AU732128B2 - Method and apparatus for recording sound data on a storage disk - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Applicant(s): SONY CORPORATION Invention Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECORDING SOUND DATA ON A STORAGE DISK

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The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: la METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECORDING SOUND DATA ON A STORAGE

DISK

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a method an apparatus for recording sound data on a storage disk. The present application is a divisional application of Australian patent application no. 39169/95, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Conventionally, electronic musical instruments, game equipment and information processing devices, such as, personal computers, generate musical sounds and sound effects.

15 For generating the musical sounds or sound effects, signals like square wave signals, triangular wave signals and sine was signals are supplied to plural preset frequency dividers with different frequency division ratios and duty ratios, and the individual sound source signals outputted from the frequency dividers, that is, so-called voices, are synthesized at a desired level.

For musical instruments, such as, piano and drum, the entire sound portion of a sound is divided into four sections, that is, attack, decay, sustain and release 25 sections, so that the amplitude or the level of the signal in each section characteristically changes. To deal with the changes, so-called ADSR control is carried out to cause similar changes of the signal level of each voice.

In addition, for electronic musical instruments, a so-called FM sound source for frequency-modulating sine wave signals with H:\Cgowty\Keep\Nick\39169.95divisiona .p33243.doc 4/01/99 sine wave signals of low frequency is known. Thus, various sound signals can be generated by fewer sound source data with modulation factors used as temporal functions.

It is to be noted that noise may be used as a sound source of sound effects.

Meanwhile, for executing a game program with game equipment or an information processing device like a personal computer, the start, stop and sound volume of sound effects and background music (BGM) to be generated are changed in real time in accordance with proceedings of the game program or operations of the game equipment and information processing device by a user.

The sound information for sound effects or BGM is adaptive differential PCM (so-called ADPCM) data which is produced by compressing digitally recorded various 16-bit digital data, then performing bit rate reduction of 4 bits or BRR encoding, and blocking the resulting data. The ADPCM data is sound data for fundamental waveform. That is, the game equipment and the information processing device are provided with a so-called PCM sound source using the sound source data for generating musical intervals with the read-out cycle of the sound source data in response to indicated musical intervals.

The sound source data in a case where 4-bit ADPCM data is used as sound information will now be described in detail with reference to Fig. 6.

This sound source data is constituted on the basis of a block having 9 bytes composed of 8 horizontal bits and 9 vertical bits. The block is constituted by a 1-byte header information area HA consisting of additional information of the sound source data and an 8-byte sound data area SA consisting of 16 samples of sound source data or so-called sound data.

The header information area HA is constituted by 1-bit block 3 end information ED, 1-bit loop information LP, filter information FL used for decoding, and a 4-bit shift amount RA.

The block end information ED indicates whether the block is the last block of the sound source data or not. The loop information LP indicates whether the sound data of the block is to be looped or not. When 1 is raised for the loop information LP, the sound data is looped. When 0 is raised for the loop information LP, the data is not looped.

BRR encoding is performed when the sound source data for each block is generated. The filter information FL indicates information of a filter to be used for performing BRR decoding corresponding to BRR encoding. With this filter information FL, a fixed predictive filter which is optimum for each block, that is, a fixed predictive filter having least errors, is selected from plural fixed predictive filters.

The shift amount RA is a parameter for expanding a 4-bit value to a 16-bit value in BRR decoding.

•The sound data area SA includes 16 samples of sound data SDAOL to SD 8 3

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Meanwhile, since 1 block consists of 9 bytes in the :conventional sound source data, it requires complex BRR decoding.

Also, among optical discs employed for optically recording and reproducing data, a CD-ROM using a compact disc (CD) which is a read-only optical disc as a read-only memory has been recently used as a recording medium for recording sound source data.

Therefore, it is preferred that the sound source data is based on the standard of CD-ROM pictures and sound source data, that is, CD-ROM XA.

Although the sound source data in which 1 block consists of 9 bytes has a block length consisting of 16 samples of sound data, this block length is not based on the CD-ROM XA standard.

