JPH06139029A - Optical disk autochanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an autochanger in which the throughput of the autochanger can be improved, and a system whose reliability is high can be constructed by improving an MTBF by providing a means which averages the using frequency of an optical disk device in the autochanger. CONSTITUTION:When the using request of the optical disk is generated, and the necessity of loading the optical disk in an optical disk housing shelf on an optical disk device 41 is generated in an autochanger 4, an empty device search control part 14 obtains a random number RN from a random number generating part 15, and obtains the number of devices information DN in the autochanger 4 from the optical disk device information of an autochanger management file 21. The empty device search control part 14 decides an empty search start device from those information. Moreover, the empty disk search control part 14 searches the empty device by referring to status information indicating the using/waiting of each optical disk device 41 by using the empty search start device as the first search object, and informs the device number information VD of the searched empty device to an optical disk loading control part 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical disc autochanger having a plurality of optical disc devices and an optical disc storage shelf, and more particularly to an optical disc autochanger having a control mechanism for equalizing the frequency of use of each optical disc device in the changer. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An optical disc autochanger is equipped with a plurality of optical disc devices and an optical disc storage shelf for storing a plurality of optical discs at fixed positions. During operation, the arm takes out the optical disk from the shelf and loads it into an empty optical disk device for use.

In the conventional optical disc autochanger of this type, when an optical disc is taken out of a shelf and loaded in a vacant optical disc device, n optical disc devices in the autochanger are loaded, for example, from the first one placed on the upper stage. Search for the first device, the second device, ... nth device, and so on, in order, to check whether the device is empty (in use / standby), and if an empty device is found, stop the search there. ,
The empty device was loaded with the optical disk taken out from the shelf.

However, in the conventional autochanger having such an optical disc loading mechanism, since the empty device is searched for in a predetermined fixed order, the frequency of use of the optical disc device in the autochanger is remarkably biased. Therefore, the life of a particular optical disk device determined by the search order becomes extremely short, and the M
It was a big obstacle to the improvement of TBF. In addition, since the optical disk devices are always searched for vacancy in a fixed order and the used devices are biased, the average processing time for loading an optical disk stored in a fixed position on the shelf into the vacant device is long, and It was an obstacle to improving the throughput.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional autochanger, since the empty optical disk devices are searched in a predetermined order, the frequency of use of the optical disk devices in the autochanger is high. , The life of a particular optical disk device determined by the search order becomes extremely short, and the M
It was a big obstacle to the improvement of TBF. Further, since the optical disk devices are always searched in a fixed order and the used devices are biased, the average processing time for loading the optical disks stored in the shelves into the empty devices is long and the throughput of the autochanger system is improved. Was an obstacle to.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,
An object of the present invention is to provide an optical disc autochanger that includes means for equalizing the frequency of use of optical disc devices in the autochanger to improve the throughput of the autochanger and improve the MTBF to construct a highly reliable system.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, means for generating a random number, means for deciding a device to start a free device search based on the generated random number and the number of devices in the autochanger, and a device according to the determination are sequentially placed in a magnetic field. A means for searching an empty device by referring to the autochanger management file on the disc is provided to realize decentralization of use of the optical disc device. As a specific example, using a random number, the generated random number is divided by the number n of devices in the autochanger, and means for searching for a vacant device in order from a device having a device number that is +1 is used to equalize the used devices. It is characterized in that

[0008]

When the use request of the optical disk is made, the random number generating means is activated, and the device to be used is determined by using the random number generated by this random number generating means. Specifically, it is obtained from the random number generator. The random number (RN) is divided by the number n of devices in the autochanger, and the device number (#i) obtained by adding +1 to the remainder.
The empty changer is searched for by referring to the autochanger management file in the order of the device number from the device having. The empty optical disk device searched here is loaded with the optical disk taken out from the shelf. By having such an optical disk loading control means, it is possible to disperse the used devices, eliminate the bias of the used devices, and extend the life of the entire autochanger.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a CPU, ROM, RA
A main control processor (MCP) realized by M or the like, which controls the entire optical disc autochanger, and has an optical disc loading control means for determining a device to be used by using a random number here.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a magnetic disk device (DK) which is interface-connected to the main control processor (MCP) 1 via the bus 5 and is access-controlled by the main control processor (MCP) 1. Here, an autochanger management file 21 having optical disk device information indicating the number of optical disk devices in the autochanger (the number of installed devices) and the use / standby state (whether empty or not) of each optical disk device is stored. . Reference numeral 3 is an input / output controller (IOC) that interfaces the optical disc autochanger mechanism 4 to the main control processor (MCP) 1.
Is.

