JP2009110658A - Data recording unit - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently record and reproduce continuous high-rate data to/from a disk-shaped recording medium. <P>SOLUTION: A data recording unit includes a large-capacity disk recording medium which is divided into a first area for recording the continuous data, a second area for recording non-continuous data, and a third area for recording data management information of the data to perform recording of the continuous data at high speed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a data recording apparatus that requires continuous and high-speed data transfer to a recording medium.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, consumer data recording apparatuses that convert video and audio signals into continuous digital data and record the data on a hard disk in a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) or a magnetic tape such as a digital VTR have been provided. In particular, in the hard disk, taking advantage of the advantages that the data can be accessed in a random manner and that the data to be handled is a digital signal and the video and audio signals are repeatedly edited and copied, the deterioration is small. Digital editing of video and audio using a hard disk is performed.

Further, for the purpose of improving the quality of the video and audio signals to be handled, digital coding means such as Moving Picture Experts Group 2 (hereinafter referred to as MPEG2) or Motion Joint is used.
Photographi coding Expert Groupe (hereinafter referred to as MJPEG) coding means is in use. With the improvement of the quality of such video and audio signals, it is necessary to increase the amount of data to be handled and increase the amount of data to be transferred per second. In order to satisfy these specifications, for example, a hard disk of high-spec type with a storage capacity of 25 GB, a PC-hard disk interface transfer speed of 33 MB / s, and a disk rotation speed of 10,000 rpm is a product. Has been used in some high-end markets.

  As for a method of reading and writing a relatively large data file from the hard disk, there is a data reading method that includes a memory means and performs access sector numbers in ascending order or descending order for the purpose of minimizing a data file read seek operation. For example, it is disclosed in Patent Document 1.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-63432

  However, the above-mentioned known example has a large-capacity memory means and is effective for batch reading of relatively large data files, but does not describe access to the data files arbitrarily. Further, in the known example, a large-capacity memory means is essential, and the control is complicated and expensive.

In addition, in order to perform high-quality digital editing of the video signal and the audio signal as described above, for example, using MPEG2 or MJPEG, the speed for continuously compensating recording or reproduction on a recording medium (hereinafter referred to as a "sustained rate"). Is important.
For the sake of explanation, the recording medium will be described using a hard disk, but is not limited to the hard disk.

  The transfer speed currently described in the specifications of the hard disk is the maximum transfer speed of the hard disk interface portion and the PC interface, and has an ability of a transfer rate of 33 MB / s, for example. However, the sustain rate is determined by the recording density of the hard disk, the rotational speed of the disk, and the seek speed of the head, and is, for example, about 12 to 7 MB / S for a low-end hard disk. Furthermore, since the hard disk is distributed in units of recording blocks (hereinafter referred to as sectors) of the hard disk by the file management software in the PC and the file management is performed in pieces, the file deletion and file addition are repeated. In this case, discontinuous empty sectors are scattered. Accordingly, when the continuous data is recorded on the hard disk, the recording is performed while sequentially performing the seek operation of the head of the hard disk to the scattered empty logical sectors. Therefore, the sustain rate is further lowered and continuously increased. Data cannot be recorded. The high-end hard disk is expensive and not practical.

  The PC is managed by file management software or operation system software (hereinafter referred to as OS) for managing data files on the hard disk. Therefore, there is an upper limit of the hard disk capacity handled on the PC by the file management software or OS, or a limit on the number of additional hard disks. For example, when the file management software conforms to FAT16, there is a limitation of 2 GB per single partition and 26 additional hard disks, and the upper limit of the hard disk maximum recording capacity is 52 GB even with simple calculation. Therefore, for example, it is impossible to record the data on a 100 GB hard disk.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and ensures a sustained rate of the disk-shaped recording medium, eliminates the upper limit of the hard disk recording capacity, and eliminates the upper limit of the number of connected devices, and is continuous at a high rate. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data recording apparatus provided with a recording method for a disk-shaped recording medium suitable for recording recorded data.

  In order to solve the above problems, the data recording apparatus of the present invention is configured as follows.

Input means for inputting data from the outside, and recording means for recording the data on a recording medium, wherein the recording means has discontinuous data in the first area of the recording medium when the input data is continuous data. In this case, the recording is divided into the second area of the recording medium. Furthermore, the recording means records management information of data recorded in the first area or the second area in a third area of the recording medium.

  Each of the first area and the second area of the recording medium is composed of a plurality of recording blocks, and the recording means sequentially transfers the continuous data to the recording blocks arranged continuously in the first area. To record.

  A disk-shaped recording medium is used as the recording medium, each area of the recording medium is divided in the radial direction, and the first area is arranged on the outermost peripheral side of the disk-shaped recording medium. .

  Copying means for copying data recorded in the first area to the second area is provided. The recording / copying means copies the data recorded in the first area to the second area in parallel with the operation in which the recording means records in the first area.

  The recording means includes recording block setting means for setting a plurality of recording blocks on the recording medium, and sequentially records the continuous data in recording blocks arranged continuously in a first area of the recording medium. The number of the recording block in the first area where the continuous data is recorded is recorded in the third area.

