JPH052456A - Information storing method for storing media and system therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control plural divided areas of the storing media with a logical driving device name by corresponding a logical driving device and a data storing area. CONSTITUTION:Under the control of an operating system mounted on a controller 1, the information is stored and reproduced by using the storing media including an optical disk 3. The operating system considers respective data storing areas divided and set onto the storing media as the storing device of 1 respectively and logically and handles it as a driving device logically. To these logical driving devices, the specific names are respectively given and they are corresponded to the data storing area of the physical storing device. By designating the name of the logical driving device, an operator performs the recording and reproducing of the information for the storing media. Thus, by using the limited number of the logical driving device names, the large storage capacity can be effectively used.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information storage method for writing and reading information to and from a storage medium such as an optical disk, and an information storage system therefor,
In particular, the present invention relates to an information storage method capable of storing and reproducing data handled by a general-purpose operating system on a storage medium in a state that the operating system can handle, and an information storage system therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical disc has been developed as a medium for storing information, and it is being used for storing image information by utilizing its large storage capacity. In particular, a rewritable optical disk is used for constructing a file system because it can rewrite information like a conventional magnetic disk.

By the way, since the optical disk is mainly used for storing image information, writing and reading of the image information to and from the storage medium are processed by a dedicated processing program. Therefore, when the code data is stored, it is once converted into image data and stored as image data. However, this has a problem that the read data cannot be used as it is and a conversion process to code data is required.

On the other hand, the one which can store image data and code data in a mixed manner on an optical disk is "Izawa et al., Toshiba Review, 1989, No. 44".
Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 49-52 ". The technique described in this paper creates an area on an optical disc having a hierarchical storage structure (data structure and format) for image data. The code data is stored in the lowest layer of the layer that stores the image data in the hierarchical structure.
That is, in this technique, additional information (index information) of image data, which corresponds to image data 1: 1
By adding information for distinguishing between the image data and the code data, it is possible to store the code data in the same code as the image data.

[0005]

The above conventional technique stores code data in a storage structure for image data. Therefore, although the code data can be accessed from the image processing program, there is a problem that the code data cannot be directly accessed from another program such as a general-purpose operating system having a different storage configuration. In this case, it is necessary to access via a storage medium such as a floppy disk having a storage structure that can be handled by other programs. On the contrary, in order to enable the code data to be accessed from the image processing program, the image processing program needs to be aware of the storage configuration of other programs, which increases the load.

Therefore, in an information storage system having a dedicated processing program for storing and reproducing image information, data which is handled by a general-purpose operating system is stored and played on the storage medium in such a state that the operating system can handle the data. It is desired to develop a system that can do this.

By the way, for example, M of Microsoft
In a general-purpose operating system such as S-DOS, the physical storage device is divided into a plurality of suitable sizes so that the size of the used area is not limited by the size of the storage area of the physical storage device. There is a technique of storing information by treating each area logically as one storage device or drive device for each divided area. In this case, a logical drive device name is uniquely assigned to each of the divided areas of the storage area of the physical storage device. Data can be stored and reproduced by the operator by designating this logical drive device name without being aware of the addresses of the physical device and its area. In this technique, since the logical drive device name and the physical storage area are in a one-to-one correspondence, it is necessary to specify the corresponding device name for each storage area to be referred.

When a storage medium is divided into a plurality of areas and logical drive device names are given to the respective areas, the number of logical drive device names that can be given is often finite in the conventional general-purpose operating system. In addition, in order to simplify the assignment of the logical drive device name, for example, the logical drive device name is defined using a single digit number or one English character.

However, it is possible that the number of logical drive device names that can be given becomes insufficient as the number of divided areas increases as the physical storage capacity increases. For example, if the storage capacity of itself is very large, such as an optical disk, or if the storage capacity is large as a whole by using a large number of storage media, use the maximum number of logical drive device names that can be given. However, it is possible that only part of the storage capacity can be used.

On the other hand, in order to be able to store and reproduce in a storage area that can be handled by the operating system, it is necessary to initialize the storage area to a storage configuration that can be handled by the operating system. To change the size of the divided area after initial setting,
The initial setting may be performed again. However, if the initialization is performed after the data is stored, the stored data will be lost. Therefore, it is actually difficult to change the size of the once set divided area. Therefore, in order to effectively use the storage capacity with a limited number of logical drive device names, it is possible to expand the storage area for each logical drive device name, but this is difficult to realize.

Regarding the storage of the code data on the optical disk, the IEICE Transactions “DI Vol.J72-DI N
As discussed in "O.6 pp.414-422", there are some which make an optical disk one virtual disk and can be accessed from an existing general-purpose OS (operating system). However, it is described in this paper. The technology makes an optical disc look as if it can be rewritten any number of times, and apparently considers a virtual disc that is a collection of virtual sectors that can be rewritten any number of times.
It cannot be applied to rewritable optical discs.

