JPH01185873A - Housing position controlling method for recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accelerate the processing speed of an optical disk file device by storing the use frequency information of every recording medium, allocating a slot being nearer a recording reproduction part to the recording medium of which use frequency is higher based on the information and replacing the recording medium for each slot. CONSTITUTION:In a floppy disk device 16, a control table 25 controlling the correspondence of each slot 3 and an optical disk 1 in a deck unit 12, that means, the allocation of the slot for the optical disk is housed. Then, by counting the use frequency of the optical disk 1 every time the retrieval executing access for the disk 1 or the registering processing of it, the use frequency of each optical disk is measured are recorded in the table 25. Then, the optical disk of which use frequency is higher is removed to the slot 3 being nearer the recording reproduction part 2. Therefore, the time required for removing the optical disk of which use frequency is high from the slot 3 to the reproduction part 2 or from the reproduction part 2 to the slot 3 can be drastically shortened. Thus, the processing of the optical disk file device can be accelerated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention stores a plurality of recording media in a plurality of slots,
The present invention relates to a method for controlling the storage position of a recording medium in a file device that selectively moves the recording medium to a recording/reproducing section to record/reproduce information.

Note that in this specification, a slot refers to one recording medium.
It is used in the sense of a place or space for accommodating individual pieces or pieces separately, and there are no limitations on its shape or structure.

2. Description of the Related Art A typical example of this type of file device is an optical disk file device used as a file server in a local area network (LAN).

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of a portion (hereinafter referred to as a deck unit) that performs recording/reproduction of information on an optical disk and direct handling of the optical disk in such a conventional optical disk file device. 1 is an optical disk, 2 is a recording/reproducing unit consisting of an optical head, its access mechanism, a rotating spindle, etc., 3 is a large number of slots,
The optical discs 1 are stored here one by one as shown in the figure.

4 takes out the optical disc 1 from an arbitrary slot 3, transports it to the recording and reproducing section 2, inserts it, and also inserts it into the recording and reproducing section 2.
Remove optical disc 1 from the slot and insert it into any slot 3.
This is an autochanger mechanism that transports and stores the items. Reference numeral 5 denotes an ejector opening for manually inserting an optical disc into the recording/reproducing section 2 or removing the optical disc from the recording/reproducing section 2. Inside the deck unit, there is a control circuit that controls the operation of each part mentioned above.
Not shown.

The optical disk file device includes the deck unit and a portion (hereinafter referred to as a controller unit) that performs processing such as control, search, and communication with external devices, but is not shown.

This controller unit has a management table 6 as shown in FIG. 8 in order to manage the correspondence between the slot 3 and the optical disk 1. This management table 6 is
It consists of a large number of areas 7 corresponding to slots, and each area 7 includes a slot number section 8, an optical disk number section 9, and an optical disk information section 10. The slot number section 8 records the serial number assigned to each slot, and the optical disk number section 9 contains the identification number (recorded as part of the management information on the optical disk) of the optical disk to which the slot is assigned. recorded. In the optical disc information section 10, other management information of the optical disc is recorded.

Assuming that this optical disk file device is connected to a LAN as a file server, operations related to handling of optical disks will be explained.

When the controller unit receives an optical disk insertion instruction command issued from a terminal or host on the LAN, it reproduces the management information of the optical disk manually inserted into the recording/reproducing section 2 through the loading/unloading port 5. Next, the controller unit operates the autochanger mechanism 4 to store the optical disc in the recording/reproducing section 5 into the vacant slot 3. This vacant slot 3 is determined by referring to the management table 6 and searching for an area in which no optical disc number is recorded. When this optical disk is stored in the empty slot 3, the optical disk number included in the management information of the optical disk is recorded in the optical disk number part 9 of the area 7 of the management table 6 corresponding to this empty slot 3, Other management information is stored in the optical disk information section 1.
Record to 0.

After that, when a terminal or host on the LAN issues a command for actual processing, such as registration or search processing, the controller unit searches the management table 6 using the specified disk number and determines whether the specified optical disk is stored. Find slot 3. Then, the autochanger mechanism 4 is operated to move the optical disc 1 housed in the slot 3 to the recording/reproducing section 2 to record or reproduce information, thereby executing the registration process or the search process.

Subsequently, when a registration or search processing command that specifies another optical disk is issued, the controller unit
By operating the autochanger mechanism 4, the optical disc 1 in the recording/reproducing section 2 is transported to the original slot 3. Next, the slot number assigned to the specified optical disk number is obtained from the management table 6, and the optical disk 1 is moved to the recording/reproducing section 2 to record or reproduce information, thereby executing the registration or search process. .