  Means for detecting a defective recording block of the recording medium, and the recording means records the number of the defective recording block in the third area and records the continuous data in the first area; The defective recording block is jumped and recorded. And a means for detecting a defective recording track from concentric tracks of the disk-shaped recording medium, wherein the recording means records the number of the defective recording track in the third area and the continuous data. When recording in the first area, the defective recording track is jumped and recorded.

  A buffer means for storing the continuous data; and a buffer capacity detecting means for detecting that a predetermined amount of data has been stored in the buffer means, wherein the recording means is configured based on a result of the buffer capacity detecting means. The continuous data is recorded in a plurality of recording blocks arranged in concentric tracks on a disk-shaped recording medium.

  Means for expanding and connecting a plurality of recording media in addition to the recording medium; means for securing the first area and / or the second area in the additional connected recording medium; the first area; It is assumed that there is provided means for setting the area size of the area to an arbitrary size.

  The continuous data is video and / or audio data, and includes a means for recording one frame of video in at least the recording block of the recording medium with digitally compressed data of the video signal and / or audio signal.

  The disk-shaped recording medium is configured to record using an annular recording medium such as a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a phase change optical disk.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the hard disk includes a sequential sequential recording area suitable for continuous data recording, a random recording area suitable for discontinuous data recording, a logical sector number serving as a marking in each of the areas, and a connected logical sector number. In addition, by dividing the file information into areas for recording file information, the effect of being able to record continuous data at a high rate on a hard disk in linkage with data managed by a conventional PC is great.

  Further, the sequential recording area and the random recording area can be reproduced at random, and the intended reproduction data can be reproduced immediately. It is possible to endlessly record the sequential recording area and copy the data of the endless recording area to another area in parallel with the recording operation, and a single data recording apparatus can handle a plurality of data simultaneously. The effect is great.

  Further, since the first area of the hard disk suitable for continuous data recording can be expanded, and the first area is an area not directly related to file management software or OS software, the number of additional hard disks can be increased. It is possible to add to the advantage that there is no upper limit, and that there is no upper limit for the capacity per hard disk. This is particularly suitable for data recording such as surveillance cameras that require long-term AV data recording. For example, by connecting four 25 GB hard disks, 2 frames / second of video can be recorded for one month. The effect that can be done is great.

  Furthermore, the means for detecting a defective sector of the hard disk and the means for storing and recognizing the defective sector number can skip the defective sector and record continuous data. Further, even in a defective sector, the same recording as the sector located before the defective sector is performed, and the control of not temporarily stopping the recording operation has a great effect of improving the data throughput. Furthermore, a means for recognizing a cylinder number including the defective sector is provided, and by continuously recording data by omitting the cylinder number, a cylinder unit which is a data recording unit to the hard disk can be maintained. The effect of improving the throughput is great.

  Further, by using continuous data as video signals and / or audio signals as data using digital compression codes, continuous recording and random reproduction of video and / or audio is possible and high-quality recording can be performed. Furthermore, since the recording data and the reproduction data can be processed in parallel, the video signal and / or the audio signal can be reproduced without stopping the recording operation of the video signal and / or the audio signal.

  Advantages of the disk-shaped recording medium are that random access is possible and that the recording / reproducing data rate for the disk-shaped recording medium is as high as several MB / s. Currently, a hard disk built in a PC or the like mainly repeats writing and reading of data or files once, and the fragmentation problem of the hard disk is not a major obstacle. To explain an example of a fragment, for example, it is assumed that 1000 files of 32 Kbytes are written on the hard disk, and then 300 files and 960 Kbytes in terms of capacity are randomly erased. That is, in this state, the hard disk is scattered with discontinuous free areas. Subsequently, when another one file of 960 Kbytes is recorded on the hard disk, the file management program running on the PC is distributed over the scattered free space and the one file is 960 Kbytes. Will be recorded. Accordingly, the search, recording, and verifying operations of the dispersed free areas are sequentially repeated on the hard disk, and the decrease in the throughput of the hard disk becomes conspicuous.

  Even if the above-mentioned fragment occurs in a single short file or data handled by a PC or data to be recorded / reproduced on a hard disk, or application software, it has not been a big problem. Is converted into digital data, and large-capacity and continuous data is recorded and reproduced on the hard disk, the file management method used on a conventional PC increases the overhead of the hard disk, and the data throughput (hereinafter referred to as data throughput) It is impossible to secure (sustained rate). For example, when the AV signal data is an MJPEG stream, a sustain rate of about 10 Mbps is required. It is also possible to handle a plurality of data, and further sustain rates higher than the above will be required in the future.