4 Therefore, the predictive filter employed for ERR encoding for generating the conventional sound source data differs from a predictive filter employed for ERR encoding for generating the sound source data based on the CD-ROM XA standard. In addition, since the predictive filter corresponding to ERR encoding is employed in performing ERR decoding of the sound source data, the predictive filter for the sound source data based on the CD-ROM XA standard cannot be used for decoding the conventional sound source data.

Further, since the loop information in the header information area of the sound source data simply indicates whether the sound data is to be looped or not, the control for looping of the sound source data becomes complex.

Meanwhile, when the sound output synthesized by the conventional PCM sound source is used for sound effects during a game program, the sound output is outputted in most cases with an overlap with musical tunes like BGM.. In this case, it is necessary to mix the sound output for the sound effects with the musical tunes like BGM for outputting. Since a sound signal outputted from other processing circuit than the PCM sound source is used as the sound signal to be mixed, mixing of the sound output with the sound signal is complex. Also, the circuit structure 25 therefor is enlarged.

According to one aspect, this invention provides an apparatus for recording sound data on a storage disk, S•said apparatus including first means for supplying music data and sound effect data, and second means for selectively recording said music data and said sound effected data on sectors of a storage disk so that said music data and said sound effect data are prevented from being recorded on the same sector, said second means including means for generating a header for each of said sectors identifying the recorded data as music data or sound effect data.

According to another aspect, this invention RH:\janel\Keep\speci\I3O05-99.doc 30/01/01 5 provides a method of recording sound data on a storage disk, said method including a first step of supplying music data and sound effect data, and a second step of selectively recording said music data and said sound effect data on sectors or a storage disk so that said music data and said sound effect data are prevented from being recorded on the same sector, said second step including a step of generating a header for each of said sectors identifying the recorded data as music data or sound effect data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a view schematically showing the structure of a sound output unit using a sound source data processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a view showing the structure of sound source data.

Fig. 3 is a view schematically showing the structure of a digital sound signal generator.

Fig. 4 is a view for illustrating filter information.

Fig. 5 is view schematically showing the structure of household game equipment.

Fig. 6 is a view showing the structure of the :conventional sound source data.

Fig. 7 is a view schematically showing the structure an apparatus for recording sound source data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is an illustration of the format of a recorded sector on a storage disk.

Fig. 9 is an illustration of the format of several recorded sectors in accordance with an embodiment the present invention.

O H:\janel\Keep\Speci\11305-99.doc 0/01/01 6 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the attached drawings. Fig. 1 schematically shows the structure of a sound output unit having a sound source data processing device for outputting sounds using sound source data generated by the sound source data generating method according to the present invention.

A CD-ROM drive 93 of Fig. 1 uses a CD-ROM as a recording medium. The CD-ROM employs a compact disc (CD) which is a readonly optical disc as a read-only memory among optical discs used for optically recording and reproducing data.

In Fig. 1, a central processing unit (CPU) 90 composed of a micro processor is connected to a bus 92. A main memory 91 used 15 by the CPU 90 for enclosing data therein, a CD-ROM decoder 80 for decoding data read out from the CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive 93, and a sound source data processing device 49 for generating sounds using sound data read out from the CD-ROM, are also connected to the bus 92. The sound source data processing device S 20 49 is constituted by a digital sound signal generator 50 for processing sound source data and a sound buffer 51 for enclosing Sthe sound source data. The digital sound signal generator 50 is o oo connected with a speaker unit 95 for outputting sounds to outside.

The sound data is read out from the CD-ROM drive 93 at a control command from the CPU 90, and is enclosed in a CD-ROM buffer 82 in the CD-ROM decoder 80. The sound data enclosed in the CD-ROM buffer 82 is fed to an error correction unit 81. The error correction unit 81 performs error correction of the data fed thereto.

The output of the error correction unit 81 is connected to a 7 header detector 100. The header detector detects the header of the data block, and operates a switch 102 accordingly. The switch 102 supplies the output of the error correction unit 81 either to a host I/F unit 85, or to an ADPCM decoder 83. If the header detected by the header detector 100 is for sound effects, then the switch 102 connects its output to the host I/F unit On the other hand, if the detected header is one for musical tunes, the switch 102 is operated the other way, to supply the output to the decoder 83.