A first object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium with a plurality of areas divided into sizes each of which can be handled by a general-purpose operating system, and assign these areas with logical drive device names. An object is to provide an information storage method that can be managed and an information storage system therefor.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an information storage method and an information storage system therefor capable of effectively utilizing a large storage capacity by using a limited number of logical drive devices. Especially.

[0014]

To achieve the first object, according to one aspect of the present invention, at least one storage medium and an input / output control for controlling input / output of data to / from the storage medium. In an information storage system including at least a device, a control device that controls the system including control of writing and reading of data, and an operation unit that inputs an instruction to the control device, in order to access a storage medium, Correspondence relationship information that defines a correspondence relationship between one or more logical drive means virtually set on the control device and a data storage area accessible by the logical drive means on a storage medium. And a correspondence relationship information holding unit for holding data, and the input / output control device uses the operation unit to write and read data. When the logical drive means is designated, control is performed to refer to the correspondence information held in the correspondence information holding means to enable access to the data storage area on the storage medium corresponding to the designated logical drive means. An information storage system is provided, which comprises a unit.

To achieve the second object, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information storage system characterized in that the correspondence information can be rewritten in the above aspect.

Information indicating the storage position of the related image data in the image data area is stored in the code data area, and the code data is reproduced at the time of reproduction, and the information indicating the storage position is used to reproduce the image data. An information storage method is provided, which is characterized by reading image data from a region. This provides an information storage method and an information storage system therefor capable of storing image data and code data in association with each other and storing the code data in a storage configuration that can be handled by a general-purpose operating system. To be done.

[0017]

In order to handle a large capacity storage medium such as an optical disc, the storage medium is divided and used for each data area unit.

On the other hand, when a storage medium is handled, by associating the storage medium and the data area with the logical drive device as described above, it is possible to read / write to the storage medium by designating the logical drive device. Also,
The data area can be changed by changing the association.

When allocating the data area, the size of the area is set to an arbitrary size so that the floppy disk can be
It can also be used with magnetic disks.

Further, in the data area, code data,
It is possible to store any type of data such as image data.

In addition, it is possible to associate the storage medium in the library device in which a plurality of storage media can be mounted with the logical device.

As described above, according to the present invention, data handled by a general-purpose operating system can be stored and played on a storage medium in a state where the operating system can handle it.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of an information storage system to which the information storage system of the present invention is applied.

The information storage system of this embodiment has a control device 1 and is connected to the control device 1 as an image processor 5, a memory 4 and a clock mechanism 1.
1, a magnetic disk input / output control device 12, a floppy disk input / output control device 14, an optical disk input / output control device 2, and an input / output control device 6 for connecting to other information processing devices, and a display device. 7 and an operation unit 8.

Further, the information storage system of this embodiment includes an image input section 9, a printing device 10, a magnetic disk 13 and its drive device (not shown), a floppy disk 15 and its drive device (not shown), an optical disk 3 and And its drive device (not shown).

As the optical disc 3, in this embodiment, a rewritable medium, for example, a magneto-optical disc is used.
Of course, the present invention is not limited to this.

Further, the information storage system of this embodiment is
Through the input / output control device 6, the word processor 16
Are connected. A computer may be connected instead of or together with the word processor.

In the information storage system of this embodiment, a general-purpose operating system is mounted on the control device 1, and information is stored / reproduced by using a storage medium including the optical disc 3 under the control of the operating system. The operating system installed in the control device 1 logically regards each data storage area divided and set on the storage medium as one storage device and logically treats it as a drive device, It has a function of instructing to read / write information from / to each data storage area set in the storage medium via the physical drive device. Therefore, the configuration of the data data storage area of the optical disc and the logical drive device will be described before the configuration of each unit of the present embodiment is described in detail.

The structure of the data storage area is shown in FIG.
(A) and (B) show the structure of the management information, and FIG. 5 shows the correspondence between the logical drive device and each storage device.

In FIG. 2, 30 indicates a storage area format on the optical disc 3, and 40 indicates a storage area format on the memory 4. In the storage area format 30 of this embodiment, the image data area 33, the code data area 34, the area management area 31 that manages each data area, and the association management area that stores association information on the optical disc 3. 32 and 32 are arranged. Further, in the storage area format 40 of this embodiment, an image storage pointer 41, a correspondence management table 42, a code data buffer 43, and an image data buffer 44 are arranged on the memory 4. The correspondence management table 42 can store a copy on the optical disc 3.

The data storage area of the optical disk 3 is divided by the pointer of the area management area 31. The associated code data area is also pointed from the association management table 42.

The area management area 31 has data area information F- indicating the location of the data storage area provided on the storage medium.
1, F-2, ... Are provided. This data area information F-
1, F-2, ..., As shown in FIG.
A file name 311 indicating the name of the data area, an attribute 312 indicating a data attribute such as image data or code data, a data area start pointer 313 indicating the range of the data storage area, and a data area end pointer 3
14 and 14 are stored.

