JP3352852B2 - Multimedia disk recorder - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia disk recorder for recording multimedia information such as images and sounds on an optical disk / hard disk.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional multimedia disk recorder for recording image / audio multimedia information on an optical disk / hard disk or the like.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 1 denotes a data interface unit (hereinafter, referred to as a data I / F unit) for writing and reading multimedia data, and 3 denotes a C for system control.
PU, 4 is a drive management unit, 5 is an interface unit, 6
Is an interface processing unit inside the drive, 7 is a CPU for drive control, 8 is a signal processing unit, 9 is a servo control unit of the drive, 10 is a mechanical control unit, and 11 is a head / media unit.

As shown in FIG. 7, a CPU for system control is used.
Reference numeral 3 is connected to the data I / F unit 1, the drive management unit 4, and the interface unit 5. The interface processing unit 6 is connected to a drive control CPU 7 and a signal processing unit 8, and the drive control CPU 7 is connected to the signal processing unit 8,
The servo controller 9 and the mechanical controller 10 are connected. The servo control unit 9 is connected indirectly to the head / media unit 11 (shown by broken lines) via a control target, and the mechanical control unit 10 is connected via a mechanism.

[0005] In the multimedia disk recorder which is a conventional data recording system (computer) shown in FIG. 7, in response to a write command from the system control CPU 3, the drive control CPU 7 checks data write data (write and write). Inspection processing) is performed. then,
If an error equal to or greater than a threshold value with a certain margin for the error correction code inside the sector occurs, retry of writing (hereinafter, retry) is repeated.

[0006] As a result of this retry, when an error equal to or more than a predetermined value occurs, the sector is registered as a defective sector, and a process of writing data to a substitute sector (replacement process) is performed. This method has ensured the reliability of the write data.

Further, by performing the retry processing, the reliability of the write data has been ensured without performing useless replacement processing even for a temporary defect due to the adhesion of dust or the like.

Further, as a result of using the media for a long time,
When the medium deteriorates, as a result, the number of defective sectors increases, and when the area of the alternative sector (alternate area) for performing the replacement processing runs out of space on the medium, the data recording system issues a warning. Therefore, they are urging them to take measures such as replacing the media because the media has reached the end of its life.

Conventionally, a data recording system is also used to detect data quality degradation due to a decrease in S / N of a write / reproduce signal due to adhesion of dust or the like to a head or the like and detection of a drive failure due to aging of a head or the like. Of data writing, inspection processing, retry and replacement processing.

[0010]

However, in the above-described conventional data writing and inspection processing, the inspection causes a wait of one or more rotations, and the actual transfer rate at the time of writing decreases. Accordingly, the present invention employs a recording method that does not perform inspection immediately after data writing for an application that is expected to write large-capacity and high-speed data such as images / voices in the future. The purpose is to ensure the transfer rate and the data recording system to ensure the reliability of the write data.

[0011]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a first means is to use a recording system which does not execute an inspection process of written data immediately after writing the data. Immediately after the data writing process, perform the reading process of the automatically written data in the interval from the writing of the next data, and monitor the data error from the drive to detect the occurrence of abnormality in the drive or the media. , Multimedia disc recorder , system issues warning message
The writing of the data is performed by
Physical sector in the middle of a parity block
Data from the middle of a physical sector
The execution of the reading process is optimized according to the frequency of
Cormorant be characterized.

The second means is that the system estimates the use time of the medium by using a recording method that does not execute the inspection processing of the written data immediately after writing the data, and uses the estimated value to drive the medium. Or, in a multimedia disk recorder in which the system issues a warning message by predicting an abnormality of the medium, the number of times of rewriting of the medium is counted, and using the count value, a prediction of the use time of the medium is performed, and The number of seeks at the time of overwriting data in a certain area of the
Inside the parity block consisting of the parity sector,
Save the count value that was counting the number of rewrites
When the count reaches a certain value, the Paris
And wherein the dedicated and be Rukoto read the tee block.

The third means uses a recording method that does not execute the inspection processing of the written data immediately after the data writing, and the system automatically performs the operation at the interval from immediately after the data writing processing to the next data writing. Insert a read cycle of written data, monitor data errors from the drive, estimate the usage time of the media, and estimate the drive or media error from the estimated value and the data error information from the drive. In a multimedia disc recorder where the system detects and predicts and issues a warning message ,
The system detects the drive detected in the read cycle.
Eve data error due to usage time of the media
Judgment of data quality deterioration status
The media degradation factors are separated from the predicted value between
Characterized in that it sense.