The sound data includes sound data to be outputted as musical tunes in which musical sounds continue, such as, background music (BGM), and sound data for generating sounds like sound effects. Specifically, the sound data outputted as musical tunes among the error-corrected sound data is 4-bit ADPCM data 15 based on CD-ROM XA standard for CD-ROM sound data, and 16-bit PCM data based on CD-DA standard for sound data in the music CD. The sound source data for generating sounds like sound effects is the 4-bit ADPCM data.

The CPU 90 detects whether the sound data is the sound data to be outputted as musical tunes or the sound data for generating sounds like sound effects. The CPU 90 performs control such that the sound data outputted as musical tunes is fed to the decoder 83. The decoder 83 only decodes the ADPCM data, and outputs 16bit PCM data to a mixer 84. The mixer 84 mixes PCM data of left and right stereo channels, with the decrement amount digitally changed. The sound data outputted from the mixer 84 is entered to the digital sound signal generator On the other hand, the sound data for generating sounds like sound effects is entered to the digital sound signal generator 50'from a host interface 85 via the bus 92. Then, the sound data is stored in the sound buffer 51 by the digital 8 sound signal generator Fig. 2 shows the sound data stored in the sound buffer 51.

This sound data is constituted on the basis of a block consisting of 16 bytes of 16 horizontal bits and 8 vertical bits.

The block is constituted by a 2-byte sound parameter area PA as header information of the sound information of the sound source data, and a 14-byte sound data area SA consisting of 28 samples of sound information (sound data).

The sound parameter area PA consists of a 4-bit shift amount RA, 4-bit filter information FL, 3-bit loop information LP and reserved area RS.

The shift amount RA is a parameter for expanding the 4-bit value to a 16-bit value in BRR decoding. This shift amount RA takes values of 0 to 12, and is expressed by the following S" 15 equation (16-bit data) 2 12 R A (4-bit data) (1) BRR encoding is performed when the sound data based on the block is generated, and the filter information FL indicates information of a filter used for performing BRR decoding corresponding to BRR encoding. With this filter information FL, a predictive filter which is optimum for each block, that is, a predictive filter having least errors, is selected from plural predictive filters as later described.

The loop information LP has a 1-bit loop end flag EF, a loop flag LF and a loop start flag LSF sequentially from the side of less significant bits. The loop start flag LSF, when representing 1, indicates that the block is at the start of the loop. The loop flag LF indicates whether the sound source data has a loop or not. The loop flag LF, when representing 1, indicates that the sound source data has a loop. In the sound source data having a loop, bits of the loop flag LF of all the 9 blocks are set to 1. The loop end flag EF indicates that the block is the last block of the sound source data.

The sound data area SA includes 28 samples of sound data SDO to SD27.

The digital sound signal generator 50 outputs musical tunes and sound effects from the speaker unit 95 using the entered sound data and the sound source data in the sound buffer 51.

Fig. 3 schematically shows the structure of the digital sound signal generator, which will now be described in detail.

The digital sound signal generator as shown in this embodiment has a BRR decoder 53 for reading out the so-called sound source data which is the 4-bit ADPCM data of Fig. 2 from the sound buffer 51 and performing decoding corresponding to the encoding with reduced bit rate carried out on the ADPCM data to 15 convert the ADPCM data to PCM data. The digital sound signal O. generator also has a pitch conversion unit 54 for converting the pitch of the converted PCM data, a clock signal generator 55 for generating a clock signal, a noise generator 56 for generating a noise based on the resulting clock, a signal switching unit 57 20 for switching an output from the pitch conversion unit 54 and an output of the noise generator 56, an envelope generator 58 for adjusting the level of an output of the signal switching unit 57 to convert an envelope of a sound generated with the amplitude of its output waveform varied, a mute processing unit 59 for being turned off in muting, and left and right volume control units 60L, 60R for adjusting the sound volume and balance between left and right channels. With this digital sound signal generator, sounds using the sound source data are outputted.