In the correspondence management area 32, correspondence information L-1, L-2, ... Which indicates the correspondence between the logical drive device and the data storage area is provided for each logical drive device. This correspondence information L-1, L-2, ...
3B, the logical drive device number 321 and the file name 3 indicating the name of the data storage area
22, an attribute 323 indicating the attribute of the data storage area, and a data area start pointer 32 indicating the range of the data storage area
4 and the data area final pointer 325 are stored.

Here, the logical drive device is not a physical device but a logical drive device which is virtually set in the operating system installed in the control device 1. That is, the operating system 114 divides the physical storage device into a plurality of suitable sizes, regards each divided area as one storage medium logically for each divided area, and virtualizes each area. The drive device 1 corresponds to. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a plurality of logical drive devices 1
7 is prepared by the operating system shown in FIG. 10 described later, for example. A unique name is given to each of these logical drive devices 17. The operator can record / reproduce information on / from the storage medium by designating the name of the logical drive device. As the name, for example, a device number as shown in FIG. 5 can be used.

As described above, each logical drive device is associated with a data storage area of a physical storage device. This association is also performed by providing the association management table 42 as shown in FIG. 2 in the memory 4 shown in FIG. For example, the table 42 shows, for each logical drive device, a device number 421 representing the logical drive device and a data storage region start pointer 422 and a data storage region end pointer 423 which are location information of the corresponding data storage region. And are stored.

This logical drive device can be provided with a number corresponding to the number of external storage devices which the control device 1 of the information storage system can separately handle as independent devices. In this case, the external storage device can be considered as a unit such as a magnetic disk device (hard disk) or a floppy disk device, which is conventionally treated as one device. For example, in the case of the control device 1 capable of managing input / output of data by connecting six floppy disk devices, as shown in FIG.
Six logical drive units 0 to 5 can be set. Of course, when the operating system of the control device 1 can handle a larger number of external storage devices, the number of logical drive devices can be increased within the range of the number of logical drive devices that the operating system can handle.

When there are plural kinds of input / output control devices such as the optical disk input / output control device 2, the magnetic disk input / output control device 12, and the floppy disk input / output control device 14 as in this embodiment, One or more logical drive devices to be exclusively used can be designated in advance for each input / output control device. In the case of the optical disk 3, since the storage capacity is large, the data storage area is divided and apparently independent storage devices are associated with the respective logical drive devices. Therefore, with respect to the optical disk 3, it appears to the control device 1 that a plurality of (corresponding to the number of logical drive devices) external storage devices exist. The capacity of the divided areas can be set appropriately by the user. For example, it may be matched with the capacity of the storage medium of the magnetic disk device or the floppy disk.

Next, the configuration of each part of the system of this embodiment will be described in more detail.

The control device 1 has a central processing unit and a memory (not shown), and controls the information storage system of this embodiment by executing a program stored in the memory. That is, the control device 1 has the configuration shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 2, under the control of the operating system 114, a program 111 for realizing various data processing including document creation and an operating system supported by the system of the present embodiment are stored on a storage medium. A logical drive device processing program 112 for logically treating each divided data storage area as one drive device, and an image processing program for performing processing such as writing, searching, and reading of image data And 113. Here, as the operating system 114, a general-purpose operating system is used. The program of the control device 1 may be stored in the memory 4.

The optical disk input / output control device 2 has a central processing unit and a memory (not shown), and executes various programs stored in the memory to execute various controls under the instruction of the control device 1, for example, It is responsible for allocating storage areas of the optical disk 3, data transfer between the optical disk 3 and the memory 4, input / output with a communication line (not shown), and the like. Similarly, the magnetic disk input / output control device 12 and the floppy disk input / output control device 14 also perform input / output control under the instruction of the control device 1.

As shown in FIG. 10, the optical disk input / output control device 2 has an interface part 21 for interfacing with the control device 1 and the memory 4, and a logical drive device control part for controlling the process of storing / reproducing code data. 22, an image control unit 23 that manages processing related to storage / reproduction of image data, and an optical disk management unit 24 that manages an optical disk including read / write processing.

When the interface unit 21 receives the activation signal from the control device 1, the interface unit 21 reads the command flag on the memory 4, and if the command flag is "1", activates the image control unit 23 that controls the image data, If it is "0", the logical drive device controller 22 that controls the code data is activated. Each of the control units 22 and 23 accepts the command if the command can be executed (if the command is not currently being executed), and the control units 22 and 22 provided in the memory 4 will be described later.
Transfer the command to the corresponding memory for 23, and after transfer,
The reception response is returned to the interface unit 21. The interface unit 21 waits for a reception response from the control unit 22 or 23 and enters a state of accepting the next command. After the reception response, the control units 22 and 23 activate the optical disc management unit 24 as necessary to execute each command. After the command is executed, when the end is reported to the interface unit 21, the interface unit 21 reports the end to the control device 1.