[0014]

According to the first means of the present invention, the function of automatically executing the reading process of the written data is implemented in the interval from immediately after the continuous writing process to the next writing. The data quality of the read data is evaluated by the automatic reading process, and based on the evaluation result, whether the data quality is degraded due to dust or the like adhered to the head medium or the like, or whether the data quality is degraded due to aging of the medium,
Upon isolating the drive failure, the system can issue a warning and prompt measures such as cleaning the head media or replacing the media.

As described above, since the system automatically executes the reading process at regular intervals, it is possible to detect an error caused by a change over time in a drive and a medium before the error becomes fatal.

According to the second means of the present invention, a function for predicting and estimating the usage time of the media is mounted, so that the recommended value of the usage time of the media adapted to the usage environment of the apparatus, the usage conditions and the like can be obtained. When the time set by the outside and using the same medium approaches the recommended value, the system can issue a warning and urge the user to take measures such as media exchange.

As described above, since the system has a function of predicting and estimating the use time of the media, it can be used within the recommended use time of the media adapted to the use environment and use conditions of the apparatus, and a fatal error such as a media error can occur. It is possible to prompt measures such as media replacement before the occurrence of a defect.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a function for reading data automatically written in an interval from immediately after a continuous writing process to the next writing,
Since the function of predicting and estimating the usage time of the media is also implemented, the data quality is evaluated as a result of the automatic reading process, the usage time of the media is predicted, and the deterioration of the media due to long-term use and transient By discriminating the deterioration of the data quality of the media, the system can issue a warning and urge the user to take measures such as cleaning the head media or replacing the media.

As described above, since the system has both the automatic reading process at regular intervals and the function of estimating the use time of the medium, it is possible to monitor the change of the physical sector in which the error has occurred and to temporarily monitor the change in the use time. The error can be separated from the error caused by long-term use, and a warning can be issued, and necessary measures such as replacement of the medium can be taken.

[0020]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to a reference example for explaining a first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the same reference numerals are given to the same functional blocks as in FIG. 7 of the conventional example, and the description thereof will be omitted.
Here, reference numeral 2 denotes a data sector generation unit for expanding multimedia data in the drive, and the input side is connected to the data I / F unit 1 and the output side is connected to the interface unit 5, respectively. The system control CPU 3 is connected to the data I / F unit 1, the data sector generation unit 2, the drive management unit 4, and the interface unit 5, respectively.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In the reference example, when multimedia data to be recorded in the drive is input via the data I / F unit 1, the system control CPU 3 sends the data sector structure according to a predetermined format to the data sector generation unit 2. create.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the data sector structure. In this example, one parity sector (PS) is added to a data sector (DS), which is a physical sector from 0 to 24. Here, in a medium having a multi-zone structure, the relationship between the data sector (DS) and the parity sector (PS) is determined so that one or more parity sectors (PS) are formed in one track of each zone.

When the data sector generation unit 2 completes the creation of the data sector structure, the CPU 3 for system control sends a write command to the drive via the interface unit 5 and starts data transfer at the same time. When receiving a write command from the system control CPU 3 from the interface processing unit 6, the drive control CPU 7 issues a predetermined control signal to the mechanical control unit 10 including the signal processing unit 8 and the servo control unit 9, and performs a write process. to go into.

The signal processor 8 adds an error correction code specified by the drive, modulates data for recording, and performs head modulation.
The data is sent to the media unit 11 for writing. At this time, the inspection processing of the written data is not performed.

The operation for reading data written in this way will be described. C for system control
When the PU 3 performs reading, it issues a data reading instruction via the interface unit 5. The drive control CPU 7 receives a read command from the system control CPU 3 via the interface processing unit 6, and receives a signal processing unit 8, a servo control unit 9, a mechanical control unit.
A predetermined control signal is issued to 10 and a reading process is started. The signal processing unit 8 reads data to the head / media unit 11 and
The data sequence converted for recording is demodulated, and data quality is verified using an error correction code added at the time of recording.