Note that when the stored optical disk 1 is taken out, the controller unit rewrites the optical disk number part 9 in the corresponding area 7 of the management table 6 to an empty state, and makes the slot 3 corresponding to the area empty. Set.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, with this configuration, there is a problem in that processing efficiency may drop significantly due to an increase in processing time for frequently accessed optical discs. In particular, when an optical disk file device is used as a LAN file server, an increase in the processing time for such frequently accessed optical disks also increases the time occupied by the LAN due to related information transfer and reduces efficiency. The problem is even more serious.

The above-mentioned problem occurs for the following reason. In conventional optical disk file devices and other similar file devices, when a recording medium is inserted from the outside, empty slots are filled in order from the slot closest to the recording/playback section. The recording medium is searched and stored in the first empty slot found, and is fixedly stored in the same slot thereafter. Therefore, a recording medium that is used frequently, that is, accessed frequently, may be stored in a slot far from the recording/playback unit.
In this case, the time required to move the recording medium from the slot to the recording/reproducing unit or from the recording/reproducing unit to the slot may become longer, resulting in the above-mentioned problems.

The relationship between the storage location of the recording medium and the travel time is as follows:
This will be explained in detail with reference to FIG.

For example, when the optical disc to which the slot 31 closest to the recording/reproducing section 2 is assigned is inserted into the recording/reproducing section 2,
Assume that an instruction is given to register or search for the optical disc 1 stored in the unit 3□. In this case, first, the optical disc in the recording/reproducing section 2 is returned to the slot 31, but the time required for this movement is T1. Next, the optical disc 1 in the slot 32 is moved to the recording/reproducing section 2, but the time required for this increases by one slot movement and is T1+α.

Therefore, the total time required to move the optical disk during this process is 2T, +α.

On the other hand, with the optical disc assigned to the slot 3°-1 far from the recording/reproducing unit inserted in the recording/reproducing unit 2,
Suppose that an instruction is given to register or search for the optical disc 1 stored in the farthest slot (3n). in this case,
A time of T1+β is required to return the optical disc in the recording/reproducing section 2 to the slot 3°-1. Next, Surono)
In order to move the optical disc 1 from 3n to the recording/reproducing section 2, a time of T1+β+α is required. Therefore, the total time is 2T, +2β+α, which is longer by 2β than in the former case.

As is clear from this example, a recording medium assigned a slot far from the recording/reproducing section takes considerably longer to move than a recording medium assigned a slot closer to the recording/reproducing section. Processing delays due to this increase in travel time can be caused by infrequently used recording media.
It probably won't be that much of a problem. However, in the case of a recording medium that is used frequently, the cumulative increase in travel time cannot be ignored, significantly reducing the processing speed of the entire apparatus and significantly reducing the efficiency of the LAN. In particular, when multiple frequently used recording media are concentrated in slots far from the recording/playback unit, there is a high probability that a processing request will be made for another one while one of them is present in the recording/playback unit. , the reduction in processing speed and processing efficiency becomes even greater.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and in an optical disk file device or similar file device, reduces the time required to move frequently used recording media, improves processing speed, and improves LAN efficiency. An object of the present invention is to provide a storage position control method for a recording medium.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a file device that selectively moves a plurality of recording media stored in a plurality of slots to a recording/reproducing section to record/reproduce information. The frequency of use of each recording medium is measured and the frequency of use information for each recording medium is stored, and based on the stored frequency of use information, the more frequently used the recording medium is, the closer to the recording/playback section the slot is allocated to each slot. It is equipped with a configuration that allows the recording medium to be replaced.

Effect of the Invention With the above-described configuration, the present invention can store frequently used recording media in slots close to the recording/reproducing section, thereby reducing the time required to move frequently used recording media. In addition, the processing speed decreases due to LA
A decrease in N efficiency can be prevented.

EXAMPLE An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an optical disk file device according to an embodiment of the present invention. This optical disk file apparatus consists of a deck unit 12 and a controller unit 13. Since the deck unit 12 has the same structure as the conventional one shown in FIG. 7, FIG. 7 will be referred to as necessary in the following description.

The configuration of the controller unit 13 will be explained. 1
4 is a central processing unit, 15 is a system memory for storing programs and data executed by the central processing unit 14, 16 is a floppy disk device, and 17 is an interface circuit thereof. 18 is deck unit 1
2, an image memory 19 for storing image information or compressed image information, and a compression/expansion circuit for compressing/expanding the image information. 21 is N
This is an IA interface circuit and interfaces with a network interface adapter (NIA) for connecting this optical disk file device to a LAN. n is a system bus, and n is an image bus dedicated to image information transfer.