The above-mentioned command flag is necessary only for the optical disk input / output control device 2 which handles a plurality of types of data (code and image), and is not necessary for other input / output control devices. This flag is used for the image processing program 11
It is set before the command is sent in 3 and reset after the command is completed. Therefore, the various processing programs executed in the control device 1 do not need to set / reset the command flag when executing a command when using the divided storage area of the optical disc 3 as a logical drive device. Therefore, the various processing programs use the optical disk 3, the magnetic disk 13 and the floppy disk 1
Can be used in the same way as 5. That is, when using the optical disc 3, it is not necessary to change the program.

The logical drive device control section 22 accepts commands similar to the magnetic disk input / output control device 12 and the floppy disk input / output control device 14 (code data read / write commands, etc.) in addition to the association command. In the association command, the association management area 32 and the association management table 42 are updated after checking the association file name and the logical drive device name.
In the read / write command, the operating system 114 and various processing programs 111 in the control device 1 are used.
Data length correction so that it is not necessary to be aware of physical characteristics different from other storage devices.
3, the optical disc management unit 24 is activated to read / write the code data.

The image control unit 23 receives a read / write command for image data. A read command is used to search for image data, and a write command is used to write an image at the address indicated by the image storage pointer 41 and update the image storage pointer 41.

Upon receiving an area reservation instruction from each control section, the optical disk management unit 24 checks the remaining storage capacity from the area management area 31 of the optical disk 3, and if the remaining storage capacity is larger than the reservation instruction capacity, Secure. Also, the validity of the address specified at the time of reading / writing data is checked. For example, if there is a data read / write request in the code data storage area even though the command flag is set, read / write
Write processing is not performed. After the check, data transfer between the optical disc 3 and the memory 4 is performed.

When the optical disc management unit 24 recognizes that the optical disc has been mounted and exchanged, it sets the optical disc status information to "1". Each control unit 22, 23 has
Always refer to this information. When this information becomes “1”, first, the logical drive device controller 22 activates the optical disc manager 24. Then, the logical drive device controller 2
2 reads out the association management area 32 via the optical disc management unit 24, and writes the contents into the association management table 4
Reset to 2. Then, the optical disc status information is set to "2". Next, when the optical disc status information becomes 2, the image control unit 23 resets the image storage pointer 41 (starts the optical disc management unit 24, searches the position where the image information is written), and sets the optical disc status. Set the information to 3. When the optical disc status information is 3, each unit 22, 2
3 do nothing.

The control units 22 and 23 do not simultaneously accept a plurality of commands. On the other hand, the control unit 2
2 and 23 can operate independently of each other and can be configured so as not to interfere with each other. Therefore, for example, during execution of the image data read command from the image processing program (during execution of the image control unit 23 command), a code data read command from another processing program can be executed. However, since there is only one optical disc management unit 24, when the control units 22 and 23 instruct the optical disc management unit 24 to read / write the data size from the control device 1, the next command Since reading / writing cannot be executed, each control unit divides the data size into a certain size (for example, one track), and issues a read / write instruction to the optical disc management unit 24. This allows data to be passed to multiple processing programs simultaneously. For example, by simultaneously receiving the image data read command from the image processing program and the code data read command from the word processor processing program, the image processing program causes the image processor to sequentially process the image data and display it on the display device 7. it can. On the other hand, the word processor processing program can also sequentially display the read code data on the display device 7, and it is as if a plurality of processing programs are executing at the same time. It is assumed that the display device 7 divides the display area by the operating system and allocates it to various processing programs.

The memory 4 has a code data buffer 43 for storing code data and image data, an image data buffer 44, a command flag area 45 for storing command flags, a command table 46 for storing commands, and an optical disk state. An optical disc status information area 49 for storing information indicating the above, a logical drive device control data area 47, and an image control section data area 48 are provided as internal areas. The logical drive device control data area 47 and the image control unit data area 48 include a storage area format 40 on the memory 4 shown in FIG.
Part of the data shown in is stored. That is, the image storage pointer 41 is stored in the image control unit data area 48. In addition, the logical drive device control data area 4
In FIG. 7, a correspondence management table 42 is stored.

The image processor 5 encodes the image data temporarily stored in the memory 4 and registers it in the optical disc 3 via the optical disc input / output device 2. Also,
On the contrary, the image data stored in the optical disc 3 is decoded and expanded on the memory 4.

The operation unit 8 is composed of an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, receives instructions and data input from an operator, and transmits them to the control device 1.

The display device 7 is composed of, for example, a CRT display or the like, and under the control of the control device 1, displays the data and control information input from the operation unit 8 and the data on the memory 4.

The image input unit 9 has an image scanner or the like, takes in an image such as a figure drawn on a sheet such as a drawing, generates image data, and transfers it to the memory 4.

The printer 10 prints image data and code data on the memory 4. Further, the clock mechanism 11 indicates the time.

Next, the operation of the information storage system according to this embodiment will be described.

