JP2014017040A - Library device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a library device having high operability by shortening a carrying time for carrying a medium to a recording and reproducing device by calculating a standby position of a carrying mechanism on the basis of a use state of the recording and reproducing device and medium information in a library device using a recording medium.SOLUTION: The library device has a plurality of optical disks, a recording and reproducing device, a medium storage part, medium carrying means and a controller, and shortens medium carrying delay of the library device by setting a standby position of the carrying means by taking disk access probability and a disk storage position into consideration.

Description

  The present invention relates to a library apparatus, and more particularly to a library apparatus using a portable medium.

  Patent Document 1 discloses an autochanger-type optical disc recording / reproducing device 16 that records and reproduces a plurality of optical discs on which images, sounds, and data are recorded, a plurality of output terminal devices 7 that reproduce images, sounds, and text data, and this output. And a means 13 for recording the reproduction status from the terminal device 7 on the optical disc 8, and reducing the access time to the optical disc 8 based on the user read probability information obtained from the reproduction status recorded on the optical disc 8. ,a.

  In Patent Document 2, the standby position of the autochanger at the time of command standby is determined based on the arrangement of the recording medium in the recording / reproducing apparatus in the state of waiting for command reception from the host computer and the past command history. For example, when there is no recording medium in the recording / reproducing apparatus, the apparatus waits at the position of the loading / unloading unit 30. Further, in a state where the recording medium is set in the two drive devices 21 and 22, the apparatus stands by at the position of the drive devices 21 and 22. In addition, when all the drive devices 21 and 22 are empty, the apparatus waits at the position of the storage unit that is most frequently used.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-244917 JP 2001-35057 A

  In a library apparatus using a portable medium, the number of portable medium recording / reproducing devices is generally smaller than the number of portable media stored in the library. It is conveyed from the storage location to the recording / reproducing apparatus, or from the recording / reproducing apparatus to the medium storage. The library apparatus generates a data read delay and a data recording delay due to the transport time. Although a method for reducing the delay based on the usage frequency and read probability information has been proposed, it is expected that the disk storage position needs to be replaced and unnecessary operations are performed, or the accuracy of the read probability due to device operation is not improved. There is a problem that the effect cannot be obtained.

In order to solve the above problems, for example, the configuration described in the claims is adopted.
The present application includes a plurality of means for solving the above problems.
By having a plurality of optical discs, a recording / reproducing device, a media storage unit, media transport means, and a controller, and setting the standby position of the transport means in consideration of the disc call probability and the disc storage position The medium transport delay of the library apparatus is shortened.

  According to the present invention, in a library device for a replaceable medium, a data recording / reproduction delay required for the medium conveyance can be reduced by appropriately calculating a stop position where the conveyance mechanism stands by between the medium conveyance operation and the next conveyance operation. It is possible to provide a library apparatus that is reduced and has high operability.

Explanatory drawing which shows the component of the present Example 1. Explanatory drawing which shows the operation | movement flow which calculates the stand-by position of the present Example 1. Explanatory drawing of the calculation method of the standby position of the first embodiment Explanatory drawing of the relationship between the calculation element of the standby position and the conveying operation of the first embodiment FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the relationship between the call probability and the average transport time according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the call probability and the average transport time according to the first embodiment. Explanatory drawing when there are two transport means in the first embodiment Explanatory drawing which shows the system configuration | structure of the present Example 2. Explanatory drawing which shows the system configuration | structure of the present Example 2.

  Examples of the present invention will be described below.

  Example 1 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing components of the present invention, and is a schematic view of a library device as viewed from above. 1 is a library apparatus main body, 2 is an optical disk, 3 is a recording / reproducing apparatus, 4 is a medium storage unit, 5 is medium transport means, and 6 is a controller. The optical disk 2 is stored in the medium storage unit 4 and the recording / reproducing apparatus 3 is provided with four optical disk apparatuses.

  First, the operation outline of each component and the relationship between the components will be described. When a data reproduction command is transmitted from a host computer (not shown), the controller 6 moves the transport means 5 to the place where the disk is stored in the medium storage unit in order to transport the optical disk on which the data is recorded to the optical disk apparatus. Move. The conveying means 5 can move in the direction of the arrow. The conveying means 5 takes out the optical disk from the storage unit 4, moves in the recording / reproducing apparatus direction 3, and inserts the optical disk conveyed to the recording / reproducing apparatus 3. When a data recording command is transmitted from the host computer, the controller 6 transports the disk closest to the recording / reproducing apparatus among the disks suitable for recording the data stored in the medium storage unit 4 to the optical disk apparatus. In order to do so, the conveying means 5 is moved. The conveying means 5 takes out the optical disk from the storage unit 4, moves to the recording / reproducing apparatus 5, and inserts the optical disk conveyed to the recording / reproducing apparatus. Thereafter, the conveying means 5 stops on the spot or moves to a designated standby place based on an instruction from the controller 6.