Therefore, the present invention proposes a recording method for ensuring the sustain rate of the hard disk, and hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a disk recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a disk-shaped recording medium. In the following embodiment, a hard disk will be described as an example. However, the disk-shaped recording medium is not limited to a hard disk. 2 is a recording / reproducing head of the hard disk, 3 is an RD / WR signal processing unit for recording / reproducing to / from the hard disk, and 4 is a spindle motor (hereinafter referred to as SPM) for rotating the hard disk.
5 is an SPM drive unit for driving the SPM, 6 is a voice coil motor (hereinafter referred to as VCM), 7 is a VCM drive unit, 8 is a drive system control unit, 9 is a Disk interface unit, and 10 is a Disk. It is a mechanism part. Also, 11 is a digital stream input terminal, 12 is a digital input processing unit, 13 is a WR buffer unit for temporarily storing recording data, 14 is a Disk I / O protocol unit, 15 is a digital output processing unit, and 16 is a reproduction data stream. RD buffer for temporarily storing, 17 a digital output terminal, 18 an operation unit, 19 a disk central control unit, 20 a hard disk logical sector control unit, 21 a hard disk physical sector control unit, 22 a file management unit, 23 A file area securing unit, 24 is a file management table, 25 is a continuous sector control unit, 26 is a continuous sector area securing unit, and 27 is a sector number management table.

  Data input from the input terminal 11 is input to the digital input processing unit 12. In order to explain the operation of the present invention, the following data will be described by taking as an example the case of continuous data requiring a high transfer rate, for example, data obtained by digitizing the AV signal and subjected to, for example, MJPEG image compression. However, the image compression means is not limited to MJPEG.

  In the digital input processing unit 12, the input data is added with delimiter information for each frame of video (hereinafter referred to as a frame), divided into data blocks of a predetermined size, and temporarily stored in the WR buffer unit 13. The WR buffer unit 13 is composed of, for example, a semiconductor memory and operates to sequentially store data input from the digital input processing unit. When the data stored in the WR buffer unit reaches a predetermined capacity, the data is sequentially input to the Disk I / O protocol unit via the digital input processing unit.

In the Disk I / O protocol section, a data protocol conforming to the IDE interface used in the hard disk will be described below for the explanation of the operation of the present invention. Standard, USB standard, IEEE1
The present invention may be configured using the 394 standard or the like.

  The disk I / O protocol unit transfers the data every 512 bytes in units of the minimum recording block (hereinafter referred to as sector) of the hard disk and inputs it to the disk interface unit 9 while performing handshaking with the hard disk.

  Here, the mechanism unit 10 of the hard disk will be described. A hard disk is made of a plurality of magnetically vapor-deposited glass disks 1 which are driven to rotate on the same axis of SPM. The head is moved in the radial direction of the disk by the VCM 6 and records or reproduces data in sectors arranged concentrically.

The SPM 4 is controlled by the SPM drive unit 5 for rotational speed control, and the VCM 6 is driven by the VCM drive unit 7 for positioning control in the radial direction corresponding to the recording sector position. Further, the drive control of the VCM drive unit 7 and the SPB drive unit 5 is performed by the drive system control unit 8. Further, the drive system control unit 8 is controlled based on the recording position information from the disk interface unit 9. In the RD / WR signal processing section, a data demodulating process and a data error error correcting process for recording and reproducing data on the disk via the head 2 are performed.

  Next, the sectors arranged concentrically on the plurality of disks will be described. Here, for the sake of explanation, a hard disk having a storage capacity of 6.4 GB per unit will be described as an example.

Eight of the above-described logical disks 1 are mounted (one of which is one-side recording / reproducing), and a total of fifteen logical recording / reproducing heads (hereinafter referred to as heads) 1 are concentric per one side of the disk. The above-mentioned hard disk having 13320 logical sector groups (hereinafter referred to as logical cylinders), 63 logical sectors in one cylinder, and 512 bytes of recording capacity per sector, The storage capacity is calculated.

512Byte × 63Secter × 13320Cyrinder × 15Head = 6444748800Byte (Formula 1)
The number of sectors of the entire hard disk is calculated by (Equation 2).

63Secter × 13320Cylinder × 15Head = 12587400Secter (Formula 2)
The logical sector number is uniquely determined by determining any of the three items of any one of the head numbers 1 to 15, any of the cylinder numbers 0 to 13319, and any of the sector numbers 1 to 63. Specify the head number, cylinder number, and sector number as described above, call the target sector to access the target sector as the physical sector, number all sectors in the above equation 2 consecutively, and treat the sector as a continuous sector. This is called a logical sector. The logical sectors can be numbered freely on the disk. For example, the number of movements of the head 2 is minimized by numbering the disk surface 15 so as to be used in parallel from the outer periphery. There is a logical sector numbering means that can be switched and accessed. Here, logical sector number is LSN, sector number is SEN, cylinder number is CYN,
When the head number is HEN, the number of sectors in the cylinder is SPT, and the total number of heads is NOS, the logical sector number is calculated by equation (3).

LSN = SPT × (HEN + NOS × CYN) + SEN-1 (Formula 3)
The numbering of the logical sectors is particularly suitable for recording / reproducing continuous data. The above (Equation 3) is the numbering of the logical sectors for the entire disk in the hard disk, but the logical sectors may be numbered for a specific disk, or multiple numbers of the logical sectors may be numbered. It may be prepared and is not limited to the above (Formula 3).

Data read from the hard disk is input to the Disk I / O protocol unit via the Disk interface according to the Disk I / O protocol. In the digital output processing unit 15, the read data is divided into data blocks having a predetermined size length based on the delimiter information and temporarily stored in the RD buffer unit 16. The RD buffer unit 16 is composed of, for example, a semiconductor memory, and operates to sequentially store read data. Each time the data stored in the RD buffer unit reaches a predetermined capacity, the data is output from the digital output terminal 17.