An optical disc autochanger mechanism 4 has a plurality of (n) optical disc devices 41, 41, ... To which consecutive device numbers (# 1 to #n) are assigned, and a main control processor (MCP). ) 1 under the control of the optical disk device (#
In i) 41, the optical disc according to the usage request stored in the optical disc storage shelf is loaded.

Reference numerals 11 to 15 respectively form constituent elements of the main control processor (MCP) 1.
1 is an optical disk loading control unit, 12 is a magnetic disk I / O
A control unit, 13 is an optical disk I / O control unit, 14 is a free device search control unit, and 15 is a random number generation unit.

The optical disk loading control unit 11 receives the device number information (V) of the empty device received from the empty device search control unit 14.
The load command (MM) is issued based on D), and the device number information (V) of the empty device is sent from the empty device search control unit 14.
When D) is received, a loading command (MM) is issued to instruct which optical disk device in the autochanger the optical disk according to the optical disk usage request is loaded.

The magnetic disk I / O control unit 12 executes reading / writing from / to the magnetic disk device (DK) 2, and here, referring to the optical disk device information in the autochanger management file 21, the mounting of the optical disk device in the autochanger. The device number information (DN) indicating the number of units and the status information (VB) indicating the use / standby (whether empty) of each optical disc device are obtained.

The optical disk I / O control unit 13 executes reading / writing from / to the optical disk. Here, it receives a loading command (MM) from the optical disk loading control unit 11 and controls the optical disk autochanger 4 in accordance with the same command. Access control is performed on the designated optical disk device 41.

The free device search control unit 14 determines a search start device based on the random number (RN) generated by the random number generation unit 15, and the optical disc device information of the autochanger management file 21 is sequentially determined from the determined search start device. Find a free device.

The random number generator 15 generates a random number (RN) having a predetermined number of digits in response to an optical disk use request, and sends the random number (RN) to the free device search control unit 14 at the start of free device search processing. . FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the empty device search processing procedure of the optical disk loading mechanism in the above embodiment. S1 is a random number (R
N) is obtained, and the value of the random number data is indicated by r here.

S2 is a processing step for obtaining device number information (DN) from the optical disk device information of the autochanger management file 21 stored in the magnetic disk device (DK) 2, and the value is indicated by n here.

S3 is a processing step for determining the search start device, which is a random number (R
The value of N) is divided by the value of the number of devices information (DN) obtained from the optical disk device information, and the value obtained by adding "1" to the remainder is used as the search start device number information (VD). Here, the device number is indicated by m.

S4 to S6 are search start device number information (V
D) is a processing step of determining a device to be used by finding a free device with the device specified in D) as a search start device,
The search start device number information (VD) is searched for a vacant device in the device number order from the device having the device number. Here, the device number of the device to be searched is indicated by k. The operation of the embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS.

When a request for using an optical disk is generated and it becomes necessary to load the optical disk stored in the optical disk storage shelf into the optical disk device 41 in the autochanger 4,
The empty device search control unit 14 obtains a random number (RN) from the random number generation unit 15 (step S1 in FIG. 2), and from the optical disc device information of the autochanger management file 21, the device number information (D) indicating the number of devices in the autochanger.
N) is obtained (step S2 in FIG. 2). The vacant device search control unit 14 determines the vacant search start device from the obtained information (step S3 in FIG. 2).