First, the case where a data storage area for image data or code data is secured on the optical disk 3 will be described. When securing a data storage area for image data or code data on the optical disc 3, the operator operates the operation unit 8 to give an instruction, and the operation unit 8 receives the instruction and the instruction is given by the control device. Propagate to 1. The control device 1 issues a command to the optical disk input / output control device 2 to instruct the area reservation on the optical disk 3, and stores the command in the command table 46 on the memory 4. This processing can be performed from the various processing programs 111 or the image processing programs 113 via the operating system 114, for example. At this time, if there is an instruction from the image processing program 113, the command flag 45 is set to "1".

Further, the control unit 1 issues the command, and at the same time, the interface unit 2 of the optical disc input / output control unit
Start 1. When activated, the interface unit 21 operates as described above, and activates one of the logical drive device controller 22 and the image controller 23 according to the state of the flag of the command flag 45. Here, for example, if the logical drive device control unit 22 is activated, the logical drive device control unit 22 accepts the command stored in the command table and sets it to the logical drive device control data area. It stores in 47. The logical drive device control unit 22 sends a response indicating that the command has been accepted to the control device 1 and inquires about the size of the area to be secured. The control device 1 is
The display device 7 displays a message requesting the input of the size of the area to be secured.

When the area size is input through the operation unit 8, the control device 1 sends the logical drive device control unit 22 the area size to be secured. The logical drive device controller 22 activates the optical disc manager 24. When the optical disk management unit 24 receives an area reservation instruction from the logical drive device control unit 22, it checks the remaining storage capacity from the area management area 31 of the optical disk 3 and determines the remaining storage capacity from the specified size. If it is larger, the command at the time of securing is executed.

Further, the operator, via the operation unit 8,
When the display device 7 is instructed to display the state of the area secured on the optical disc 3, the control device 1 instructs the optical disc input / output control device 2 to store the secured state information indicating the secured region of the memory 4 in the memory 4. Instruct to transfer to the logical drive control data area. Further, the control device 1 instructs the display device 7 to display the secured state information of the area on the memory 4. Thereby, the display device 7 displays, for example, the capacity of the secured data storage area, the remaining storage capacity, the head address, and the like.

The area size may be sent to the control device 1 together with the command when the operation section 8 gives an instruction to secure the area.

Next, the logical drive device and the optical disk 3
The correspondence with the upper data area will be described. That is, before reading and writing data on the optical disc 3, the operator performs an operation in which one or a plurality of data storage areas on the optical disc 3 are regarded as a logical drive device in advance via the operation unit 8. Here, the control device 1, the optical disk input / output control device 2, and the correspondence management table 42 of the memory 4 constitute a correspondence means.

In response to this instruction, the control device 1 instructs the optical disk input / output control device 2 to associate the logical drive device with the data storage area of the storage medium to be used. The optical disk input / output control device 2 stores the information of the instructed data area in the association management table 4 in the memory 4.
Transfer to 2.

Even if there is no instruction from the operator,
If there is association information on the optical disc 3, the association information is transferred from the association management area 32 of the optical disc 3 to the memory 4.

The logical drive device and the data storage area of the code data are associated with each other, for example, as shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows a flow of associating a logical drive device with a code data area.

First, when setting up the system of this embodiment, the optical disk input / output control devices 2, 1 for the optical disk 3 are set.
2 and 14 are registered in the operating system (step 101).

Next, when the system power is turned on, the number of logical drive devices assigned to the input / output control devices 2, 12, and 14 is, for example,
It is reported from the operation unit 8. The reported number of logical drive devices are associated with the input / output control devices 2, 12, and 14 (step 102). As described above, for example, this association is performed in the association management table 42 shown in FIG.
Data for the required number of logical drive devices is set for each logical drive device.

Next, when the system power is turned on and the association information is stored in the optical disc 3 when the optical disc is loaded, the association information is read by the optical disc 3 and transferred to the association management table 42 of the memory 4 ( Step 103). If it is not stored in the optical disk 3, the logical drive device and the data storage area are associated with each other by using the association management table 42 according to the instruction of the operator and are stored. At this time, even if a logical drive device that has already been coupled is designated, it is re-associated.

In this way, the data storage area of the optical disk to be used can be easily switched as many times as the switch is switched.

In the correspondence shown in FIG. 5 as an example, the logical drive devices having device numbers 0 to 5 are assigned to two floppy disks, one magnetic disk, and three optical disks. In this case, the magnetic disk 13
Similarly to the floppy disk 15 and the floppy disk 15, the optical disk 3 can be handled by the logical drive device, so that data can be easily copied between the magnetic disk 13 and the optical disk 3, the floppy disk 15 and the optical disk 3, and the optical disk 3 under the control of the operating system 114. You can do it.