  The minimum unit of recording or reproduction of the hard disk is every sector (for example, 512 bytes). However, if the continuous data is stored in the WR buffer for each sector and recording is performed for each sector of the hard disk using the Disk I / O protocol, the head number, cylinder number, sector number for the target sector is determined. And the overhead due to the head seek at the rear 10 of the disk machine become too large, which is inconvenient for continuous data access. Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to maintain the maximum sustain rate of the hard disk, the hard disk is recorded and reproduced with a data size suitable for continuous data.

  In the present embodiment, continuous data is recorded and reproduced with respect to the hard disk in units of cylinders. By accessing the hard disk in units of cylinders, the overhead of waiting for disk rotation when accessing a single sector can be absorbed, and only the overhead of moving the head in the radial direction of the disk can be reduced. Further, when the data is increased in rate (for example, 10 Mbps or more), control is performed so that a plurality of cylinders are collectively recorded and reproduced. With the above configuration, the throughput of the hard disk can be maintained to the maximum.

  Further, in this embodiment, the storage capacity of at least the RD buffer and the WR buffer is configured to have a capacity of a cylinder unit for accessing the hard disk or more than the capacity. For example, when the hard disk capacity is 6.4 GB, assuming that the number of sectors in a cylinder is 63 sectors and the cylinder unit for accessing the hard disk is 30 cylinders, a 967680 byte RD buffer and a WR buffer are provided. Become. Actually, the fractional memory rarely exists, and a 1 Mbyte memory is provided.

Next, the hard disk area division most important in the present invention will be described below. As described above, the hard disk is written and discontinuously written in a plurality of logical sectors (for example, 4 sectors as one block, hereinafter referred to as a cluster) by the file management software operating on the PC, and the cluster is eventually The fragment ratio as a unit increases and the sustain rate of the hard disk decreases. To record continuously at the maximum sustained rate of the hard disk, the continuous logical sector numbers are recorded in sequence, and the head movement amount for access is kept to a minimum of one cylinder in the radial direction of the magnetic disk. Need to be controlled.

  Therefore, in the present invention, a first area where continuous data is recorded / reproduced with respect to one hard disk or a plurality of hard disks, and a second area where data managed on a conventional PC is recorded / reproduced. A recording method suitable for recording / reproducing continuous data is provided by dividing the region into a third region in which management information of the continuous data and single data is recorded.

FIG. 2 shows an internal structure of the hard disk divided into the three areas. In FIG. 2, 30 is a hard disk, 31 is a FAT of a table area for managing files, 32 is an area in which file names of continuous data or single file data recorded on the hard disk are recorded, and 33 is a file attribute. An area to be recorded, 34 is an area for storing a time stamp for each file, and 35 is an area for recording a logical sector number corresponding to an index of continuous logical sectors. Reference numeral 38 denotes the third region, 39 denotes the second region, and 40 denotes the first region. Sectors for recording data are a first area and a second area, and each of the recorded data is characterized.

  The first area has a configuration in which continuous recording is sequentially performed on the sectors in the area, and partial erasure and partial writing of the logical sector are not performed. The shaded portion of the first area in FIG. 2 indicates the recorded area. In the first area where erasure and partial recording are not performed, the continuous data is recorded exclusively. The continuous data is mainly digital data such as AV, and the logical sector number corresponding to the data recording start point, end point or index point is stored in the logical sector number management table 27 of FIG.

  When the reproduction selection of the data designated by the operation unit 18 is input, the disk central control unit 19 quotes the logical sector of the selected data from the logical sector number management table, and the continuous sector control unit 25 selects the first hard disk. The logical sector of the area is designated at random, and the reproduction operation is performed. A sector that is accessed in sequence by the logical sector control unit 20 during recording is instructed by the physical sector control unit 21 in the dimension of the physical sector, and a head number, a cylinder number corresponding to the target physical sector, The sector number is determined and input to the Disk I / O protocol 14, the head 2 of the Disk mechanism unit is positioned at the target sector, and data is written or read.

  As a practical example of how to use the first area of the hard disk of the present invention, for example, recording of AV continuous data for the purpose of monitoring can be mentioned. In the world of surveillance, it is necessary to record video and audio for a long time. In particular, when an incident occurs (hereinafter referred to as an alarm), continuous video and audio must be recorded.