Fig. 3 only shows the circuit structure for outputting one sound (one voice). However, the digital sound signal generator of this embodiment can also output sounds of 24 voices, and has 10 circuit structures from the pitch conversion unit 54 up to the volume control units 60L, 60R corresponding respectively to the 24 voices. Thus, with this digital sound signal generator, the left channel and the right channel of each voice are synthesized to output sounds of two channels, that is, the left and right channels.

Also, the sound source data stored in the sound buffer 51, the envelope, the sound volume and the balance of left and right channels may be set separately for each voice.

With this digital sound signal generator, it is possible to mix the sound signal fed from the CD-ROM decoder 80 of Fig. 1 with the sound output, and to perform so-called reverberation see.

processing of the sound output whereby the sound output is mixed with temporally preceding or succeeding sound outputs.

ooooo For mixing the sound signal appearing at terminal 63 with the generated sound output, the digital sound signal generator has a signal switching unit 64 for selecting whether the sound signal is to be entered and synthesized with the sound output or ooo "not, and a mixing volume control unit 65 for adjusting the sound volume of the sound signal to be mixed. Thus, when the sound signal is to be mixed with the sound output, the PCM data fed from the mixer 84 in the CD-ROM decoder 80 of Fig. 1 is entered at a signal input terminal 63 and is fed via the signal switching unit 64 to the mixing volume control unit 65. The mixing volume control unit 65 adjusts the sound volume of the sound signal fed thereto. The sound signal with its volume adjusted is fed to an adder 62 and is then mixed with the sound output from the volume control unit Fig. 3 only shows the circuit structure for mixing the sound output of the left channel synthesized with the 24 voices of sound outputs outputted from the volume 60L and the sound signal 11 of the left channel from the mixing volume 65. However, a circuit structure similar to that for the left channel is also provided for the right channel, and the mixing is carried out for the two channels, that is, the left and right channels.

With this digital sound signal generator, it is possible to perform so-called reverberation processing of the sound output whereby the sound output is mixed with temporally preceding or succeeding sound outputs.

For performing the reverberation processing, the digital sound signal generator has a signal switching unit 66 for switching whether the sound signal is to be used for the .00* reverberation processing or not, an adder 67 for adding the sound signal from the signal switching unit 66 to the sound output outputted via a signal switching unit 61L, a reverberation S 15 processor 68 for performing reverberation using the sound signal from the adder 67, a reverberation volume control unit 69 for adjusting the sound volume of the reverberated sound signal, an adder 70 for mixing the output with its volume adjusted by the reverberation volume 69 and temporally preceding or succeeding sound outputs outputted from the adder 62, and a master volume control unit 71 for adjusting the sound volume of the sound signal outputted from the adder 70. Thus, the sound signal from the mixing volume control unit 65 is used as the sound to be mixed with the sound output.

The sound signal outputted from the adder 67 is entered to the reverberation processor 68 where it is temporally shifted forward or backward and is fed to-the reverberation volume control unit 69. The reverberation volume control unit 69 adjusts the sound volume of the sound signal fed thereto. The sound signal with its volume adjusted is fed to the adder where it is synthesized with the sound signal from the adder 62.

12 The processing operation of the sound source data as shown in Fig. 2 in the digital sound signal generator will now be described.

The CPU 90 of Fig. 1 picks out selection information indicating the sound source data of the sound to be outputted, length information of the sound, interval information of the sound, envelope information for determining the color of the sound, and volume information of the sound from the main memory 91, and feeds these information to the digital sound signal generator 50. The digital sound signal generator reads out sound source data from the sound buffer 51 on the basis of the selection information fed thereto, and enters the sound source

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data from a sound source data input terminal 52. The digital "sound signal generator also controls the input of the sound source data from the sound buffer 51 on the basis of the length information of the sound from the CPU The sound source data thus entered is fed to the BRR decoder 53 where it is decoded, and is converted to 16-bit PCM data. The **oo: decoding by the BRR decoder 53 is carried out on 4 samples at the maximum for ITs with respect to each voice. The decoding result is temporarily stored in an internal memory, not shown. The stored data are used for arithmetic operation for pitch conversion by the pitch conversion unit 54, and the rate of BRR decoding is determined in accordance with the amount of consumed data. Specifically, as less data is consumed in pitch conversion, BRR decoding is performed less frequently.

