JPH09231527A - Cleaning cassette and magnetic recording and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conduct automatic control of the life of a cleaning cassette and a cleaning time once by means of a tape streamer drive and to improve the operation convenience of an end user. SOLUTION: This device is provided with MIC in a cleaning cassette, dammy data are recorded in a cassette tape at the time of cleaning and history information at the time of data recording is made to write in MIC. At this time, the completion of cleaning is detected by detecting an error rate by RAW in a prescribed stipulating time (S106-S115). At the beginning of next cleaning, the decision of the life of tape is performed for every partition based on the history information stored in MIC (S103-S105).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cleaning cassette for cleaning a head of a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus and a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus which can use this cleaning cassette.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A so-called tape streamer drive is known as a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of recording / reproducing digital data on a magnetic tape. Such a tape streamer drive can have an enormous recording capacity of, for example, several tens to several hundreds of megabytes depending on the tape length of a tape cassette as a medium. It is widely used for purposes such as backing up data recorded on media. Further, it is also suitable when used for storing image data having a large data size.

As the tape streamer drive as described above, for example, a tape cassette of 8 mm VTR is used as a recording medium, and a helical scan method by a rotary head is adopted to record / reproduce data. Proposed. In this case, as a maintenance of such a tape streamer drive, it is naturally conceivable to clean the rotary head and the guide pins with a cleaning tape.

[0004]

By the way, such a cleaning tape is not generally semi-permanent, and its cleaning performance deteriorates as the number of times of use increases. If cleaning is performed using a cleaning tape whose cleaning performance has deteriorated significantly and has already reached the end of life, not only the cleaning effect is not obtained but also the rotary head may be damaged in some cases. Therefore, managing the life of the cleaning tape is essential for the end user. Further, if the cleaning tape is unnecessarily run for a long time to perform cleaning, it may rather wear the rotary head and damage it. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to one cleaning time. .

Therefore, in the conventional cleaning tape, for example, the total number of times the cleaning tape can be used (which is considered to be the life of the cleaning tape) recommended by the instruction manual, the tape running time per one time, etc. are described. Has been done. Then, the end user refers to this description and manages the cleaning time by measuring the cleaning time by himself, and regarding the total number of times the cleaning tape is used, for example, the attached writing sheet or the tape cassette is used. The user himself / herself checks the label or the like every time he / she uses it, and confirms the life of the cleaning tape.

However, the above-mentioned method of managing the total number of times the cleaning tape can be used and the cleaning tape running time per time depends on the management of the end user, which is troublesome for the end user. You will be forced. Further, if the end user carelessly uses the cleaning tape for such a matter to be managed, the possibility that the rotary head will be damaged also increases.

Further, the cleaning tape is generally set to have a short total tape length in order to shorten the running time in consideration of the limitation of the running time of the tape. For this reason, when the cleaning tape is frequently used, the service life of the cleaning tape is quickly reached, which is uneconomical. Furthermore,
Even if the cleaning tape has a certain tape length, the method of using the cleaning tape is to run the tape for a specified running time for each cleaning, and the tape is partially used. Therefore, with the above-described user-dependent management method, it is difficult to manage which part of the entire tape is used and how many times. As described above, as long as the management is dependent on the user, it is not always possible to appropriately manage the life and cleaning time of the cleaning tape.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a magnetic tape for cleaning which enables recording of digital data and cleaning of the head. ,at least,
After the cleaning cassette is configured to include a non-volatile memory having a storage area of information related to the usage history of the cleaning magnetic tape and information related to the cleaning cassette, A storage area for information related to usage history is provided for each partition. Further, as a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus corresponding to the cleaning cassette as described above, a nonvolatile memory reading unit capable of reading information in a nonvolatile memory provided in a mounted tape cassette, and a nonvolatile memory When the type of the mounted tape cassette is determined based on the information related to the read tape cassette and the information related to the usage history of the magnetic tape, and the type of the mounted tape cassette is determined to be the cleaning cassette. Is configured to include a control unit capable of determining the life of the cleaning cassette and performing control related to the cleaning operation.