  When the conveyance of the disc is completed, the controller 6 calculates the position where the conveyance means 5 is on standby until the next recording or reproduction command is transmitted, and moves the conveyance means 5 to the calculated standby position. The operation of moving the transport means 5 to the standby position will be described with reference to FIG. After the conveyance of the disc is completed (S101), the controller 6 determines the use state of each recording / reproducing device (S102), and when no optical disc is inserted in at least one of all the recording / reproducing devices, A standby position is calculated from the medium storage unit 4. In order to calculate the standby position, the recording / reproducing apparatus to be the next disk transport destination is determined (S103). For example, the recording / reproducing apparatus closest to the medium storage unit 4 is selected from the recording / reproducing apparatuses in which no disc is inserted. Even when the apparatus closest to the medium storage unit 4 is a reproduction-only apparatus, the apparatus may be selected as a transport destination apparatus. This is because it is more important to propose a delay in reproduction than data recording. Next, the time required to move from each disk take-out position of the medium storage unit 4 to the position of each disk stored in the storage unit 4 and take it out and transport it to the recording / reproducing apparatus determined in S103 is calculated (S104). ) Further, the calling probability of each disk is added to the calculated transport time (S105). The disk take-out position where the integrated value is minimum is determined as the optimum standby position (S106). Next, movement of the transport means 5 to the determined standby position is started (S107), and until the movement is completed (S109), it is confirmed whether a new movement is required by issuing a data recording / reproducing command (S108). To do. If a new movement is required, the movement is immediately terminated (S112), and this sequence is terminated. If no new movement is necessary, it is confirmed that the transport means 5 has reached the determined standby position, and the operation is completed (S112).

  If the optical disk has been inserted into all the recording / reproducing apparatuses in S102, the movement of the conveying means 5 is stopped (S110) until the disk ejection command is transmitted from the host computer to any recording / reproducing apparatus (S110). After the command is transmitted, the conveying means 5 is moved to the corresponding recording / reproducing apparatus (S111).

The calculation contents of S104 to S106 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A illustrates a method for calculating the optimum standby position using a table. Each row indicates a standby position before the movement of the transport means 5 and each column indicates a storage position of each disk to be transported. Also, x1 is the leftmost position of the storage unit 4 in FIG. 3B, x16 is the rightmost position of the storage unit 4, and t1 is the time required for the transport means 5 to move the distance between adjacent disk storage positions, t16 is the time required to travel a distance of 16 discs. In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the distance between x16 and the adjacent recording / reproducing apparatus is assumed to be equal to the distance between the adjacent disk storage positions. The second line indicates the probability that each disk is read. The call probability setting method is set, for example, from the number of calls after data recording and related information between disks. The call probability is normalized by the sum of the probabilities. For example, the third line shows the disc transport time when the transport mechanism is at the standby position x1. When transporting the disk stored in x1, since the transport means 5 is waiting at x1 from the beginning, the time to move to the take-out position of the disk x1 is zero, and the time to transport the disk to the recording / reproducing apparatus after that is t16. It is. When the disk stored in x2 is transported, the time for the transport means 5 to move from x1 to the take-out position of the disk x2 is t1, and the time for transporting the disk to the recording / reproducing apparatus is t15. The same applies to the fourth and subsequent lines. A method for calculating the transport time of the colored portion of the seventh row and the fourth column will be described with reference to FIG. This assumes a case where the transport means 5 is at x15 and the disk at position x3 is a recording / reproducing apparatus. The time required for moving from x15 to x3 is t12, and the time required for moving from x3 to the recording / reproducing apparatus is t14. If the disc take-out time and the disc insertion time into the recording / reproducing apparatus cannot be ignored compared with the transport time, these may be included in the transport time. The rightmost column in FIG. 3A is a value calculated from the sum of the products of the call probability on the second row and the values on and after the third row. For example,
p15 = (t14 + t16) × a1 + (t13 + t15) × a2 +... + (t1 + t1) × a16
It is. The standby position corresponding to the row having the minimum value among the calculated p1 to p16 is the standby position where the average call time is the shortest.

  FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the disk call probability at each disk storage position and the calculated average transport time. In the storage positions 1 to 6, no disc is stored, or the probability is zero assuming an unrecorded disc. From FIG. 4A, it can be seen that the disk storage position where the calling probability is maximum is not necessarily the standby position where the average transport time is the shortest. It can also be seen from FIGS. 4A and 4B that when the storage position of the disk is replaced, the standby position that minimizes the average transport time also changes. In particular, even if a disk with a predetermined probability or more is replaced without replacing the disk with the highest call probability, the calculated standby position changes.

  As described above, the data read delay of the library apparatus can be shortened by setting the standby position of the transport means in consideration of the disk call probability and the disk storage position. According to this method, the transport time can be shortened on average without rearranging the disks in descending order of disk calling probability. The overall call delay of the library apparatus can be shortened by setting the disk take-out position with the largest call establishment as the standby position of the transport means.