It is set to record AV continuous data from the surveillance camera in the first area of the hard disk, and the logical sector number at the time of the alarm is stored in the sector number management table 27, and the alarm search or priority by the alarm level is later stored. The rank search is performed by the disk central control unit 19 and the alarm point is indicated, whereby the logical sector in the first area is indicated and reproduction can be performed at random. Further, endless recording can be performed by designating a logical sector in a hard disk (first area) with a limited capacity in an endless manner. Furthermore, in parallel with the data recording operation in the logical sector of the first area for a predetermined interval after the alarm is generated, the data of an arbitrary logical sector in the first area is reproduced, and It is possible to copy to the second area, and the AV data of the alarm part in the first area can be secured.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing contents. In FIG. 5, the process starts from the ENTRY of the process 60, and the process 61 performs endless recording of continuous data in the first area of the hard disk, and whether or not the process 62 secures a predetermined range of data in the first area. Is selected by an operation input, and if the portion of the data is not secured, the process returns to processing 61. When the data portion is to be secured, the process proceeds to processing 63, where the first logical sector number and the end logical sector number of the first area corresponding to the data secured portion are read. Next, in step 64, in parallel with the endless recording operation to the first area, the data of the first logical sector and the end logical sector in the first area are read and the data is recorded in the second area. Do. The data copying operation from the first area to the second area is continued up to the end sector number. In addition, the endless recording operation in the first area is not stopped by the copying operation, and endless recording is performed with priority on the processing. A hard disk can handle a plurality of data simultaneously as described above, and is particularly effective in the field of monitoring that does not stop the recording operation.

  Here, a configuration capable of handling a plurality of data in the hard disk in the first area will be described with reference to FIG. The WR buffer 13 and the RD buffer 16 of FIG. 1 are provided for the above purpose, and the reproduction data during the recording operation of the hard disk outputs the data stored in the RD buffer, and the recording data during the reproduction operation of the hard disk Is stored in the WR buffer 13. For example, the data rate recorded in the first area of the hard disk is 6 Mbps, the data rate for reading the alarm sector in the first area is 6 Mbps, and the data rate for recording the alarm sector number in a specific sector in the first area is Assume that 6 Mbps and the hard disk sustain rate is 40 Mbps. There is no problem as long as the data writing / reading speed with respect to the hard disk is equal to or higher than the sum of the multi-data rates handled at the same time. Actually, even if the overhead including the head seek and the timing waiting time is taken into consideration, the reproducing operation can be performed in parallel with the recording operation under the above conditions without any problem.

The second area is a hard disk area where file management is performed by a conventional PC or the like, and is an area where random recording and erasure are allowed. The shaded portion shown in the second area in FIG. 2 indicates the recorded area, and the single data is scattered and recorded while generating fragments.

Since the data recorded in the second area is divided and recorded in the second area, the sector connection state and directory hierarchy structure information are managed by the file management unit 22 in FIG. It is stored in the management table 24.

  In the present embodiment, the first region to the third region are divided in the radial direction on the magnetic disk, and in particular, the first region for which a sustain rate is to be secured is arranged outside the magnetic disk. ing. FIG. 6 shows an image of an area division state of the disk. In FIG. 6, 66 is a first area, 67 is a third area, 68 is a second area, 69 to 71 are disks of the same type, 72 to 74 are head seek arms, and 75 is a head.

For example, in the case of a 3.5 inch type hard disk, the radius of the magnetic disk recording surface is a maximum value of about 4
. The minimum value is about 2.0 cm and the number of sectors in the cylinder is substantially proportional to the radius of the magnetic disk. Therefore, the sustain rate increases as the cylinder is positioned on the outer periphery. For example, in a 3.5-inch hard disk with a magnetic disk rotational speed of 5400 rpm, the outermost peripheral sustain rate is 3 MB / s, whereas the innermost peripheral sustain rate is 1.5 MB / s. In the present invention, data throughput can be maintained by arranging the first area for recording continuous data in the vicinity of the area where the maximum sustain rate of the disk can be secured.

  Next, the areas of the first area and the second area are secured in the initial state of the hard disk (referred to as an unrecorded state) by the operation unit 18 specifying the capacity of the first area and the second area respectively for the hard disk. Enter the specified area capacity operation. The disk central control unit recognizes the operation command, and the file area securing unit 23 and the continuous sector area securing unit 26 secure the logical sector number of the hard disk for each of the above-mentioned area sections and divide the hard disk. Perform the action.

  Next, the contents of the file management table 24 and the continuous logical sector number management table are recorded in the third area of the hard disk. The management information is read from the hard disk, temporarily stored in the file management table 24 and the continuous logical sector management table 27, and operates so as to update the management information in the third area every predetermined period. In the third area, for example, a file name 32, a file attribute 33, a time stamp 34, a concatenated logical sector number 35, directory hierarchical structure information 36, user information 37, etc. are recorded for the first and second areas.

Further, the operation unit 18 can designate either the first area or the second area in the hard disk to record data. If the data is the continuous AV (30 frames / second) data, It is also possible to specify that recording is performed in one area and a still image or the like is recorded in the second area. Alternatively, both the image data can be recorded in the same area. In addition, since the data recorded in the first area is the sequence recording, the data is reproduced and relieved even when the third area is destroyed due to, for example, a hard disk crash or the FAT information is partially destroyed. There is a feature that can be easily performed.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, the hard disk has a sequential sequential recording area suitable for continuous data recording, a random recording area suitable for discontinuous data recording, a logical sector number which is a marking in each of the areas, and a concatenation. By dividing the logical sector number and the file information into the recording areas, the high-rate continuous data can be recorded on the hard disk in linkage with the data managed by the conventional PC.

Furthermore, the data recording apparatus of the present invention is suitable for digital data recording such as surveillance camera video and / or audio, and sequentially records sequential areas to the logical sectors, and the endless recording areas in parallel with the recording operation. The data can be copied to another area of the hard disk, and a single data recording apparatus can handle a plurality of data simultaneously.

  Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the description of the same functional blocks as those in FIG. 1 is omitted. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 10a denotes an added hard disk mechanism unit, and 50 denotes a hard disk addition control unit.

In recording digital data such as AV, it is expected that the hard disk will be required to have a larger capacity. For example, the MJPEG data is 10 Mbps, and the recordable time on the hard disk having the capacity of 6.4 GB is only 85 minutes. Further, when the area division is performed as in the present invention, the recording time is further shortened. Therefore, the present invention expands the first area suitable for continuous data recording by adding a plurality of hard disks. In the current PC world, expansion of hard disks is naturally supported. For example, IDE hard disks usually have up to four hard disk expansion bays on a PC. If a SCSI interface is provided, up to seven hard disks with a SCSI interface can be chain-connected. However, these expansions correspond to the area 2 in which file management is performed on the PC described in the first embodiment, and do not correspond to the first area. In addition, the capacity of the hard disk managed by the PC is limited by the file management software on the PC or the OS. For example, when the file management software is FAT16, since the maximum capacity per hard disk is 2 GB and the number of units that can be added is 26, only the capacity of 52 GB can be handled at the maximum. However, the first area described in the present invention has no upper limit on the number of additional hard disks and the capacity per hard disk because the file management software is not directly involved and the OS is not directly involved. Therefore, for example, four 25 GB hard disks can be connected, and the first area can be allocated to the entire extended hard disk.

3 and 4 are block diagrams for realizing the above-described addition of hard disks.
Here, the operation will be described using an IDE interface as an example.
It is not limited to DE. For example, any of a SCSI interface, a USB interface, an IEEE1394 interface, and the like may be used.

  The extension control unit shown in FIG. 3 includes a plurality of IDE interfaces having different addresses, for example, and the continuous sector area securing unit 26 continues to the logical sector number in the first area of the hard disk in the rear part 10 of the disk machine. Control is performed so that the third area is secured in the entire hard disk of the rear 10a of the added Disk machine and the logical sector numbers are numbered. The IDE I / O protocol unit 14 switches the IDE interface address according to the logical sector number for the third area.

  FIG. 4 shows the state of the recording media of the disk machine rear part 10 and the disk machine rear part 10a. In FIG. 4, 30 is a recording medium of the rear 10 of the disk machine, and 51 is a recording medium of the rear 10a of the disk machine. Description of the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 is omitted. In the recording medium 51, all the areas are expanded to the first area, and continuous logical block numbers are arranged in the disk, and sequential continuous recording is sequentially performed according to the logical sector block numbers.

According to the second embodiment described above, the first area of the hard disk suitable for continuous data recording can be expanded, and file management software and / or OS software are not directly involved in the first area. Since this is an area, it is possible to increase the number of additional hard disks without any upper limit, and there is no upper limit for the capacity per hard disk. This is particularly suitable for data recording such as surveillance cameras that require long-term AV data recording. For example, by connecting four 25 GB hard disks, 2 frames / second of video can be recorded for one month. The effect that can be done is great.

  Next, a third embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. In the third embodiment, a recording control in which a sector that cannot be recorded and / or reproduced (hereinafter referred to as a defective sector) is detected in the first area where continuous data is recorded, and the defective sector is not used will be described. . In FIG. 7, description of the same functional blocks as those in FIG. 1 is omitted. In FIG. 7, 80 is a test data generation unit, 81 is a sector RD / WR test unit, and 82 is a bad sector number securing unit.

When the operation unit 18 performs a command operation for checking a defective sector for the first area on the magnetic disk, the sector RD / WR test unit 81 applies the test data generated in the test data generation unit 80 to the designated sector. Perform the recording and verify operations. If the test data is different from the test data during the recording operation, the verify operation is further performed a predetermined number of times, and the sector number determined to be unwritable is stored in the defective sector number securing unit 82. The stored bad sector number is secured in the third area on the disk together with the data stored in the file management table 24 and the sector management table 27.

FIG. 8 shows the state of the hard disk according to the third embodiment. In FIG. 8, the description of the same location name as in FIG. 2 is omitted. In FIG. 8, reference numerals 83 to 85 denote bad sectors in the first area, and 86 denotes a bad sector information section for storing the sector numbers of the bad sectors. According to the third embodiment, a bad sector number for the third area is detected, and the bad sector number is stored in the bad sector information recording unit. When recording continuous data, the data recording apparatus removes the defective sector, performs numbering of logical sector numbers, and records continuous data in the same manner as described above.

  Further, in the operation in which only the defective sector is not recorded, the sector designation in which the defective sector is omitted, that is, the head number, cylinder number, and sector number indication in the physical sector control unit of FIG. It is necessary to control such that the bad sector is not accessed. Therefore, when recording reaches the defective sector, the recording operation is temporarily stopped, and subsequently a recording instruction is sent to the sector subsequent to the defective sector, so that the data throughput may be reduced. Therefore, in this embodiment, in order to prevent the recording operation from being temporarily stopped, the same data as the data recorded in the sector that is continuously located before the defective sector is also recorded for the defective sector. I try to correspond. The defective sector number is grasped in advance by the defective sector number securing unit, and when the recording to the defective sector is reached, the Disk-I / O protocol unit 14 positions the data from the digital input processing unit 12 before the defective sector. The same recording data corresponding to the sector is recorded.