According to the above construction, the tape streamer drive itself determines the life of the cleaning cassette based on the information stored in the non-volatile memory provided in the cleaning cassette and the cleaning time suitable for one cleaning. It becomes possible to manage.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. The cleaning cassette and the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment are a tape cassette provided with a non-volatile memory, and a recording / reproducing device corresponding to such a tape cassette with the non-volatile memory.
It is a tape streamer drive system capable of reproducing. In this specification, the nonvolatile memory provided in the tape cassette will be referred to as MIC (Me
mory In Cassete). Further, the description of the following embodiments will be given in the following order. 1. Structure of tape cassette (cleaning cassette) 2. Configuration of recording / reproducing apparatus 3. Structure of data recorded on magnetic tape 4. Data structure of MIC (a) Data structure of entire MIC (b) MIC header (c) System log area Data management mode of the cleaning cassette of this embodiment and operation of the recording / reproducing apparatus during cleaning

1. Structure of Tape Cassette (Cleaning Cassette) First, a tape cassette corresponding to the tape streamer drive of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. The structure of the cleaning cassette according to this embodiment is basically the same as that of a normal data recording / reproducing tape cassette. Therefore, the configurations shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be described below on the assumption that they are the general structure of the tape cassette corresponding to the tape streamer drive system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 conceptually shows the internal structure of the tape cassette, and reels 2A and 2B are provided inside the tape cassette 1 shown in FIG.
A magnetic tape 3 having a tape width of 8 mm is wound between A and 2B. Here, when the tape cassette shown in this figure is a cleaning cassette, for example, a magnetic material that is roughly coated on a magnetic tape of a normal recording / reproducing tape cassette is used. The rotating head is cleaned depending on the roughness of the.
Therefore, it is possible to record / reproduce digital data to / from the magnetic tape 3 of the tape cassette 1 according to the present embodiment, as in a normal tape cassette. Data is recorded. Further, the tape cassette 1 shown in FIG. 2 is provided with a non-volatile memory MIC4, and a power supply terminal 5A, a data input terminal 5B, a clock input terminal 5C, a ground terminal 5D, etc. are derived from the module of this MIC4. ing. The MIC 4 stores a manufacturing date, a manufacturing location, a tape thickness and length, a material, a magnetic tape use history information, management information for recording data, user information, and the like for each tape cassette. In the case of a cleaning cassette, information indicating that the tape cassette is a cleaning cassette is stored in a predetermined area in this data structure, which will be described later.

For example, in a normal tape streamer drive system, for example, management information of recording data for each partition is written to, for example, a head position of a partition on a magnetic tape. The management information at the head position of the partition is once accessed, and then the recording / reproducing operation is started. On the other hand, in the tape streamer drive system of the present embodiment, when the tape cassette is simply loaded in the device side, M
It is possible to read the management information of the recording data from the IC4. For this reason, it is possible to improve the access speed, which was difficult with a normal tape streamer drive.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of the appearance of the tape cassette 1, in which the entire housing includes an upper case 6, a lower case 7,
And a guard panel 8 and is basically the same in structure as a tape cassette used for a normal 8 mm VTR. The label surface 9 on the side surface of the tape cassette 1 is provided with terminal pins 10A, 10B, 10C, and 10D. The power supply terminal 5A, the data input terminal 5B, the clock input terminal 5C, and the ground described in FIG. Terminal 5D
And are connected to each.

2. Configuration of Recording / Reproducing Device Next, the configuration of the tape streamer drive according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Here, each functional circuit unit will be described on the assumption that recording / reproducing is performed on a normal tape cassette. To do. This tape streamer drive uses a tape cassette having a tape width of 8 mm to record / reproduce on / from a magnetic tape by a helical scan method. In this figure, the rotary drum 1
1 includes, for example, two recording heads 12A, 12B and 2
One reproducing head 13A, 13B is provided. The recording heads 12A and 12B have a structure in which two gaps having different azimuth angles are located close to each other.
Similarly, the reproducing heads 13A and 13B also have a structure in which two gaps having different azimuth angles are arranged extremely close to each other.

The rotary drum 11 is rotated by a drum motor 14, and the magnetic tape 3 pulled out from the tape cassette 1 is wound around it. The magnetic tape 3
Are fed by a capstan motor and a pinch roller (not shown). The drum motor 14 is driven by the control of the mechanical controller 17. The mechanical controller 17 performs servo control and tracking control of the drum motor 14, and is bidirectionally connected to a system controller 15 that executes control processing of the entire system.

In this tape streamer drive, a SCSI interface is used for inputting / outputting data. For example, at the time of data recording, a fixed-length record (record) described later is sent from the host computer 25.
Data is sequentially input via the SCSI interface 20 in the unit of transmission data of d) and supplied to the compression / expansion circuit 21. In such a tape streamer drive system, there is also a mode in which data is transmitted from the host computer 25 in units of variable-length data sets, but the description thereof is omitted here.

