JPH0430212A - Storage medium mounting/processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the time of a storage medium attaching/detaching processing by predicting the keeping position of a storage medium which is mounting-requested next based on the content of a storage medium mounting frequency storage means and positioning the storage medium storing pockets of a transportation mechanism in a prediction position. CONSTITUTION:At least more than two storage medium storing pockets of the transportation mechanism 7 are provided, and the mounting frequency storage means 5 of the storage medium, which corresponds to the storage medium keeping position in the keeping mechanism 1, is provided. Then, the past mounting frequency for respective storage mediums is stored as hysteresis information and the keeping position of the storage medium whose probability to be mounting-requested next is high is predicted. The storage medium storing pockets of the transportation mechanism 7 is positioned in the prediction position. Thus, the time of the storage medium attaching/detaching processing can be shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a storage medium mounting processing method, that is, a storage medium mounting/demounting processing method in a drive mechanism in a jukebox type library device.

[Prior Art 1] Conventionally, the procedure for a general storage medium attachment/detachment process in a drive mechanism in a jukebox type library device is as follows.

(1) Remove the storage medium from the drive mechanism and store it in the cell in the storage mechanism where the storage medium was previously stored (
demount processing).

(2) Next, the storage medium requested to be mounted is taken out from the storage mechanism and mounted on the drive mechanism (mounting process).

The positioning of the transport mechanism for realizing the above-mentioned storage medium attachment/detachment process is as follows when looking at the flow of operation.

(1) While the storage medium is mounted on the drive mechanism,
A pocket in the transport mechanism is positioned at the storage medium ejection port of the drive mechanism. This position is defined as the "starting point".

(2) At this point, when a mount request is issued, the storage medium in the drive mechanism is taken out and stored in the storage mechanism, so the pocket in the transport mechanism is used as the storage medium where the mounted storage medium was previously stored. It moves to the medium ejection port of the cell and stores the transported storage medium in the cell.

(3) Next, in order to take out the storage medium requested to be mounted from the storage mechanism, the pocket in the transport mechanism is again moved to the medium ejection port of the cell in which the storage medium is stored, and the medium is taken out.

(4) Thereafter, in order to mount the storage medium requested to be mounted on the drive mechanism, the pocket in the transport mechanism is moved to the medium insertion opening of the drive mechanism, and the storage medium is mounted.

That is, in the above process, the pockets in the transport mechanism are
The mounting process is completed by starting from the drive mechanism and making one round trip between the drive mechanism and the storage medium storage mechanism.

In this regard, for example, the following documents may be helpful.

(1) "Mechatronics" series ■, Applied edition 2°' Mechatronics spa in the semiconductor and computer peripheral equipment industry (edited by the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, Gihodo Publishing, pp. 85-87, 1
(Published in September 1984) (2) [First step taken in magneto-optical, high-density FDD.

DAT-Part 2 Optical Disk” (Nikkei Byte.

April 1989 issue, pp. 148-158) (3) Current status of optical disk devices (Nikkei Data Pro, EDP, 1987
March issue, DP 2-210-061-070)
[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since the above-mentioned conventional technology complies with the condition that the number of pockets in the transport mechanism is only one, the demounting process and the mounting process are The mounting process is performed in this order, and therefore there is a problem in that it takes a lot of time to complete the mounting process.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional technology, provide a plurality of pockets in the transport mechanism, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a storage medium mounting processing method that reduces the time required for storage medium attachment/detachment processing in a drive mechanism by having a function of predicting the storage medium to be next requested to be mounted.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above object of the present invention is to provide a storage mechanism for storing a plurality of portable storage media, a drive mechanism for reading and writing to the storage media, and a drive mechanism for attaching and detaching the storage media between the storage mechanism and the storage mechanism. In a jukebox-type library device configured of a transport mechanism having storage medium storage pockets, the transport mechanism is provided with at least two storage medium storage pockets, each of which corresponds to a storage medium storage position within the storage mechanism. Storage medium mount count storage means is provided, and based on the contents of the storage medium mount count storage means, the hold position of the storage medium to be next requested to be mounted is predicted, and the storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism is moved to the storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism. This is achieved by a storage medium mounting process characterized by positioning at a predicted position.

[Operation] In the storage medium mounting processing method according to the present invention, the past number of times each storage medium was mounted is stored as history information, and the storage position of the storage medium that is likely to be requested to be mounted next is predicted, Since the storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism is positioned at the predicted position, it is possible to shorten the time required for the storage medium attachment/detachment process.

That is, in the storage medium mounting processing method according to the present invention, the storage medium storage pocket in the transport mechanism is positioned at the storage position of the storage medium that has a high probability of being requested to be mounted next, and from this point, as shown below, perform an action.

(1) If the cell in which the storage medium requested to be mounted is stored is different from the above starting point position, the storage mechanism takes out the storage medium requested to be mounted and stores it in a pocket within the transport mechanism. Therefore, the pocket in the transport mechanism is
It is positioned at the medium ejection port of the cell in which the storage medium requested to be mounted is stored, and the storage medium requested to be mounted is received.

(2) Next, in order to mount the requested storage medium in the pocket 8 to the drive mechanism, position the empty pocket in the transport mechanism at the medium ejection port of the drive mechanism, and place the storage medium that was previously set in the drive mechanism. The storage medium is received in the pocket and the storage medium requested to be mounted in the pocket is set in the drive mechanism.

(3) Finally, in order to store the storage medium that has been set in the pocket into the storage mechanism, the pocket in the transport mechanism is positioned at the medium outlet of the cell where the storage medium was previously stored.