  Furthermore, the present embodiment also supports a configuration in which access is not performed using a cylinder including the defective sector as a defective cylinder. In contrast to the operation of recording by skipping only the defective sector, the operation of skipping the cylinder including the defective sector is such that the unit for stopping the recording operation is the cylinder unit of the normal continuous recording operation, so that the data throughput by the defective sector is There is little decrease.

This will be described below with reference to FIG. In addition, description of the same name as FIG. 8 is abbreviate | omitted. In FIG. 9, reference numerals 86 to 93 denote cylinder numbers 0 to 7, respectively.
FIG. 2 shows a state in which one defective sector exists in each of the cylinders 4 and 6. The bad sector number is secured in advance in the bad sector number securing unit 82, and the cylinder number including the bad sector is immediately grasped by the physical sector control unit 21. The defective cylinder number recognized by the physical sector controller 21 is removed and recognized in the consecutive sector number numbering operation, and operates to record the continuous data.

  In the third embodiment, the defective sector number and defective cylinder number detecting operation and the hollowing operation have been described in the first area of the hard disk, but in the second and / or third area. Is also applicable, and is not limited to the first region.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment, it is possible to record the continuous data by omitting the defective sector by the means for detecting the defective sector of the hard disk and the means for storing and recognizing the defective sector number. Further, even in a defective sector, the same recording as the sector located before the defective sector is performed, and the control of not temporarily stopping the recording operation has a great effect of improving the data throughput. Furthermore, a means for recognizing a cylinder number including the defective sector is provided, and by continuously recording data by omitting the cylinder number, a cylinder unit which is a data recording unit to the hard disk can be maintained. The effect of improving the throughput is great.

Next, a fourth embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In the fourth embodiment, the continuous data is a data stream obtained by digitally compressing a video signal and / or an audio signal, for example, MPEG compression or MJPEG compression, and the data is stored on a disk-shaped recording medium such as a hard disk. It is characterized by a configuration for performing a recording or reproducing operation.

10, description of the same functional blocks as those in FIG. 1 is omitted. In FIG. 10, 100 is a video signal input terminal, 101 is an audio signal input terminal, 102 is a video input unit, 103 is an audio input unit, 104 is a video compression process unit, 105 is an audio compression process, 106 is a stream synthesis unit, 107 Is an audio signal output terminal, 108 is a video signal output / output terminal, 109 is an audio output processing unit, 110 is a video output unit, 111 is an audio expansion process unit, 112 is a video expansion process unit, and 113 is a stream separation unit.

The analog video signal input from the video signal input terminal 100 undergoes conversion to a digital video signal and rearrangement of the digital video signal in the video input unit 102, so-called shuffling processing, and is output to the video compression process unit 104. The digital video signal shuffled by the video compression process unit 104 is converted into compressed video data encoded by, for example, an MJPEG encoding unit, and is output to the stream synthesis unit 106. The video compression process unit 5 is not limited to the MJPEG encoding unit, but may be a video compression unit such as MPEG1, and is not limited to MJPEG encoding.

  The analog audio signal input from the input terminal 101 is converted into a digital audio signal and shuffled by the audio input unit 103 and output to the audio compression process unit 105. The digital audio signal shuffled by the audio compression process unit 105 is encoded by an encoding unit such as ADPCM, and the audio compression data is output to the stream synthesis unit 106. In the stream synthesizing unit 106, the video compression data and the audio compression data are time-multiplexed into one system of data. One piece of data multiplexed on the time axis is input to the digital input processing unit 12 and continuously recorded on the hard disk.

  In the reproduction operation, the data output from the digital output processing unit is separated into video compression data and audio compression data by the stream separation unit 113, and the video compression data is separated by the video decompression processing unit 112 by, for example, MJPEG combination means. The combined digital video data is input to the video output unit 110. In the video output unit 110, the digital video data is converted into a deshuffling process and a basic analog video signal and output from the video signal output terminal 24.

  The voice compression data is input to the voice output unit 109 by the voice decompression process unit 111, for example, digital voice data that has been combined by the ADPCM combination unit. In the audio output unit 109, the digital audio data is converted into a de-shuffling process and a basic analog audio signal and output from the audio signal output terminal 23.

  As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, by using continuous data as video signals and / or audio signals as data using digital compression codes, continuous recording and random reproduction of video and / or audio is possible and high image quality is achieved. Recording can be performed. Furthermore, since the recording data and the reproduction data can be processed in parallel, the video signal and / or the audio signal can be reproduced without stopping the recording operation of the video signal and / or the audio signal.

  In the embodiments of the present invention, in order to explain the operation, the recording medium is taken as an example of a hard disk. However, the present invention may be applied to a disk-shaped recording medium such as a magnetic disk or a phase change optical disk. Applies and is not limited to hard disks.