In the compression / expansion circuit 21, if necessary, the input data is compressed by a predetermined method. As an example of the compression method, for example, LZ
If a compression method using codes is adopted, in this method, a special code is assigned to a character string processed in the past and stored in the form of a dictionary. Then, the character string input subsequently is compared with the contents of the dictionary, and if the character string of the input data matches the code of the dictionary, this character string data is replaced with the code of the dictionary. Data of the input character string that does not match the dictionary is sequentially given a new code and registered in the dictionary. In this way, the data of the input character string is registered in the dictionary, and the character string data is replaced with the code of the dictionary, whereby the data compression is performed.

When the data is supplied from the host computer 25, for example, if the image data or the like has already been compressed, the compression / compression
Since it is not necessary to perform the compression processing by the decompression circuit 21, the compression / decompression circuit 21 outputs the data as it is without compressing the input data. Whether or not to perform this compression processing can be set by the user in advance, for example, and the system controller 15 refers to the data input via the SCSI interface 20 to determine whether the compression processing is appropriate or not. It is also being done.

The output of the compression / expansion circuit 21 is supplied to the buffer controller 22, and the control operation of the buffer controller 22 causes the output of the compression / expansion circuit 21 to be temporarily stored in the buffer memory 23. The data stored in the buffer memory 23 is controlled by the buffer controller 22 so that the data of the magnetic tape 40 called a group is finally obtained as described later.
Data is handled as a unit of fixed length corresponding to a track, and this data is transferred to the ECC / modulation / demodulation circuit 18
Is supplied to.

In the ECC / modulation / demodulation circuit 18, an error correction code is added to the input data, and the input data is modulated so as to be suitable for magnetic recording and is supplied to the RF amplifier 19. The recording signal amplified by the RF amplifier 19 is supplied to the recording heads 12A and 12B so that data is recorded on the magnetic tape 3.

The data reproducing operation will be briefly described. The data recorded on the magnetic tape 3 is reproduced by the reproducing head 13.
It is read out as an RF reproduction signal by A and 13B, and its reproduction output is supplied to the ECC / modulation / demodulation circuit 18 via the RF amplifier 19 and undergoes demodulation processing and then error correction processing. The demodulated output of the ECC / modulation / demodulation circuit 18 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory under the control of the buffer controller 22, and is supplied from this to the compression / decompression circuit 21. In the compression / expansion circuit 21, the compression / expansion circuit 2 is used for recording based on the judgment of the system controller 15.
If the data is compressed by 1, the data decompression process is performed here, and if it is the non-compressed data, the data decompression process is not performed and the data is directly passed and output. The output data of the compression / expansion circuit 21 is output to the host computer 25 as reproduction data via the SCSI interface 20.

Further, in this figure, the MIC 4 is shown together with the magnetic tape 3 of the tape cassette. This MIC4
When the tape cassette body is loaded in the tape streamer drive, the data is connected to the system controller 15 via the terminal pins shown in FIG. Also, the MIC 4 and the external host computer 2
Between 5 the information is mutually transmitted using SCSI commands. Therefore, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated line between the MIC 4 and the host computer 25, and as a result, data can be exchanged between the tape cassette and the host computer 25 only by the SCSI interface.

3. Structure of Data Recorded on Magnetic Tape Next, a data format applied to the data storage system including the tape streamer drive and the tape cassette described above will be described. FIG. 4 shows the structure of data recorded on the magnetic tape 3. FIG.
One magnetic tape 3 is schematically shown in (a). In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4B, one magnetic tape 3 is divided into partitions (Partitions).
n) can be divided into units for use,
In the case of the system of the present embodiment, it is possible to set and manage a maximum of 256 partitions, for example. Further, each partition is managed by being given a partition number as described as partitions # 0, # 1, # 2, # 3 ,. Therefore, in the present embodiment, recording / recording of data is independently performed for each partition.
It is possible to perform reproduction and the like, for example, as shown in FIG.
The recording unit of data in one partition shown in FIG. 4 can be divided into fixed-length units called groups shown in FIG. 4C, and recording on the magnetic tape 3 is performed by this group unit. . In this case, one group has 20 frames (Frame
Corresponding to the data amount of e), one frame is formed by two tracks as shown in FIG. 4 (d).
Therefore, one group is formed by 40 tracks.