  In this embodiment, an optical disk is assumed as a medium, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, the same effect can be obtained in a library apparatus using a tape medium.

  Further, as a method for setting the disc call probability, if all the unrecorded discs are set to zero, it is possible to make a setting with an emphasis on shortening the read time of data reproduction. In order to shorten the disc transport time at the time of recording, a predetermined probability is set to a disc closer to the recording / reproducing apparatus among the recordable discs stored in the medium storage unit 4, and zero is set to other recordable discs. May be set. Alternatively, the probability may be set based on the remaining recording capacity of the recordable disc.

  In the present embodiment, the standby position at which the conveyance time is minimized is calculated based on the movement time of the conveyance unit 5, but may be calculated from the movement distance of the conveyance unit 5. In this case, there is an advantage that the calculation is simplified. However, since the operation of the conveying means 5 is generally accelerated at a short distance and is at a constant speed at a predetermined distance or more, the accuracy of the calculated value is deteriorated.

Furthermore, when there are a plurality of conveying means and the conveying operation affects each other, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, there is a conveying means 7 in addition to the conveying means 5, and the conveying means 5 cannot move to the left of the conveying means 7, If the means 7 cannot move to the right of the transport means 5, the disk position may be divided into two using the calling probability in FIG. That means
a1 + a2 + ... ay≈a (y + 1) + ... + a16
By calculating ay, the transport unit 7 can shorten the average transport time from a1 to ay, and the transport unit 5 can shorten the average transport time from a (y + 1) to a16. Can do.

  In the first embodiment, all the picked-up positions of each stored disk are set as candidates for the standby position of the transport unit. However, when the transport unit needs driving power such as a motor in order to hold the position at several standby positions. If the standby position that does not require holding power is a candidate for the standby position, the power consumption of the library apparatus can be reduced.

  Example 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the library device as viewed from the side. 81 to 85 are stoppers. The stoppers 81 to 85 have a structure capable of maintaining the position of the conveying means 5 without requiring holding power. A method equivalent to that of the first embodiment is used as a method for calculating the standby position of the transport unit 5. The controller 6 rounds the value of the calculated standby position, and sets the stop position closest to the calculated standby position as the final standby position.

  In FIG. 6, the vertical library apparatus is taken as an example, but the same applies to the case of the disk arrangement as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the library device as viewed from the side, and the discs are oriented parallel to the horizontal plane, and are arranged in the vertical and horizontal directions. The conveying means can move in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction, but only the take-out position of the disk at the lowest level can hold the stop position in a state where no driving power is required. In this case as well, as described above, the method for calculating the standby position of the transport unit 5 uses the same method as in the first embodiment, and the controller 6 rounds the calculated standby position value and stops closest to the calculated standby position. By setting the position as the final standby position, the power consumption of the library apparatus can be reduced.

  In the above embodiment, it is assumed that the stored disk is a single disk, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, the same effect can be obtained even when a magazine storing a plurality of disks is used.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Library apparatus main body, 2 ... Optical disk, 3 ... Recording / reproducing apparatus, 4 ... Medium storage part, 5 ... Medium conveyance means, 6 ... Controller

Claims (6)

k recording media;
A recording / reproducing apparatus for performing recording or reproduction on the recording medium;
The medium storage means;
The medium conveying means;
A movement frequency calculating means for calculating a moving frequency of the conveying means to a stop position corresponding to the storage position of each medium; and from the arbitrary stop position of the conveying means to the recording / reproducing apparatus via each stop position in the previous period. A travel time calculating means for calculating the travel time of the controller, and a controller for controlling the transport means,
The controller calculates a standby position of the conveyance means based on at least one of the output of the movement frequency calculation means, the output of the movement time calculation means, and the usage information of the recording / reproducing apparatus, and moves the conveyance means to the calculated standby position. A library device characterized by: The library apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
When the stop position for the transport means to take out each medium from the storage means or store it in the storage means is C1, C2,..., Ck,
The controller determines a standby position from among the stop positions C1, C2,..., Ck from the output of the movement frequency calculation means and the output of the movement time calculation means. The library apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
Among the stop positions C1, C2,..., Ck, the stop positions where the drive power of the transport means can be stopped at zero are Ca1, Ca2,. When Cu1, Cu2,...
The controller determines a standby position from the stop positions Ca1, Ca2,... From the output of the movement frequency calculation means and the output of the movement time calculation means. The library apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The controller interrupts the moving operation to the standby position and starts a new conveyance operation when a new disk conveyance is required during the movement of the conveyance means to the calculated standby position. apparatus. The library apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
Having a plurality of recording and reproducing devices;
The library device, wherein the controller detects that a disc ejection command has been transmitted to at least one of the recording / reproducing devices, and moves the conveying means to a disc ejection position of the recording / reproducing device. The library apparatus according to claim 1, wherein
The library apparatus, wherein the controller changes a standby position of the transport unit according to a storage position of a medium.

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