The floppy disk device 16 (physically a floppy disk) has each slot (
In order to manage the correspondence between 3) in FIG. 7 and the optical disk (1 in FIG. 7), that is, the assignment of slots to the optical disk, a management table 5 having a structure as shown in FIG. 2 is stored. This management table 5 is composed of areas corresponding to slots, a slot number section n1, an optical disk number section A, an optical disk information section 4, and a usage frequency information section (9). The previous three parts 27.28.30 are the 8th
Corresponding section 8゜9 in the conventional management table shown in the figure.
The usage frequency information part I is a part in which information similar to 10 is recorded, but information on the usage frequency (number of times of use) measured for each optical disc is recorded.

This frequency of use is measured by software processing on the central processing unit 14.

Assuming that the optical disk file device configured as described above is connected to a LAN as a file server, an example of its operation will be described below.

In relation to this explanation, Fig. 3 shows an explanatory diagram of the processing flow of the optical disk file device, Fig. 4 shows the contents of the usage frequency measurement and usage frequency information recording process, and Fig. 5 shows the process of replacing the optical disc. The contents are shown below.

When the controller unit 13 of the optical file device receives a registration or search processing command from a host or terminal on the LAN in a command waiting state (■ in FIG. 3), it performs usage frequency measurement and table update processing. (■ in Figure 3). That is, as shown in FIG. 4, the central processing unit 14 searches the management table 5 (already loaded from the floppy disk device 16) on the system memory 15, and searches the management table 5 (loaded from the floppy disk device 16) according to the optical disk number specified in the command. Find area 26 (Step 3)
1). Then, add 1 to the value of the usage frequency information part in the area (step 32), and rewrite the usage frequency information part with the value of the addition result (step 33).
. Here, the management table 5 on the floppy disk device 16 may be updated in a similar manner.

Next 2, controller unit 13ha, Terracunit 1
The optical disk in the recording/playback unit (2 in Figure 7) in 2 is returned to its original slot, and the optical disk with the optical disk number specified by the command is loaded into the recording/playback unit (■ in Figure 3). . That is, through the processing of the central processing unit 14, the interface circuit 18 causes the optical disc loaded in the recording/reproducing section to be stored in the original slot.
The instructions are sent to the deck unit 12 via the . Note that the number of the optical disk being loaded and the corresponding slot number are stored in a register on the system memory 15.

When the deck unit 12 notifies the completion of the return operation of the optical disk, the processing of the central processing unit 14 selects the slot corresponding to the optical disk number specified in the read command (the slot number is known in the process of ■). The deck unit 12 is instructed via the interface circuit 18 to load the optical disc stored in the disc into the recording/reproducing section.

In this way, the designated optical disc is loaded into the recording/reproducing section, and when the completion of the loading is notified, the controller unit 13 executes a registration or search process (■ in FIG. 3).

ffxb, in the case of a registration processing command, the NI
Compression processing of image information received from the host or terminal via the A interface circuit 21 and stored in the image memory 19 is executed, and the compressed image information is stored in the image memory 19. This compressed image information is read by the deck unit 12, which is instructed to perform a recording operation by the central processing unit 14, and is recorded on the optical disc. The recording address of this compressed image information is stored in the corresponding area 26 in the management table 5 on the system memory 15 through the processing of the central processing unit 14.
is determined based on the contents of the optical disc information section 4, and designated to the deck unit 12. In addition, through the processing of the central processing unit 14, management information for the recorded document image is created, transferred to the deck unit, recorded in the management area of the optical disc, and further stored in the optical disc in the corresponding area 26 of the management table 5 on the system memory 15. The recorded contents of Information Department 4 are updated. Note that here the floppy disk device 16
The above management table 5 may be updated in a similar manner.

When a search processing command is received, the central processing unit 14
The management table 5 on the system memory 15 is
The target document is retrieved by referring to the contents of the optical disc information section 4 in the corresponding area. The deck unit 12 reproduces the compressed image information of the search document specified by the central processing unit 14 from the optical disk and transfers it to the image memory 19. This compressed image information is expanded by a compression/expansion circuit, stored in the image memory 19, and then transferred to the host or terminal that issued the search command through the NIA interface circuit 21 and the NIA (not shown).

When a document is registered in this way, the central processing unit 14
A response is created by the process, and this response is sent via the NIA interface circuit 21 to the host or terminal that issued the registration processing command (■ in FIG. 3). After this transmission, the controller unit 13 enters a command waiting state (■ in FIG. 3).

Now, in the command waiting state (■ in Figure 3), if a termination command is received from the host or terminal and the termination process (■ in Figure 3) is executed, or if a timeout occurs (the command wait time is (If it exceeds a certain period of time)
, executes an optical disk replacement process for each slot in the deck unit 12 (■ in FIG. 3). That is, as shown in FIG. 5, by the processing of the central processing unit 14,
Based on the contents of the management table 5 on the system memory 15, slots are reallocated so that the more frequently used optical disc is assigned a slot closer to the recording/reproducing unit (step 34). According to this reassignment result,
Instructions for changing the optical disks are sequentially sent from the central processing unit 14 to the deck unit 12, and the autochanger mechanism (4 in FIG. 7) executes the changing of the optical disks (step 35).