As described above, by associating an arbitrary area of the optical disk 3 with the logical drive device, it can be treated virtually equivalently to the data storage area of the magnetic disk, for example. Therefore, by specifying a logical drive device, data transfer with the optical disc 3
It can be performed in the same way as a magnetic disk device. In this case, a part of the data storage area of the optical disc may be made to correspond to the logical drive device, and the other part may not be made to correspond. For example, the area for storing the code data can be associated with the logical drive device, and the image data can be directly transferred with the memory 4 without being associated with the logical drive device.

When the number of logical drive devices is smaller than the number of divided areas to be associated with, all the divided areas are associated with the logical drive devices by rewriting the correspondence with the logical drive devices. You can
This can be done in the same way even if the optical disc is replaced. Further, the correspondence between the divided areas of the optical disk and the logical drive device enables the transfer of code data.

Next, an example of data transfer according to this embodiment will be described in detail.

FIG. 6 shows the flow of data writing and reading.

First, when the operator designates a logical drive device and gives an instruction to read or write data, the control device 1 receives an instruction from the operator from the operation unit 8 and determines whether the instruction is to write or read data. It is determined (step 61). The control device 1 instructs the optical disk input / output device 2 to read or write according to the logical drive device number according to the determination result. Then, in the case of writing to the optical disc 3, the control device 1 is designated with data to be written such as data created by an operator, data taken out from an arbitrary input / output device, and data created at the time of executing an arbitrary program. It is expanded in the storage space on the logical drive device 17 (step 62). This storage space is set in a predetermined storage area on the memory 4, for example, the code data buffer 43. Note that, here, the case where code data is transferred is taken as an example.

Next, the optical disk input / output control device 2 takes out the correspondence information of the designated logical drive device from the correspondence management table 42. Then, according to the association information, the optical disk input / output control device 2 converts the address of the storage space on the logical drive device 17 into the storage space on the physical optical disk 3 of the transfer destination (step 63). Finally, the code data on the memory 4 is transferred to the converted address (step 64).

On the contrary, when reading the data from the optical disk 3, as in step 63, according to the correspondence information,
Convert to address on optical disk 3 (step 6)
5). After that, the code data at the address obtained in step 65 of the optical disc 3 is transferred to the code data buffer 43 of the memory 4 (step 66).

If the data storage area on the optical disc 3 to which data is to be transferred is not in the correspondence table 42,
By referring to the association management area 32 stored on the optical disc, the association information is searched, and if there is corresponding information, the content is written in the area of the logical drive device of the association table 42. If new data is to be stored in an unused data storage area on the optical disc 3 that has no correspondence with the logical drive device, the operation unit 8
To set a new correspondence. As a result, area management information F-n and correspondence relationship information L-n are newly provided in the area management area 31 and the association management area 32 on the optical disc 3, respectively.

FIG. 7 shows the address conversion shown in steps 63 and 65 in the flow chart of FIG.

The character code "ABC" at any address ADDR1 of the logical drive device 17 is physically at the address ADDR1 'in the code data area 34 on the optical disk 3. ADDR1 'is a code data area 3 associated with the logical drive device 17
4 start address ADDR2 and logical drive device 1
7 and the address ADDR1 on 7.

Next, the storage of image data will be described.

The image data is stored in the image data area 33 shown in FIG. 2, and the image storage pointer 41 has an address of a free area (unused area).

FIG. 8 shows the flow of writing and reading of image data on the optical disc 3.

First, the control device 1 receives an operator's instruction from the operation unit 8 and determines whether the instruction is writing or reading of image data (step 81).

In the case of writing on the optical disk 3, the image data is input from the image input section 9 or the like according to the operator's instruction, and developed in the image data buffer 44 of the memory 4 (step 82). The image data expanded in the memory 4 includes data read from the optical disc 3 and data created or edited by the image processor 5 in addition to the data input from the image input unit 9. .

Next, the image data in the memory 4 is transferred to the position of the image storage pointer 41 in the image data area 33 designated by the operator (step 83). In this case, the transfer is performed without going through the logical drive device 17. Finally, the image storage pointer 41 is updated by the size of the data transferred in step 83 (step 84).

Next, the process of reading image data from the optical disc 3 will be described.

First, the control device 1 activates the image processing program 113. According to the image processing program 113, the control device 1 searches the image designated by the operator from the beginning to the image storage pointer in the image data area 33 according to the designated retrieval condition (step 8).
5). As the search condition, a file name of image data, a search key given in advance, or the like is designated. As a search key,
For example, there are figures included in image data, specific keywords, codes, storage dates and times, and the like. The file name of the image data is stored in the area management area 31 as area management information. Further, the search keys other than the file name can be stored in a part of the image data area with an additional information area corresponding to the file name, for example.

If there is no image corresponding to the search condition as a result of the search, the display device 7 or the like reports to the operator that there is no corresponding image. If there is a corresponding image, the retrieved image data is transferred to the memory 4 (step 86). Thereafter, the image data transferred to the memory 4 is processed by the image processing processor 5 according to the instruction of the operator.
Edited, displayed on the display device 7, or printed on paper by the printing device 10.

