JPH02273370A - Information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To always load a storing medium whose frequency in use is high and to reduce frequency in exchange by measuring time when the storing medium is loaded in a storing medium driving means after completing the write/ read-out of information. CONSTITUTION:A master control part 13 judges the input by a keyboard 12. At the time of requiring the reproduction of a disk C, whether the disk C is loaded in an auto-changer 7 is decided from the state of a priority holding memory 10. When the disk C is not loaded there, the disk which is being loaded now is restored to a housed position and the disk C is loaded to perform the reproduction. The loading time of the disk which is being loaded is reset at the time of completing recording/reproducing and at the time of exchanging. When the completion of recording/reproducing is decided by the master control part 13 and the data of a loading time measuring circuit 11 exceeds the maximum loading time of the disk C in the memory 10, the master control part compares the priorities of all the disks and selects the disk whose priority is maximum, then loads it to the changer 7 and the disk C is restored to the housed position. Thus, the frequency of exchange of the disks is reduced.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention provides an autochanger or the like that stores a plurality of storage media such as optical disks, selects a desired let medium from the plurality of storage media, and loads it into a drive device. The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that is equipped with a storage medium and that does not write or read information to or from a selected storage medium.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art An information file device has been developed that records image information and the like on an optical disk, searches the optical disk as needed, and outputs required image information to the outside of the device.

In such an information file device, when the amount of image information becomes large, the information is recorded on multiple optical disks, and an autochanger is connected to select the required disk from among the multiple disks and load it into the optical disk drive means. It helps people search for information.

However, when reading information using an autochanger, it takes time to change optical discs, so it takes a long time to search for information, resulting in a decrease in search efficiency. As a method to improve this decrease in search efficiency, a method has been proposed to store frequently used optical disks closer to the optical disk drive means (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 16001'17/1983).

[Problems that the invention is supposed to solve]

However, even if the storage position of the optical disc is changed, as long as discs are replaced frequently, no substantial improvement in search efficiency can be expected.

Therefore, if frequently used optical disks are always loaded in the disk drive means, the time required for changing disks can be considerably reduced, but no device has been devised in which a specific disk is always loaded.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such problems, and it is possible to avoid the situation where a storage medium that is infrequently used remains loaded in the storage medium drive means after the writing/continuation of information writing is completed. In order to do this, the priority of the frequently used storage medium is set high, and the loading time of the storage medium loaded in the storage medium drive means is measured after the writing/successive output of information is completed. An object of the present invention is to provide an information processing device in which a frequently used storage medium is always loaded in the storage medium, and the frequency of replacing the storage medium when writing/reading information is reduced.

[Means to solve the problem]

An information processing device of the present invention is an information processing device that selects a desired storage medium from a plurality of storage media, loads it into a storage medium drive means, and writes/reads information, and stores the priority with which each storage medium is selected. a priority storage means for storing information on the storage medium; a measuring means for measuring the time during which the storage medium is loaded into the storage medium driving means after the writing/successive output of information to the storage medium is completed; and a loading time measured by the measuring means. If the specified time is exceeded,
The apparatus is characterized by comprising means for loading a storage medium having a high priority stored in the priority record i, 9 means into the storage medium driving means.

[Effect]

The information processing device of the present invention measures the loading time of the storage medium loaded in the storage medium drive means after the writing/reading of information is completed, and if the loading time exceeds a predetermined time, the storage medium with a higher priority is Exchange with medium. Furthermore, if the loaded storage medium has the highest priority, that storage medium is left loaded. Therefore, the storage medium drive means is always loaded with a storage medium with a high priority, and information is written/written.
To reduce the frequency of replacing storage media during reading.

〔Example〕

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below based on drawings showing embodiments thereof.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a scanner that optically scans and reads image information, and the image information read by the scanner 1 is temporarily stored in an image memory 2. The display memory 3 stores the image information stored in the image memory 2 as display data.

The display control unit 4 displays the display data stored in the display memory 3 on the CRT 5.

The magnetic disk device 6 stores image information records, e-address keywords, indexes for searching image information, and the like. The autochanger 7 has a plurality of optical discs 8a, 8b,
8c, 8d, 8e and an optical disk drive means for driving them. The recording/reproduction control section 9 controls recording/reproduction of information on the required optical disk No. 8.

The priority holding memory 10 allocates the loading priority to the optical disk drive means determined by the frequency of use, the loading status (whether or not it is loaded), the maximum loading time, and the measured loading time for each disk. . The loading time measuring circuit 11 measures the time during which the optical disk is loaded into the drive means after the recording and reproduction of information is completed, using a timer or the like, and provides the measured data to the priority holding memory 10.

Operator operation commands are given from the keyboard 12, and the main control section 13 controls data exchange between each section.

Further, FIGS. 2 to 7 are schematic diagrams showing the exchange state of the optical disk 8 in the autochanger 7 and a conceptual diagram of the storage state of the priority retention memo 1 month O in association with each other. Is autochanger 7 a means of driving two optical disks? a, 7b, A, B.