The data structure for one track is shown in FIG.
5A and 5B. FIG. 5A shows a data structure in block units. 1
The block consists of 1-byte SYNC data A1, followed by 6-byte ID data A2 used for searching, etc., and 2-byte I data.
It is composed of error correction parity A3 for D data and 64-byte data A4. And FIG. 5 (b)
The data for one track shown in (1) is formed by 471 blocks, and one track is provided with margins A11 and A17 for four blocks at both ends as shown in the figure. Tracking control is performed after the margin A11 and before the margin A17. ATF areas A12 and A16 for use are provided. Further, an ATF area A14 is provided in the middle of one track. As these ATF areas A12, A14 and A16, areas for 5 blocks are provided. And the above A
Between TF areas A12 and A14 and ATF area A1
Data areas A13 and A15 for 224 blocks are provided between the data areas A4 and A16, respectively. Then, the track is physically recorded on the magnetic tape 3 as shown in FIG. 5C, and 40 tracks (=
One group consists of 20 frames.

The actual one partition shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B is formed by the data structure shown in FIG. In this figure, it is assumed that one partition is formed for the entire tape length. In the case of FIG. 6, the leader tape is physically located at the beginning with respect to the first portion of the magnetic tape, and a device area which is an area for loading / unloading the tape cassette is provided next. There is. The head of this device area is the head position PBOT (Phisycal Bigining of Tape) of the physical tape. The device area is followed by a system log area for storing tape usage history information in the current partition, and a data area thereafter. The beginning of the system log area is the start position L of the logical tape
It is called BOT (Logical Bigining of Tape). In this data area, a vendor group in which information about a vendor that creates and supplies data is first provided is provided, and subsequently, the groups actually shown in FIG. 4C are shown as groups 1 to n here. As described above, a plurality of layers are continuously formed. Then, following the last group n, EOD indicating the end of the partition
A (End of Data) area is provided. The end of the EOD is the end position LEOT (Logical End) of the logical tape.
of Tape). PEOT (Phisycal End of Tape)
Indicates the end position of the physical tape.

FIG. 7 shows the data structure of one group. As described above, one group consists of 20 frames.
Then, as shown in FIG. 7, C3 for error correction is added to the last two frames of the 20 frames forming one group.
Parity is assigned. Although detailed description is omitted here, the C1 and C2 parities are added to the data shown in FIG. 5 so as to be completed on a track-by-track basis, for example. Then, at the time of recording the data, the data is sequentially written from the first frame of one group as shown by an arrow Ar1 in the figure. On the other hand, GIT (Group Info) showing the contents of the current group
The information of the rmation table) is 17 as shown by the arrow Ar2.
Writing is performed from the direction (indicated by arrow Ar2) opposite to the data writing direction from the second frame, and then,
A BA that serves as management information for each entity (or record in some cases) included in the current group, which will be described later.
The data of T (Block Access Table) is written. The GIT has a fixed length of 40 bytes, for example, and the BAT is created based on the contents of the group 4
It is made up of byte-by-byte access entries and is therefore of variable length depending on the content of the group. In this embodiment, GIT and BAT are collectively referred to as index information.

4. Data Structure of MIC (a) Data Structure of Entire MIC FIG. 8 shows a structure of data stored in the MIC 4 provided in the tape cassette 1. This MIC4
The capacity is, for example, 2 megabytes, and fields F1 to F6 are set in this area as shown in the figure. In these fields F1 to F6, the field F1 is used as a MIC header, and various information at the time of manufacturing the tape cassette, tape information at the time of initialization, information for each partition, and the like are written therein. Also,
Field F2 is the absolute volume map (Abs
olute Volume Map), for example, absolute position information regarding data recorded on one roll of magnetic tape is stored, and field F3 is set as volume information (Volume Information), and various usage histories about one roll of magnetic tape. Information is stored. The information stored in these areas is used for recording / playback control and the like in the tape streamer drive. The field F4 is used as a user volume note, in which information provided by the user (vendor, etc.) regarding the tape cassette itself is stored, and if necessary, it is supplied to the external host computer 25 to perform necessary processing control. Can be used for. The field F5 is used as partition information (Partitions Information).
Various information regarding the usage history of the magnetic tape for each partition written in the magnetic tape is stored and used by the tape streamer drive as information for managing its own recording / reproducing operation. This partition information is formed by the area of the system log area F5a as shown in the figure. Since the system log area F5a is created corresponding to each partition actually recorded on the magnetic tape,
The number of tables in the system log area F5a corresponds to the number of partitions provided on the magnetic tape.
Further, information having the same contents as the system log area area F5a in this MIC is also written in the area of the system log area on the magnetic tape shown in FIG. The data structure of each system log area F5a will be described later.