Next, writing of data in which code data and image data are mixed will be described.

First, the control device 1 divides the code data and the image data. That is, the code data portion and the image data portion in the file are divided into independent files. At this time, information indicating the arrangement relationship between the code data portion and the image data portion is stored in at least one of the code data portion file and the image data portion file. Writing of the separated code data is performed by the logical drive device 17 as described above with reference to FIG.
Any one of them is designated and stored in the optical disc 3. On the other hand, regarding the writing of image data, at the time of writing the image data shown in FIG. 8, the image storage pointer 41 is written together with the code data in the code data area 34 for storing the corresponding code data portion.

Next, reading of data in which code data and image data are mixed will be described.

First, the reading of the code data is as described above. On the other hand, regarding the reading of the image data, instead of searching the image data in step 85 of FIG. 8 described above, the image storage pointer written in the code data area at the time of writing the image data is read, and the area indicated by the read image storage pointer is read. Read image data,
Transfer to memory 4. In the memory 4, the read code data and image data are combined. When synthesizing,
When the code data and the image data are separated, the information stored in either one of them and indicating the positional relationship between them is referred to. The combined data is displayed on the display device 7 or output on paper by the printing device 10.

Next, the data area allocation of the optical disk 3 will be described with reference to FIG.

In response to an operator's instruction for data area allocation, the optical disk input / output device 2 reads out area management information from the area management area 31 of the optical disk 3 and transfers it to the memory 4 to obtain free area information (steps 91 and 92). ). Based on the obtained free area information, it is checked whether or not a data area of the size designated by the operator can be allocated (step 93). If the check result indicates that the allocation is impossible, the processing is stopped and an error is warned (step 96).
If the check result can be assigned, the new area management information is added to the area management area 31 (step 94). Finally, the data area is initialized so that data can be stored (step 95). This initial setting is set, for example, by the operating system to the storage format used by the operating system.

By allocating the data areas in this way, a plurality of image data areas 33 and a plurality of code data areas 34 can exist on one optical disk 3, and a document created by a word processor can be imaged. It is possible to store the data as it is in the image data area 33 and the code data in the code data area 34 with one optical disk.

Further, by storing the key for retrieving image data in the code data area 34 and taking out the retrieval at the time of retrieval, the retrieval can be speeded up and simplified.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the code data area and the logical drive device are associated with each other, so that the code data area in many optical disks and the plurality of code data areas in one optical disk are logically driven. Can be used as a device.

In this embodiment, image data and code data can be mixedly stored on the storage medium. Moreover, the image data having a large amount of data is directly transferred between the memory and the optical disk 3 without passing through the logical drive device. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, for the code data that is often edited and used again for the stored data, the data can be stored via the logical drive device that can be accessed from the control device. High-speed transfer is possible for image data with a low possibility.

In the above embodiment, the storage of the data on the optical disk has been described. However, when the data is stored on the magnetic disk or the floppy disk, the data is exchanged via the corresponding logical drive device.

In the above embodiment, the image data is written and read without using the logical drive unit, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the image data may be stored via a logical drive device.

The present invention can also be applied to a system for storing a large amount of information by using a plurality of optical disks, for example, a library system. In this case, the logical drive device is associated with each of the plurality of optical discs, and the association information is transferred to the association management table 42 every time the optical disc is mounted in the drive device, whereby the logical drive is associated with each optical disc. The device can be associated with the data storage area.

[0103]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The storage medium can be provided with a plurality of areas divided into sizes that can be handled by a general-purpose operating system, and these areas can be managed by assigning logical drive device names to them. Further, according to the present invention, a large storage capacity can be effectively used by using a limited number of logical drive device names.

Further, in the present invention, by storing the image data and the code data in association with each other, the code data can be stored in a storage configuration that can be handled by a general-purpose operating system, and the image data can be stored in the general-purpose operating system. It can be directly stored in the storage medium without going through the operating system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information storage system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage format in an optical disc and a storage configuration in a memory.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a structure of management information of an optical disc.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for coupling a logical drive device and a data area.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between a logical drive device and each storage device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing of reading and writing data to and from the optical disc.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a storage space of a logical drive device and an optical disc.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a flow of writing and reading image data to and from an optical disc.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the flow of an allocation process of a data area of an optical disc.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configurations of a control device, an optical disk input / output control device, and a memory used in this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Control device, 2 ... Optical disk input / output control device, 3 ... Optical disk, 4 ... Memory, 5 ... Image processor, 6 ...
Input / output device, 7 ... Display device, 8 ... Operation part, 9 ... Image input part, 10 ... Printing device, 11 ... Clock mechanism, 12 ... Magnetic disk input / output control device, 13 ... Magnetic disk, 14 ... Floppy disk input / output Control device, 15 ... Floppy disk, 16 ... Word processor, 17 ... Logical drive device, 31 ... Management information area, 32 ... Correlation management area, 3
3 ... Image data area, 34 ... Code data area, 41 ...
Image storage pointer, 42 ... Correlation management table, 43
… Code data buffer.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Okami ▲ Yoshi ▼             2880 Kozu, Odawara City, Kanagawa Stock Association             Hitachi, Ltd. Odawara factory (72) Inventor Naoya Takahashi             2880 Kozu, Odawara City, Kanagawa Stock Association             Hitachi, Ltd. Odawara factory (72) Inventor Haruka Kashiwazaki             6-81 Onoe-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Hitachi Software Engineering Stock Association             In-house