The filter information FL in the sound parameter area PA of the sound source data of Fig. 2 will now be described with reference to Fig. 4.

As shown in Fig. 4, one of four types of predictive filters, that is, straight, first-order, second-order (Level B) and 13 second-order (Level is selected in accordance with the value indicated by the filter information FL. Coefficients a and b are determined by the value of the filter information FL.

Predictive filters selected in accordance with values of 2 and 3 of the filter information FL are used for decoding the 4bit ADPCM data based on the CD-ROM XA standard. These predictive filters may be used when the sound data as shown in Fig. 2 is the 4-bit ADPCM data.

The decoding result Xn (16-bit data) of a current sample is expressed by the following equation (2) X 2 12 A D, aXn,. (2) where D n denotes the 4-bit sound source data, Xn.1 (16-bit data) denotes the decoding result one sample before, and Xn (16-bit 0:000: data) denotes the decoding result two samples before.

0 6 15 The PCM data outputted from the BRR decoder 53 is entered to the pitch conversion unit 54. The pitch conversion unit 54 9o carries out arithmetic operation for pitch conversion based on the interval information of the sound from the CPU 90, to convert a" the interval, that is, the pitch of the sound generated by the 20 entered PCM data. The sound data with its pitch converted is fed to a terminal 57a in the signal switching unit 57.

On the other hand, the clock signal generated by the clock signal generator 55 is fed to the noise generator 56 to generate a noise. The noise generator 56 is to generate a noise based on, for example, an M-series pseudo-random number. The resulting noise is fed to a terminal 57b in the signal switching unit 57.

The digital sound signal generator switches the signal switching unit 57 to the terminals 57a or 57b on the basis of the control command by the CPU 90 of Fig. 1, so that the sound data from the pitch conversion unit 54 or the noise from the noise generator 56 is selected and outputted to the envelope generator 14 58.

The envelope generator 58 performs so-called ADSR control based on the envelope information from the CPU 90, to determine the color of the sound to be outputted.

The sound data for the left channel and the sound data for the right channel of the output from the envelope generator 58 are fed via the signal switching unit 59 to the volume control unit 60L and the volume control unit 60R, respectively. The volume control units 60L, 60R adjust the sound volume on the 10 basis of the volume information from the CPU 90, to output the oo sound output.

Thus, the 24 voices of sounds are generated and outputted ooooo respectively. The left and right channels of each voice are synthesized so that the sound output for two channels, that is, 15 the left and right channels, is generated.

The sound output for the two channels (the left and right channels) is mixed with the sound signal outputted from the mixing volume 65 by the adder 62, and is then further mixed with the sound signal outputted from the reverberation volume control S: 20 unit 69 by the adder 70, as described above. This mixed sound output has the volume of its sound to be outputted adjusted by the master volume control unit 71, and is then outputted from the sound signal output terminal 72. Thus, sounds are generated from the speaker unit 95 of Fig. i.

The digital sound signal processing device as described above is preferably adapted for the household game equipment or the like. An embodiment of a household game equipment employing the digital sound signal processing device will now be described with reference to Fig. 5, which schematically shows the structure of the equipment.

The household game equipment is constituted by connecting to a bus 31 plural processors and devices for realizing various functions in a main system including a CPU 11 and a peripheral device 12, a graphic system, a sound system, a CD-ROM system and a communication system.