When an error exceeding the correction capability occurs,
The physical sector in which an error has occurred is reported to the system control CPU 3 via the interface unit 5. The system control CPU 3 reads out the sectors other than the uncorrectable sector of the error correction code, and recovers the data of the defective sector from the data of the parity sector (PS) in the data sector generation unit 2. In the case of the data sector structure of FIG. 2, even if one of the physical sectors 0 to 25 is defective, the data can be restored. At this time, the drive management unit 4 detects that the medium cannot reach the end of its life by detecting the uncorrectability of the error correction code inside the drive and detecting the correction by the parity, and the system issues a warning. , Request measures such as media exchange.

As described above, according to the reference example, the system control CPU 3 confirms that the correction by the error correction code inside the drive occurs in the signal processing section 8 inside the drive and via the interface section 5. Then, since the data can be restored using the parity in the data sector generation unit 2, data reliability can be ensured. According to the reference example, it is possible for the drive management unit 4 to determine that the media life has expired, issue a warning, and prompt the user to take media replacement measures.

In FIG. 2, parity blocks (PS) are used for 25 data physical sectors.
Is allocated to one sector. In this configuration, data can be recovered up to one sector error out of 26 physical sectors. By allocating a number of parity sectors (PS) to several data physical sectors, the correction capability is improved, but as a result, the redundancy is increased and the required storage capacity cannot be secured.

Further, in order to improve the error correction capability for scratches and dust straddling adjacent tracks, the number of physical sectors of the parity block is set to be equal to or less than the number of physical sectors per track. With this setting, the parity block does not extend over a plurality of tracks, and errors due to scratches between tracks are processed by different parity blocks, so that the error correction probability increases.

Depending on the drive, there is a system in which the recording capacity is expanded by dividing the zone into zones by utilizing the difference in linear velocity between the inner circumference and the outer circumference. At this time, the number of physical sectors per track on the outer peripheral side is larger than the number of physical sectors per track on the inner peripheral side. For this reason, the smallest value on the inner circumference side must be selected so that the parity block always fits in one track. As a result, on the outer circumference, a plurality of parity blocks are accommodated in one track, and the redundancy increases. Therefore, in the case of multi-zone, by changing the number of parity blocks for each zone,
Secure data storage area.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the multimedia disk recorder according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals are given to the same functional blocks as those in FIG. 1 of the reference example, and the description thereof will be omitted.
Here, reference numeral 12 denotes a read (READ) cycle generator, which is connected to the CPU 3 for system control.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described. In the first embodiment, similarly to the reference example, when multimedia data to be recorded in the drive is input via the data I / F unit 1, the system control CPU 3
Creates a data sector structure in the data sector generation unit 2 according to a predetermined format. When the creation of the data sector structure is completed, the CPU 3 for system control sends a write command to the drive via the interface unit 5 and starts data transfer at the same time. In the case of the reference example, the quality of data is checked at the time of reading. Therefore, when the system has few reading opportunities, there is a possibility that the detection when the medium reaches the end of its life may be missed. Therefore, in the first embodiment, by providing the READ cycle generation unit 12,
A read cycle is inserted in the interval of the data write process without being conscious of the upper application.

A specific example of the first embodiment will be described below. As a first method, data writing and inspection processing are always performed when a system management area inside a medium is written. When writing external data to a medium, the data managed by the system is written to read the data again. This area is defined inside the media and is called a system management area. As the application continues to write data, the system management area is always updated with the latest information. The timing is executed without being conscious of the upper application.

As a second method, a seek occurs when the application writes data continuously and writes data again from the write start point. When performing this seek, read processing of an arbitrary or specified physical sector is performed. In particular, when writing data from the outer circumference to the inner circumference of the medium, the data transfer speed of the outer circumference of the medium is higher than that of the inner circumference, so that the seek time from the inner circumference to the outer circumference and the time of the READ cycle processing are reduced. The data transferred from the application is temporarily saved in a buffer area inside the drive, and after seeking to the outer circumference, the data in the buffer area is temporarily transferred to a medium. With this method, a medium read cycle is inserted without extremely slowing down the data transfer.

The third method is a method in which data writing to a medium is started in the middle of a parity block. This will be described with reference to the data sector structure shown in FIG. The parity sector (PS) of the physical sector number 25 is generated from the data of the data sector (DS) of the physical sector numbers 0 to 24. That is,
If a block of blocks for generating a parity sector is a parity block,
For example, to start writing data from physical sector number 4,
It is necessary to read the data of the physical sector numbers 0 to 3 that are not rewritten and regenerate the parity data. As a result, a read cycle can be inserted without being aware of the write processing from the upper layer. If the data is always rewritten in the middle of the parity block, there is a risk that the actual transfer rate is reduced due to the read cycle. Therefore, this generation cycle or frequency can be set, and an optimal read cycle is inserted according to the application.