Claims (21)

[Claims] 1. At least one storage medium, an input / output control device for controlling input / output of data to / from the storage medium, a control device for controlling the system including control of writing and reading of data, and a control device. In an information storage system including at least an operation unit for inputting an instruction to the storage unit, one or more logical drive units virtually set on the control device for accessing the storage medium, and each logical drive. And a correspondence information holding means for holding correspondence information that defines a correspondence relationship with a data storage area accessible by the storage medium, wherein the input / output control device writes and writes data. At the time of reading, if the operating means specifies the logical drive means to be used, the correspondence stored in the correspondence information storage means Referring to engagement information, the information storage system, comprising a control unit which can access the data storage area on the storage medium corresponding to the designated logical drive means. 2. The correspondence information holding means according to claim 1, wherein the correspondence information includes a name of a logical drive means,
An information storage system having a file name of stored data, an attribute indicating whether the stored data is code data or image data, and a pointer indicating a stored area. 3. The information storage system according to claim 2, further comprising area management information holding means for holding area management information indicating a location of stored data on a storage medium. 4. The information storage system according to claim 3, wherein the correspondence information holding means and the area management information holding means write and hold the correspondence information and area management information on a storage medium. 5. The information storage system according to claim 4, wherein the storage medium is an optical disc. 6. The information storage system according to claim 1, further comprising a memory accessible from each of the control device and the input / output control device. 7. The information storage system according to claim 6, wherein the memory is provided with a correspondence relation table for storing a part of the correspondence relation information held in the correspondence relation information holding means. 8. The correspondence table according to claim 7, wherein a device number indicating a name of the logical drive means and a pointer indicating a range of a data storage area on a storage medium corresponding to the logical drive means. Information storage system stored. 9. The information storage system according to claim 6, wherein an optical disk is used as the storage medium, and an optical disk input / output control device is used as the input / output control device. 10. The information storage system according to claim 9, wherein the optical disc is a rewritable type. 11. An optical disk input / output control device according to claim 10, wherein the optical disk input / output control device has an interface portion for interfacing with the control device and the memory, a logical drive means control portion for performing processing relating to storage / reproduction of code data, and image data. An image control unit that controls processing related to storage / reproduction of
An information storage system, comprising: an optical disk management unit that manages an optical disk including read / write processing. 12. A memory according to claim 11, wherein the memory is a code data buffer for storing code data, an image data buffer for storing image data, and a command table for storing commands executed by the input / output control device. An information storage system having an area for storing a command flag for distinguishing whether data to be processed is code data or image data. 13. The information storage system according to claim 12, wherein the memory further comprises an optical disk status information area for storing information indicating the status of the optical disk, a logical drive means control data area, and an image control dance data area. . 14. At least one storage medium, and an input / output control device for controlling input / output of data to / from the storage medium,
In an information storage method in an information storage system, which comprises at least a control device for controlling the system including control of writing and reading of data, and an operating means for inputting an instruction to the control device, in order to access a storage medium Correspondence information that virtually sets one or more logical drive means on the control device and defines the correspondence relationship between each logical drive means and the data storage area on the storage medium accessible by the logical drive means. When the logical drive means to be used is specified by the operation means when writing and reading the data, the storage means corresponding to the specified logical drive means is referred to. An information storage method characterized by accessing a data storage area on a medium. 15. The information storage method according to claim 14, wherein at least one storage medium is divided into a code data storage area and an image data storage area. 16. The code data area according to claim 15, wherein information indicating a storage position of the related image data in the image data area is stored, and when the code data is reproduced, the information indicating the storage position is stored. An information storage method characterized by reading image data from an image data area by using the method. 17. The correspondence information according to claim 14, wherein the name of the logical drive means, the file name of the stored data, and the attribute indicating whether the stored data is code data or image data. , And an information storage method having a pointer indicating a stored area. 18. The information storage method according to claim 15, wherein an optical disk is used as a storage medium. 19. The information according to claim 14, wherein the storage medium is provided with a plurality of areas divided into sizes each of which can be handled by a general-purpose operating system, and these areas are managed by assigning respective logical drive means. Memory method. 20. The information storage system according to claim 4, wherein the correspondence information held in the correspondence information holding means is rewritable. 21. The information storage system according to claim 1, wherein a finite number of the logical drive means are provided.