A specific example of this replacement operation will be explained with reference to FIG. For example, assume that there are eight slots 3, numbered 1 to 8, and that eight optical discs are stored.

It is assumed that each optical disk 1 is used more frequently in the order indicated by the number within 0.

First, the most frequently used optical disc 1 stored in the No. 7 slot 3□ is moved to the recording/reproducing section 2. This left slot 7 vacant.3. Then, the optical disc 1 stored in the third slot 33 and ranked seventh in frequency of use is moved. As a result, the optical disk 1 stored in the fourth slot 34 and ranked third in the frequency of use is moved to the vacant third slot 33. The vacant No. 4 slot 34 is filled with the No. 5 slot 3. Move the optical disc 1 in the 5th slot 3. 1 slot 31
Move the optical disc 1 inside. The most frequently used optical disc 1 in the recording/reproducing section 2 is moved to the vacant No. 1 slot 31.

Next, the optical disc 1 in the second slot 3 is inserted into the recording/reproducing section 2.
, move the optical disc 1 in the 6th slot 36 to the vacant 2nd slot 3°, and move the optical disc 1 in the 6th slot 3. 8th slot 3. Finally, the recording/reproducing section 2 moves the optical disk 1 to the No. 8 slot 38. This completes the exchange.

When the above exchange operation is completed, the management table 5 on the system memory 15 is updated according to the new allocation by the processing of the central processing unit 14, and the management table 5 on the floppy disk drive 16 is also updated with the same contents. (Step 36 in Figure 5). Then, it returns to the command waiting state (■ in FIG. 4) again.

In this way, each time a search or registration process that accesses an optical disk is performed, the frequency of use of each optical disk is measured and recorded in the management table by counting the number of times the optical disk is used. At the time of time over, the more frequently used optical disc is moved to a slot closer to the recording/reproducing section. Therefore, compared to the conventional apparatus which ignores the frequency of use, the time required to move a frequently used optical disk from the slot to the recording/reproducing unit or from the recording/reproducing unit to the slot can be significantly reduced. As a result, it is possible to speed up the processing of the optical disk file device, and it is also possible to shorten the time occupied by the LAN and improve efficiency.

Note that the process of exchanging optical disks based on the frequency of use consumes a considerable amount of time, so for example, it is possible to execute the exchanging process by issuing a command for exchanging the optical disks, or to use all optical disks after exchanging optical disks. The total number of times may be counted, and the replacement process may be executed when a certain number of times is reached.

In the embodiment described above, the frequency of use is measured by software processing, but it is also possible to provide software such as a counter for measurement. Further, the usage frequency information may be stored separately from the management table.

Furthermore, although the embodiment described above is an optical disk file device that uses an optical disk as a recording medium, the present invention can also be applied to similar file devices that use other recording media.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, the present invention measures the usage frequency of each recording medium and stores usage frequency information, and based on this usage frequency information, the more frequently used recording media are recorded, the more frequently used recording media are recorded. Since the recording medium is replaced by moving it to a slot near the playback section, compared to conventional devices that ignore the frequency of use, the transport time for frequently used recording media is significantly shortened, and the file device's capacity is reduced accordingly. This has effects such as speeding up processing, shortening the time the file device occupies the LAN, and improving the efficiency of the LAN.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an optical disk file device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a management table in the same device, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the same device, and Fig. 4 is an illustration of the use of the device. A flowchart of frequency measurement and storage processing, Fig. 5 is a flowchart of optical disc replacement processing, Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram of optical disc replacement operation, Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the deck unit, and Fig. 8 is a conventional optical disc replacement process. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a management table of a disk file device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Optical disk, 2... Recording/reproducing part, 3... Slot, 4... Auto changer mechanism, 12...
Deck unit, 13...Controller unit, 5
...Management f-pull, r...slot number section, public...
・Optical disk number section, 4...Optical disk information section, blade・
...Usage frequency information section. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person
IL crown: 232 Figure 3 Figure I / Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a file device that records and reproduces information by selectively moving multiple recording media stored in multiple slots to a recording/reproducing section, the usage frequency of each recording medium is measured and usage frequency information for each recording medium is obtained. A storage position control method for recording media, characterized in that the recording medium is stored, and the recording medium that is used more frequently is assigned a slot closer to a recording/reproducing unit based on the stored usage frequency information, and the recording medium is replaced with respect to each slot.