In the end, in the storage medium mounting processing method according to the present invention, in the storage medium mounting/detachment processing carried out on a boat, the storage medium mounting processing is completed by moving the transport mechanism from the storage medium storage mechanism to the drive mechanism. Processing time is significantly reduced.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an optical disk library device showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a storage mechanism for an optical disk (hereinafter simply referred to as a ``disc'') that is a storage medium, 2 is a disk drive mechanism (hereinafter simply referred to as a ``drive mechanism''), and 3 is a disk loading mechanism (hereinafter simply referred to as a ``loading mechanism''). 4 is a disk storage cell (hereinafter simply referred to as "cell J") in the storage mechanism 1; 7 is a disk transport mechanism C having two disk transport pockets 8;
(simply referred to as the "transport mechanism"). It goes without saying that the transport mechanism 7 is configured to be movable between each cell 4 of the storage mechanism 1 and the drive mechanism 2. Further, 5 is a disk mount count mechanism provided in a control unit (not shown) of the present optical disk library device, and 6 is a disk mount history/history table (hereinafter simply referred to as simply (referred to as the "history table").

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of the history table 6.

As shown in the figure, the history table 6 displays the aforementioned cell identification ID (6a), the number of disk mounts (6b), and "1" if the disk corresponding to the cell is currently mounted. Mount display bit (6c
).

In FIG. 1(a), based on the value of the disk mount count (hereinafter simply referred to as "mount count") 6b in the history table 6, the disk that has the highest probability of receiving a mount request next is stored. It is an operation flowchart of a process of predicting the ID 6a of a cell and positioning the transport mechanism 7 at the position of the cell. In this operation, first, the value of the number of mounts 6b in the history table 6 is checked, and it is checked whether there is a plurality of mounts with the highest number of mounts 6b (step 11).
).

If there are multiple cells, among them, the cell 4 whose mount display bit 6c is not "1" and which is the farthest from the drive mechanism 2 (in this case, the cell Nα is small)
The transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium outlet (step 12).

In addition, if there is not a plurality of items with the highest number of mounts 6b, in step 13, the mount display bit 6c
Checks whether or not is “1” and sets mount display bit 6.
If c is "1", the process proceeds to step 15, and the transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium outlet of the cell 4 that has the second highest mounting number 6b and is located farthest from the drive mechanism 2.

If the mount display bit 6c is not "1", the process advances to step 14 and the cell 4 with the highest number of mounts 6b is selected.
The transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium outlet.

Next, with reference to FIG. 1(b), an overview of the overall operation of the optical disk library apparatus of this embodiment will be explained.

When there is a mount request, it is checked whether the location where the mount-requested disc is stored is the same as the location where the transport mechanism 7 has been positioned in advance (step 21), and if it is the same, the disc is stored at that location. is received from cell 4 (step 22). If they are not the same, in step 23, the transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium ejection port of the cell 4 in which the disk requested to be mounted is stored, and the disk is received there.

Next, in step 24, the transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium take-out port of the drive mechanism 2, and the mounted disk is taken out into an empty pocket. Furthermore, the other pocket is positioned at the medium insertion port of the drive mechanism 2, and the transported disk is mounted thereon. Subsequently, in step 25, the transport mechanism 7 is positioned at the medium ejection port of the cell 4 in which the three disks taken out from the drive mechanism 2 were previously stored, and the disks are stored. Finally, in step 26, as shown in FIG.
The process of predicting the cell ID in which the disk with the highest probability of receiving a mount request is stored is performed as shown in , and the process ends with the process waiting for a mount request.

According to the embodiment described above, the disk mounting process is completed by moving the transport mechanism 7 from the storage mechanism 1 to the drive mechanism 2, which has the effect that the processing time can be significantly shortened.

It goes without saying that the above-mentioned embodiment shows an example of the present invention, and that the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, when predicting the storage location of a storage medium that will be requested to be mounted next, it is effective to adopt a method that emphasizes recent usage records in addition to the contents of the mount count storage means.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, in a jukebox-type library device comprising a storage mechanism, a drive mechanism, and a transport mechanism, at least the storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism is In addition, a storage medium mount count storage means corresponding to the storage medium storage position in the storage mechanism is provided, and based on the contents of the storage medium mount count storage means, the next storage medium to be requested to be mounted is stored. Since the storage position is predicted and the storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism is positioned at the predicted target position, it is possible to realize a storage medium mounting processing method that reduces the time required for storage medium attachment/detachment processing in the drive mechanism. This has a remarkable effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an operation flowchart of an optical disk library device that is an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the optical disk library device of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of a history table. . 1. Storage mechanism, 2. Drive mechanism, 3. Loading mechanism, 4. Cell, 5. Mount count mechanism, 6. History table.
7. Conveyance mechanism, 8: Pocket for disc conveyance, 11-1
5.21-26: Processing steps. Figure (Part 2) Figure Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage mechanism that stores a plurality of portable storage media, a drive mechanism that reads from and writes to the storage media, and a storage mechanism that attaches and detaches the storage media between the storage mechanism and the storage mechanism. In a jukebox-type library device composed of a transport mechanism having a media storage pocket,
At least two storage medium storage pockets are provided in the transport mechanism, and storage means for storing the number of storage medium mounts corresponding to the storage position of the storage medium in the storage mechanism is provided, and the number of storage medium mounts is stored based on the contents of the storage medium mount number storage means. . A storage medium mounting processing method, comprising predicting a storage position of a storage medium to be next requested to be mounted, and positioning a storage medium storage pocket of the transport mechanism at the predicted position.