The CPU 11 defining the basic part of the main system is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) CPU. The peripheral device 12 includes plural controllers, such as, DMA, timer and interrupt. A main memory 13 with a capacity of 2 MBytes, a ROM 14 having a capacity of 512 KBytes with an 10 operating system (OS) program enclosed therein for controlling the operation of the CPU 11 and the peripheral device 12 to control the household game equipment, a PIO 29 as an input/output part of parallel communications, and an SIO 30 as an input/output part of serial communications are also 15 connected to the bus 31.

o• When the power of the household game equipment is turned on, the CPU 11 executes the OS in the ROM 14 to initialize the entire [e"device. At a control command by the CPU 11, an application program, that is, a game program or picture or sound data loaded 20 in a CD-ROM drive 25 of the CD-ROM system is read out.

ooooo Specifically, the picture data recorded in the CD-ROM includes picture data of a motion picture or a still picture which has been orthogonally transformed by discrete cosine transform (DCT) and compressed, and picture data of a texture picture for modifying a polygon. As the picture data of a motion picture or a still picture, data compressed on the basis of the standard of Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) as an international standard for compression of still picture data, and data compressed only by intra-frame encoding on the basis of the standard of Moving Picture Image Coding Experts Group (MPEG) as an international standard for compression of motion pictures, are 16employed. The game program from the CD-ROM includes a polygon drawing command for drawing a minute polygonal area or a polygon.

The sound data recorded in the CD-ROM includes 16-bit PCM data based on the CD-DA standard for sound data in music CDs, and adaptive differential PCM (so-called ADPCM) data based on the CD- ROM XA standard for CD-ROM picture and sound data.

The data read out from the CD-ROM is enclosed in the CD-ROM buffer 24, and is then decoded by a CD-ROM decoder 23. The resulting data is fed to the main system, the graphics system or 1 0 the sound system in accordance with the content of the data.

The graphics system is constituted by a geometry transfer engine (GTE) 15 as a graphics data generating processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU) 16 as a graphics drawing *processor, a frame buffer 17 with a capacity of 1 MBytes used for 15 generating a picture by the GPU 16, a motion decoder (MDEC) 19 as a picture data expanding engine, and a video output unit 18, such as, a CRT display unit or a liquid crystal display (LCD) •ego unit.

The GTE 15, used as a co-processor of the CPU 11, carries 20 out, at a high speed, coordinate conversion or light source calculation for a polygon expressing a three-dimensional object in a picture, for example, calculation of a matrix or a vector in fixed decimal mode, with a parallel processing mechanism when the CPU 11 generates the. drawing command or the control command.

The GPU 16, operative in accordance with the polygon drawing command from the CPU 11, draws a polygon in the frame buffer 17 mapped in a two-dimensional address space independent of the CPU 11. The GPU 16 performs flat shading in which a polygon is drawn in the same color, gouraud shading in which an arbitrary color is designated for each vertex of the polygon to find the color within the polygon, and texture mapping in which a texture as 17 two-dimensional image data is applied to the polygon.

Specifically, when the flat shading is carried out in which a polygon of triangle is drawn in the same color, the GTE 15 can perform coordinate calculation of approximately 1.5 million polygons per second at the maximum. When the gouraud shading or the texture mapping is carried out, the GTE 15 can perform coordinate calculation of approximately 5 hundred thousand polygons per second at the maximum. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the load on the CPU 11 and to carry out high-speed 10 coordinate calculation.

The frame buffer 17 is constituted by a so-called dual port RAM of 16 bits, which is a rectangular area of 512 vertical pixels and 1024 horizontal pixels. The frame buffer 17 is used for drawing of pictures by the GPU 16 and enclosure of data 15 transferred from the main memory 13. The drawing by the GPU 16 or the data transfer from the main memory 13, and reading of picture data are carried out simultaneously. In the frame buffer 17, a texture area in which a texture pattern is enclosed and a CLUT area in which a color lookup table (CLUT) used as a color pallet is enclosed. The texture pattern and the CLUT data are read out from the CD-ROM drive 25 under the control by the CPU 11, then transferred via the GPU 16 to the frame buffer 17, and enclosed therein. The CLUT data may also be generated by the GPU 16.

Accordingly, the GPU 16 draws the polygon using the coordinate and color information found by the GTE 15, and applies the texture to the polygon so as to produce a three-dimensional (3D) picture. The resulting picture data is outputted as a picture signal to the video output unit 18, so that the threedimensional (3D) picture is displayed.

When a motion picture is to be displayed, two rectangular 18 areas are provided on the frame buffer 17, and the two rectangular areas are used alternately for drawing and for picture display so that a frame picture is drawn in one of the rectangular areas with data of a frame picture drawn in advance in the other rectangular area being outputted to the video output unit 18 to display the picture. Thus, a state of picture rewriting is prevented from being displayed on the video output' unit 18.