The figure which shows the structure of the data recording device in 1st Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the hard-disk recording state in the data recording device of this invention. The figure which shows the structure of the data recording device in 2nd Embodiment. The figure which shows the internal structure of an expansion hard disk. The flowchart which performs data copying from the 3rd field to the 2nd field. The figure which shows the area division | segmentation state of a disc. The figure which shows the structure of the data recording device in the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. The figure which shows the recording state of the hard disk by 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows the recording state of another hard disk by 3rd Embodiment. The figure which shows the structure of the data recording device in the 4th Embodiment of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Disc-shaped recording medium 2 Recording / reproducing head 3 RD / WR signal processing part 4 Spindle motor 5 SPM drive part 6 Voice coil motor 7 VCM drive part 8 Drive system control part 9 Disk interface part 10 Disk mechanism part 11 Digital stream input terminal 12 Digital input processing unit 13 WR buffer unit 14 Disk I / O protocol unit 15 Digital output processing unit 16 RD buffer 17 Digital output terminal 18 Operation unit 19 Disk central control unit 20 Logical sector control unit 21 Physical sector control unit 22 File management unit 23 File area securing unit 24 File management table 25 Continuous sector control unit 26 Continuous sector area securing unit 27 Sector number management 30 Hard disk 31 FAT
32 File name group recording area 33 File attribute recording area 34 File time stamp storage area 35 Logical sector number recording area 38 Third area 39 Second area 40 First 1 area 50 extension control unit 51 added third area 66 third area 67 first area 68 second area 69 to 71 magnetic disks 72 to 74 magnetic head seek arm 75 head 80 test data generation section 81 sector RD / WR test unit 82 defective sector number securing unit 83 to 85 defective sector 86 defective sector information 87 to 93 cylinder 100 video signal input terminal 101 audio signal input terminal 102 video input unit 103 audio input unit 104 video compression process unit 105 Audio compression process 106 Stream synthesis unit 107 Audio signal output terminal 108 Video signal Straight terminal 109 voice output processing unit 110 video output unit 111 the audio decompression process unit 112 image decompression process unit 113 stream separation unit

Claims (20)

In a data recording apparatus comprising input means for inputting data from the outside and recording means for recording the data on a recording medium,
The recording means divides and records in the first area of the recording medium when the input data is continuous data, and records in the second area of the recording medium when the input data is discontinuous data. apparatus. The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The data recording apparatus, wherein the recording unit records management information of data recorded in the first area or the second area in a third area of the recording medium. In the data recording device according to claim 1 or 2,
A data recording apparatus, wherein the recording medium is a disk-shaped recording medium. The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
Each of the first area and the second area of the recording medium includes a plurality of recording blocks,
The data recording apparatus characterized in that the recording means sequentially records the continuous data in recording blocks continuously arranged in the first area. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
Each area of the disc-shaped recording medium is divided into areas in the radial direction,
The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first area is arranged on an outermost peripheral side of the disc-shaped recording medium. In the data recording device according to claim 1 or 2,
The data recording apparatus, wherein the recording means records endlessly in the first area. The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
A data recording apparatus comprising: copying means for copying data recorded in the first area to the second area. The data recording apparatus according to claim 7, wherein
The data recording apparatus, wherein the copying means copies data recorded in the first area to the second area in parallel with the operation of recording to the first area by the recording means . The data recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
The recording means comprises recording block setting means for setting a plurality of recording blocks on the recording medium,
Sequentially recording the continuous data in recording blocks arranged continuously in the first area of the recording medium;
A data recording apparatus for recording the number of a recording block in the first area in which the continuous data is recorded in the third area. The data recording apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
Means for detecting a defective recording block of the recording medium;
The recording means records the number of the defective recording block in the third area, and jumps and records the defective recording block when recording the continuous data in the first area. Data recording device. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
Means for detecting a defective recording track from concentric tracks of the disk-shaped recording medium;
The recording means records the number of the defective recording track in the third area, and jumps and records the defective recording track when recording the continuous data in the first area. Data recording device. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
Buffer means for storing the continuous data;
A buffer capacity detecting means for detecting that a predetermined amount of data is stored in the buffer means;
The data recording apparatus characterized in that the recording means records the continuous data in a plurality of recording blocks arranged in concentric tracks on the disk-shaped recording medium based on the result of the buffer capacity detecting means. The data recording device according to claim 12, wherein
The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage capacity of the buffer means is set for each track of the disk-shaped recording medium. The data recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
Means for adding and connecting another recording medium to the recording medium;
A data recording apparatus comprising means for securing the first area and / or the second area in the additionally connected recording medium. The data recording apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 14,
A data recording apparatus comprising: means for setting each of the first area and the second area to an arbitrary size. In the data recording device according to claim 1 or 2,
The data recording apparatus, wherein the continuous data is video and / or audio data. The data recording apparatus according to claim 4, wherein
The continuous data is data obtained by digitally compressing a video signal and / or an audio signal,
A data recording apparatus for recording one frame of video on at least one of the recording blocks of the recording medium. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
The data recording apparatus, wherein the disk-shaped recording medium is a hard disk. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
The data recording apparatus, wherein the disk-shaped recording medium is a magneto-optical disk. The data recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein
The data recording apparatus, wherein the disk-shaped recording medium is a phase change optical disk.

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