Further, with this empty search start device as the first search target, the status information (VB), which is included in the optical disk device information and indicates the busy / standby (whether empty) of each optical disk device, is referred to, The search start device is searched first for an empty device, and the found empty device is set as a device to be loaded and the device number information (VD) is notified to the optical disc loading control unit 11 (steps S4 and S5 (S11 to S1 in FIG. 2).
3, S21, S22)).

The optical disk loading controller 11 specifies a device to be used according to the notified device number information (VD) and generates a loading command (MM) for loading an optical disk into the device,
This loading command (MM) is sent to the optical disk I / O control unit 13,
And to the optical disk autochanger 4 via the input / output controller (IOC) 3. According to the loading command (MM), the optical disc autochanger 4 takes out the designated optical disc stored in the optical disc storage shelf and loads it into the designated device. By such optical disc loading control, it is possible to eliminate the bias of the apparatus used and equalize it, and thereby prolong the life of the entire autochanger.

In the above embodiment, the optical disc loading control determines the search start device by using a random number. However, for example, the optical disc loading control means, for example, selects one free device and determines the used device by a random number. Even in this case, it is possible to eliminate the bias of the used devices and make them uniform.

Further, although the above-mentioned embodiment is the optical disc loading control mechanism using the random number, an optical disc loading control mechanism which eliminates the bias of the used devices and equalizes it can be realized without using the random number. As a specific example, the use count counter for each device is provided in the optical disk device information of the autochanger management file 21 on the magnetic disk device (DK) shown in FIG.
Every time the device is used, P) 1 updates and controls the usage counter of the device used.

Main Control Processor (MCP)
No. 1 refers to the value of the number-of-use counter of each device whenever an optical disc usage request is generated and the optical disc device 41 needs to be loaded with the optical disc stored in the optical disc storage rack in the autochanger 4. Then, a loading command (MM) is generated and sent to the optical disc autochanger 4 with the device having the smallest count value as the device to be used. At this time, when there are a plurality of devices having the minimum count value, the devices to be used are determined in a fixed order.

Even in the optical disc loading control using such a counter, it is possible to eliminate the bias of the used devices and equalize them, thereby extending the life of the entire autochanger. Incidentally, the distributed use of a plurality of devices by the optical disc loading control in each of the above-described embodiments can be applied to other various types of systems and the like.

[0029]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, since the n optical disk devices provided in the optical disk autochanger mechanism are used evenly and evenly, it is possible to construct an autochanger system with few failures. At the same time, it is possible to shorten the loading time of the optical disc from the optical disc storage shelf to the optical disc device, thereby improving the MTBF and constructing a highly reliable optical disc autochanger system, and increasing the throughput of the autochanger to improve the system performance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a free device search processing procedure of the optical disk loading mechanism in the above embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Main control processor (MCP), 2 ... Magnetic disk (DK), 3 ... Input / output controller (IO)
C), 4 ... Optical disc autochanger, 5 ... System bus, 11 ... Optical disc loading control unit, 12 ... Magnetic disc I / O control unit, 13 ... Optical disc I / O control unit, 14
... Empty optical disk device search controller, 15 ... Random number generator, 21 ... Autochanger management file, 41 ... Optical disk device.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A managing means for managing each optical disk device in the autochanger, a random number generating means for generating a random number when an optical disk is requested to be used, a random number generated by the random number generating means, and an optical disk device included in the managing means. An optical disc autochanger comprising: a control processing unit that determines a device to be used based on available information. 2. A management means for managing each optical disk device in the autochanger, a random number generating means for generating a random number when an optical disk is requested to be used, a random number generated by the random number generating means and the number of optical disk devices in the autochanger. Based on the information designating the optical disk device to start the search based on, and control processing means for determining the optical disk device to be used based on this information and the information of the optical disk device in the empty state obtained from the management means. An optical disc autochanger characterized by being provided. 3. A management means for managing the number of times of use of each optical disk device in the autochanger, a device selecting means for deciding an optical disk device to be used by referring to the management information when an optical disk usage request is made, and this device selecting means. An optical disc autochanger comprising: a control unit that updates information on the number of times the selected optical disc device has been used.