The MDEC 19, used for reproducing picture data read out from 1 0 the CD-ROM 25, carries out parallel operation using the main memory 13 in common with the CPU 11. The data for motion pictures read out from the CD-ROM drive 25 is error-corrected by the CD-ROM decoder 23 and is fed to the MDEC 19. The MDEC 19 decodes the data fed thereto. The decoded data is then fed as, o 15 motion picture data to the main memory 13. The motion picture data fed to the main memory 13 is enclosed in the frame buffer 17 via the GPU 16, and is then outputted as a picture signal to the video output unit 18 so that the motion picture is displayed.

The sound system is constituted by a sound processing unit 20 or so-called SPU 20 as a sound reproducing processor, a sound buffer 21 of 512 KBytes used for the SPU 20 to reproduce sound signals, and a sound output unit 22, such as, a speaker unit.

The SPU 20 has an ADPCM decoding function to reproduce sound data produced by performing ADPCM of 16-bit sound data to a 4-bit differential signal, a reproducing function to reproduce sound source data stored in the sound buffer 21 to generate sound effects, and a modulating function to modulate the sound source data for reproduction.

Sound data used for background music (BGM) and sound source data used for generating sound effects are recorded in the CD- ROM. These data are read out from the CD-ROM drive 25 and error- 19 corrected by the CD-ROM decoder 23 under the control of the CPU 11.

The sound data used for BGM is fed from the CD-ROM decoder 23 to the SPU 20 under the control of the CPU 11, and then is outputted as musical tunes from the sound output unit 22 by the SPU 20. The sound source data used for sound effects is enclosed in the sound buffer 21 under the control of the CPU 11. The SPU generates musical sounds and sound effects based on the sound source data stored in the sound buffer 21. Thus, SPU 20 is a 10 so-called sampling sound source.

The communication system is constituted by a controller 27 as an input device or an input pad, a memory card 28 of 1 MBytes, and a communication device 26 as a synchronization serial port.

The controller 27 has a key for entering an instruction for 15 controlling the proceedings of a game and the motion of an object displayed in the game. The operation information entered from the controller 27 is fed to the communication device 26. The information fed to the communication device 26 is read out by the CPU 11 approximately every 1/60 second. The CPU 11 sends the control command for controlling the operations of the peripheral device 12, the main memory 13, the graphics system, the sound system, and the CD-ROM system, to control the operations of these systems. Thus, pictures corresponding to the entered operation information is displayed and sounds are outputted.

The memory card 28 is constituted by a non-volatile memory like a flush memory, and is used for enclosing and holding the setting, states of proceedings and results of plural games.

Since the memory card 28 is separated from the bus 31, the memory card 28 can be attached or detached with the power on. Thus, it is possible to attach and detach plural memory cards during the operation of the household game equipment so as to store data.

20 The game equipment may be connected to the peripheral device via the PIO 29. The game equipment may also have communications with other game equipment via the SIO In the household game equipment, it is necessary to transfer a large amount of picture data at a high speed between the main memory 13, the GPU 16, the MDEC 19 and the CD-ROM decoder 23 when reading of the game program, display of the picture data or drawing of the picture data is to be carried out. In this case, so-called DMA transfer is carried out in which the picture data is directly transferred under the control of the peripheral device 12, not via the CPU 11. Thus, the load on the CPU 11 due to data transfer is reduced, and high-speed data transfer is carried out.

Fig. 7 is an illustration for an apparatus for recording the storage disk with information required by the present invention.

Fig. 8 illustrates a typical sector as recorded on the storage disk. The sector starts with 12-bytes of sync information, followed by a 12-byte header indicating the type of sector. This is followed by 2,048 bytes of user data, after which 4-bytes are devoted to EDC, and 276bytes for ECC for error correction.

Fig. 9 illustrates how a plurality of sectors are recorded successively on the storage disk with the user data representing either music data, or else graphic and/or sound effect or other data. Fig. 9 illustrates 5 sectors, in which the first and fifth sectors are devoted t music data, with the other sectors devoted to data of other types.