Five optical disks 8a, 8b, 8c, 8d C, D, H
, 8e is stored. Priority maintenance memo January O contains the priority determined from the frequency of use of each optical disk, the loading status indicated by "1" or 0 to indicate whether it is loaded in the optical disk drive means, the maximum loading time, and information. The loading time measured by the loading time measuring circuit 1.1 after the recording/playback is completed is recorded for each disk (a).The larger the value is, the higher the priority is. Possible methods include a method in which the operator sets it from the keyboard 12, a method in which the main control unit 13 sets it based on the frequency of use, and the like.

Information is recorded and recorded in an information processing device configured as described above.
The procedure for exchanging optical discs during playback will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

The main control unit 13 judges a request input by the operator from the keyboard 12 (Sl), and when the operator requests to reproduce information from the disk C, priority is given to whether or not the disk C is loaded in the optical disk drive means 7a, 7b. This is determined based on the loading state data in the memory 10 (S2). If disc C is being loaded, information is played back from disc C (S
5). As shown in FIG. 2, if the disk C is not being loaded, the priority data in the priority holding memory 10 is referred to and the disk D currently loaded in the optical disk drive means 7a, 7b is selected.

Disk D, which has a lower priority among disks E, is not returned to the storage position (S3). When the optical disc D is returned to the storage position, measurement of the loading time of the optical disc D is stopped. Next, the optical disk C is loaded into the optical disk drive means 7a (S4), and information is reproduced in the state shown in FIG. 3 (S5).

The procedure for recording information is also similar to the reproduction procedure described above.

Furthermore, a procedure for always loading a high-priority disk into the optical disk drive means will be explained.

In this embodiment, in consideration of the possibility that the same disk will be used continuously, a predetermined time after the end of recording/playback is provided as a grace period until the disk is replaced.

When the recording and reproduction of information is completed, the loading time data of the disk C and the disk D whose measurement was stopped at the time of replacement with the disk C is reset (S6).

When the main control unit 13 determines the processing status (Sl) and determines that the recording/playback has ended, the loading time data of only the disk C in the priority holding memory IO is again set based on the loading time measured by the loading time measuring circuit 11. The count is amplified from 0. This loading time data is compared with the maximum loading time of 60 seconds (S7), and the disk C is kept loaded in the optical disk drive means 7a until the limit time is exceeded. As shown in FIG. 4, when the main controller 13 detects that the disk C has exceeded the maximum loading time, all disks including the disk C (excluding the disk E loaded in the optical disk drive means 7b) ) and compare the priorities of (S
8), detect the disk with the highest +1 priority, and if that disk is other than the currently loaded disk, return the disk C for which the time has elapsed to the storage position (S9), and light the disk with the highest priority. The disk drive means 7a is loaded (S10). After that, disk C was returned to the storage position.
(11).

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram when disk B has the highest priority and is loaded in exchange for disk C.

Further, FIGS. 6 and 7 are schematic diagrams showing the processing state when the loading time of the disk E (having the highest priority) loaded in the optical disk drive device 7b is exceeded.

That is, when the main control unit 13 compares the priorities of all disks including the disk E (excluding the disk C loaded in the optical disk drive 7a) (S8), the priority of the currently loaded disk E is determined. Since it is the highest, I do not replace it with another disk, but write the priority maintenance memo "Reset the loading time data of only disk E in month O (Sll)"
.

Although the loading time limit was set to 60 seconds in this embodiment, it is possible to set the time depending on the use of each disk.

Further, in this embodiment, the auto-change medium 7 is configured to have two optical disk drive means 7a and 7b, but the same effect can be obtained even if it has one or three or more optical disk drive means.

Furthermore, although this embodiment has been described with respect to an information processing device that is capable of both reading and writing, similar results can be obtained even if it is a single-function device that is capable of reading only.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The information processing device of the present invention has the advantage of constantly loading frequently used disks into the optical disk drive, which greatly reduces the time required to replace disks and improves information retrieval efficiency. 'AJ performance.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 7 are schematic diagrams showing the state of disk exchange and a conceptual diagram showing the storage state of the priority holding memory, and FIG. is a flowchart showing a disc replacement procedure. 7... Autochanger 8... Optical disc 10.
・Priority holding memory 11 ・Loading time measurement circuit 1
2...Keyboard 13...Main control unit patent Applicant Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Noboru Kono (a) 8e (a) Condolences? Funeral map (b) (b) Funeral map (b) (b) (a) Funeral map (b) (b)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an information processing apparatus that selects a desired storage medium from a plurality of storage media, loads it into a storage medium drive means, and writes/reads information, the priority at which each storage medium is selected is stored. a priority storage means for storing information on the storage medium; a measuring means for measuring the time during which the storage medium is loaded into the storage medium driving means after the writing/reading of information to the storage medium is completed; and a loading time measured by the measuring means. An information processing apparatus comprising: means for loading a storage medium with a high priority stored in the priority storage means into the storage medium drive means when the time exceeds the time limit.