In the read cycle implemented as in the above three examples, the data quality is confirmed by the error correction code inside the drive. The drive management unit 4 monitors the data quality verified by the error correction code of the drive via the interface unit 5. When the deterioration of the quality is confirmed, the drive management unit 4 issues a warning that an abnormality of the head or the medium has begun to occur. In addition, this warning can be issued even when a fatal error such as a sector error occurs. As a result, before a fatal error occurs, measures such as medium exchange can be performed, and the reliability of write data can be ensured.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 4, the same reference numerals are given to the same functional blocks as in the reference example and the first embodiment, and the description thereof will be omitted. Here, reference numeral 13 denotes a media use time estimating unit, which is connected to the CPU 3 for system control.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described. In the second embodiment, similarly to the reference example and the first embodiment, when multimedia data to be recorded in the drive is input via the data I / F unit 1, the system control CPU 3 transmits the data. A data sector structure according to a predetermined format is created in the sector generation unit 2. In the first embodiment described above, a read cycle is inserted although the upper layer is not aware of it. As a result, it is undeniable that the actual transfer rate decreases. Depending on the application, this reduction in the effective transfer rate may not be allowed. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the media use time estimating unit 13 is provided to estimate the media use time, and the system issues a warning message prompting for media exchange for media used for a certain time or more.

A specific example of the second embodiment is shown below. As a first method, in the initialization of a medium executed when the use of the medium is started, an initialization time is written in the medium. The media use time is estimated from the initialization time and the current time.

As a second method, a use start time or a write start time is recorded in the medium separately from the initialization time. The use start time is written in the medium when data is actually written or read. According to this method, it is possible to cope with a case where a large number of media are temporarily initialized and used one by one. As a result, the use time estimation accuracy is improved more than in the first method.

As a third method, a sector for counting up the number of writes in a parity block unit is prepared exclusively. FIG. 5 shows an embodiment of the data sector structure at that time. In FIG. 5, the physical sector number 24 is a parity sector block write count sector (PBS), and the rest is the same as FIG.

In particular, when continuously writing multimedia data in a certain area of the disk, if the area becomes full, overwriting is performed again on the same area. At this time,
The drive causes head seek. The number of head seeks is written to a dedicated sector inside the rewritten parity block. The drive management unit 4 reads the rewrite count value of the dedicated sector inside the parity block and estimates the use time.

By using the use time estimation function implemented by the above three methods, in a multimedia disk recorder operated for a long time, especially for writing only, the media of the medium adapted to the use environment and use conditions of the apparatus are used. Before the usage time reaches the recommended value, the drive management unit 4 issues a message urging the exchange of the media. As a result, a system such as medium exchange can be performed before a fatal failure occurs due to deterioration of the medium, and a system capable of securing the reliability of write data can be configured.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 6, the reference example and first and second
The same reference numerals are given to the same functional blocks as in the embodiment, and the description is omitted. Here, reference numeral 14 denotes a physical sector management table, which is connected to the CPU 3 for system control via the media use time estimation unit 13. The physical sector management table 14 has a function of managing the state of a physical sector of a medium. That is, in this embodiment, the basic configuration of FIG. 1 is provided with a READ cycle generation unit 12 of FIG. 3, a media use time estimation unit 13 of FIG. 4, and a physical sector management table 14 shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment will be described. In the third embodiment, similarly to the reference example and the first and second embodiments, when multimedia data to be recorded in the drive is input via the data I / F unit 1, a system control The CPU 3 creates a data sector structure in the data sector generation unit 2 according to a predetermined format.
As in the first embodiment, the read cycle is inserted by the READ cycle generation unit 12 at intervals of the data write processing without being conscious of the upper application. Then, as in the second embodiment,
The media use time estimation unit 13 estimates the media use time. In the third embodiment, as a result of the read processing executed by the READ cycle generation unit 12, the data quality status is reported from the drive, and the error status inside the sector can be grasped. The drive management unit 4 receives the data quality status described above and the estimated usage time from the media usage time estimation unit 13, monitors the status of data quality associated with the usage time of the media, and compares the result with the physical sector management table.
Register and manage at 14. Then, the change can be traced. As a result, the drive management unit 4 separates whether the deterioration of the data quality is due to the deterioration of the medium due to long-time use or a burst-like factor due to external vibration or the like, and reaches a situation where the medium needs to be replaced. It is determined whether or not. As a result, it is possible to take measures such as replacing media before a fatal failure occurs due to media deterioration,
A system that can ensure the reliability of write data can be configured.