,oo Fig. 7 illustrates apparatus for arranging and recording the data in the sectors as shown in Fig. 9. An analog input is applied to input terminal 103, and converted to digital form by an analog to digital converter 104. The output of the analog to digital converter is connected to an input device 105, and to a BRR encoder 106.

H:\janel\Keep\Speci\11305-99.doc 30/01/01 21 The BRR encoder 106 encodes both sound effect data and music data into the same format constituting blocks of 14byte sound data each consisting of 28 samples of 4-bit adaptive differential PCM data. BRR encoder 106 supplies its output to two groups of switches 108 and 110. Each group has a switch for a filter information, range information, and other data, and if the switch 108 is closed, this data is supplied to a H:\janel\Keep\Speci\11305-99.doc 30101/01 PAGES 22 TO 23 ARE INTENTIONALLY BLANK H:\janel\Keep\Speci\1 1305-99.d.oc 30101/01 24 header generator 112 and to a data block generator 114.

The input device 105 'determines which of the switches 108 or 110 is to be operated, in accordance with whether the data is music data or sound effect data. If the switch 108 is selected, the input device 105 also supplies looping information to the header generator 112.

The header generator 112 and the data block generator 114 both supply outputs to an SPU effective sound packer of 116, which supplies its output to a sector processor 118 for recording on a master disk 126. A sync generator 120 is also connected to the sector processor 118, for supplying the necessary synchronization signals.

Another input to the sector processor 118 is derived from a o switch 122, which is adapted to select either sound information 15 from the input device 105, or graphic data from a graphic data source 124.

When the switch 110 is selected, the outputs of the switch 110 are supplied to a data block generator 128 and a header generator 130, and those units produce signals connected to the 20 XA type music packer 132. Its output is connected to the sector processor 118. A further input of the sector processor 118 is derived from an ECC/EDC generator 134, which supplies the required ECC and EDC signals for error correction and the like.

By use of the apparatus in Fig. 7, the sectors on the master disk 126 can be recorded in the format illustrated in Fig. 9. It is apparent that various modifications and additions may be made in the apparatus and method of the present invention without departing from the central features of novelty thereof, which are intended to be defined and secured by the appended claims.

25 It is to be understood that, if any prior art publication is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the publication forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or in any other country.

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Claims (5)

1. 2. The apparatus according to claim i, further including encode means for encoding said music data and said sound effect data into 4-bit adaptive differential PCM code, wherein said second means selectively records said encoded music data and said encoded sound effect data on the sectors of the storage disk.
2. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said second means includes means for judging whether the supplied data is music data or sound effect data, and means for performing switching between music data and sound o: 25 effect data depending on a result of judgment performed by judging means. S4. A method of recording sound data on a storage *oodisk, said method including a first step of supplying music 30 data and sound effect data, and a second step of selectively recording said music data and said sound effect data on sectors or a storage disk so that said music data and said sound effect data are prevented from being :oo: recorded on the same sector, said second step including a S* 35 step of generating a header for each of said sectors identifying the recorded data as music data or sound effect data. H:\janel\Keep\Speci\113O5-99.doc 30/01/01 27 The method according to claim 4, further including a step of encoding said music data and said sound effect data into 4-bit adaptive differential PCM code, wherein said second step selectively records said encoded music data and said encoded sound effect data on the sectors of the storage disk.
3. 6. The method according to claim 4, wherein said second step includes a step of judging whether the supplied data is music data or sound effect data, and a step of performing switching between music data and sound effect data depending on a result of judgment performed at said judging step.
4. 7. An apparatus for recording sound data on a storage disk, substantially as herein described with reference to figures 1-5 and 7-9.
5. 8. A method of recording sound data on a storage disk, substantially as herein described with reference to figures 1-5 and 7-9. Dated this 30th day of January 2001 S..SONY CORPORATION By their Patent Attorneys GRIFFITH HACK Fellows Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia eeoc H:\janel\Keep\Speci\11305-99.doc 30/01101