM, and the extension memory added via the interface conversion circuit is an eMMC memory.   4. The data read exclusive control is performed on the cache memory when accessing the extended memory added via the interface conversion circuit. 5. Hybrid drive device with expansion memory.   5. The hybrid drive apparatus with an extension memory according to claim 1, wherein the access to the cache memory and the access to the extension memory are DMAs.   The access to the cache memory is made by four DMA channels and two ring buffers, and the access to the extension memory is made by sharing the DMA channel. The hybrid drive device with an extended memory according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

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