[0050]

As described above, according to the present invention, by inserting a read cycle into the interval of a write cycle without being conscious of the upper layer, the deterioration state of the medium can be grasped even in an application that performs continuous writing. it can. As a result, the system can issue a warning before reaching a fatal failure such as a sector failure, prompting necessary measures such as media replacement, and a system capable of securing the reliability of write data can be configured.

Further, the use time estimation function enables the use time of the medium to be estimated even in a write-priority system in which an automatic read cycle cannot be entered. As a result, when the media approaches the recommended usage time, the system can issue a warning message, prompt a necessary action such as media replacement, and configure a system that can ensure the reliability of the write data.

Further, by having an automatic read cycle and a use time estimating function, it is possible to discriminate whether deterioration of data quality is caused by a burst-like factor due to external vibration or the like or by media deterioration. As a result, the system can issue a warning, prompt a necessary action such as media replacement, and configure a system that can ensure the reliability of the write data.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a multimedia disc recorder according to a reference example for describing a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an example of a parity block generated by a data sector generation unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of a parity block having a parity block write count sector generated by a data sector generation unit in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a multimedia disk recorder according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional multimedia disk recorder.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Data interface (I / F) part, 2 ... Data sector generation part, 3 ... CPU for system control, 4 ... Drive management part, 5 ... Interface part, 6 ... Interface processing part, 7 ... CPU for drive control , 8
... Signal processing unit, 9 ... Servo control unit, 10 ... Mechanical control unit, 11 ... Head / media unit, 12 ... READ cycle generation unit, 13 ... Media use time estimation unit, 14 ... Physical sector management table.

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A system in which data is automatically written in an interval from immediately after a data write process to a next data write using a recording method in which a check process of the written data is not performed immediately after the data write. In a multimedia disk recorder in which a drive or medium error is detected by monitoring a data error from the drive by executing a read process of the drive and a system issues a warning message, the writing of the data is performed in a physical manner. Sectors and parity sectors
From the physical sector in the middle of the parity block consisting of
The frequency of writing performed in the middle of a physical sector.
A multimedia disk recorder characterized in that the execution of the reading process is optimized . 2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the data writing is performed by the parity block.
Physical sector in the middle of any parity block in the block
2. The multimedia disk recorder according to claim 1 , wherein whether to start from is selected arbitrarily from the outside . The method according to claim 3] not writing data when you run, one
At regular intervals, is the physical sector in the middle of the parity block
2. The multimedia disk recorder according to claim 1, wherein 4. When data writing is performed, an external
Of the parity block at an arbitrary cycle set by the
2. The multimedia disk recorder according to claim 1, wherein the recording is performed from an intermediate physical sector . 5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the data writing is performed by the parity block.
Tsu any parity or the middle of the physical sector of the block out of the click
Multimedia disc recorder according to claim 1, wherein the determining whether to perform al, by using random numbers. 6. A write operation immediately after writing data.
Using a recording method that does not perform inspection processing of
The system estimates the media usage time,
Use the predicted value to predict drive or media errors.
The system issues a warning message
The media disk recorder counts the number of times media has been rewritten, and the count value
Is used to estimate the use time of the media,
Seed when overwriting data to a certain area of the media
The number of rewrites is used as the count of the number of rewrites, and the inside of a parity block consisting of a physical sector and a parity sector is used.
The count value for counting the number of rewrites is
Save and when the count value reaches a certain value or more,
Luma Ruchi media disk recorder to <br/> characterized in that a dedicated reading the parity block. 7. Write immediately after writing data
Using a recording method that does not perform inspection processing of
Immediately after the data write process, the next data
The read size is automatically set in the interval until the data is written.
To monitor data errors from the drive
, And estimate the media usage time,
From the predicted value and data error information from the drive,
Detect and predict live or media abnormalities,
Multimedia disc for which the system issues a warning message
In the recorder, the system detects the drive detected in the read cycle.
Eve data error due to the use time of the media
Judgment of data quality deterioration status
The media degradation factors are separated from the predicted values between
It features and be luma Ruchi media disk recorder that sense.