The field F6 is a user partition note, and stores various information such as comments writable by the user for each partition. The user partition note in the field F6 is a user data area F6a (Us) created corresponding to each partition recorded on the magnetic tape.
er Data for every Partition).

(B) MIC Header FIG. 9 shows the data structure of the MIC header which is the field F1 in FIG. The MIC header is
As shown in the figure, the manufacturing part (Ma) is formed by the fields F11 to F38 and is also composed of the fields F11 to F30.
nufacture Part) and fields F31 to F
Initialize part consisting of 38 areas (Initialize
It is divided into two areas. The manufacturer part stores information related to the manufacture of the MIC and the tape cassette, and the initialization part records information related to the MIC data to be given at the initialization.

First, in the manufacture part,
The field F11 is a manufacturing part checksum (manufacture_part_checksum), and stores information on the checksum of the manufacturing part. Information on this manufacturer part checksum is given when the cassette is manufactured. The field F12 is a field of MIC type (mic_type) and indicates the type of MIC actually provided in the tape cassette. The field F13 is an area of the MIC manufacture date (mic_manufacture_date),
The IC manufacturing date (and time) is indicated. Field F14 is MIC manufacture line name (mic_
manufacture_line_name) area, and information of the line name for manufacturing the MIC is shown. Field F15
MIC manufacturing plant name (mic_manufa
(cture_plant_name) area, and information on the name of the factory that manufactured the MIC is shown. Field F16 is the MIC manufacturer name (mic_manufacturer_name)
Information of the manufacturer of the MIC is displayed, and the field F17 is set as an area of the MIC name (mic_name).
Information on the vendor name of the IC is shown.

The fields F18 to F22 are respectively used for cassette manufacture dates (cassette_manufacture_).
date), cassette manufacturer line name (cas
sette_manufacture_line_name), cassette manufacturer plant name (cassette_manufacture_plant_na)
me), cassette manufacturer name (cassett
e_manufacturer_name), cassette name (cassette_nam
It is defined as the area of e). It should be noted that the definition content is the definition content of each area of the fields F13 to F17 described above applied to the cassette itself.

The field F23 is an area for the OEM customer name (oem_customer_name), and the OEM (Or
iginal Equipment Manufactures) company name information is stored. The field F24 is used as an area of a raw format ID (Raw Format ID), for example, physical magnetic tape characteristics such as tape material, tape thickness, tape length, track pitch, frame size, and number of bytes per block. Information is shown. Field F25
Is the maximum clock frequency (maximum_clock_fr
The information indicating the maximum clock frequency corresponding to the MIC is stored. Field F2
6 is the maximum write cycle (maximum_write_cycle)
Information indicating how many bytes can be recorded at one time as a characteristic of the MIC. This information is MI
It depends on the physical characteristics of the non-volatile memory used as C. The field F27 is set as an area of MIC capacity (mic_capacity) and indicates information on the storable capacity of the MIC.

The field F28 is used as a write protect top address (write_protect_top_address) area. This area is used to write-protect a required part of the MIC and indicates the start address of the write-protected area. The field F29 that follows is a write protect count (write_protect_count) area and indicates the number of bytes in the write protect area. That is, from the address designated by the write protect top address of the field F28, the area occupied by the number of bytes indicated by the write protect count area is set as the write inhibit area. The area of the field F30 is reserved and reserved for storing information that will be needed in the future.

Next, in the initialization part, the field F31 is a drive part checksum (drive
part_checksum), and the checksum information of this initialized part is stored. Field F32
Is the MIC logical format type (mic_logical_
format_type) area, the ID number of the MIC logical format is to be stored. MI
As the C format, for example, in addition to the basic MIC format, various formats related to the firmware update tape MIC format, the reference tape MIC format, the cleaning cassette MIC format, and the like are assumed to exist, and depending on the MIC format of the tape cassette. The ID number will be shown.

The field F33 is a volume information pointer (volume_info_pointer) area, and a pointer indicating the address of the volume information area previously shown in the field F3 of FIG. 8 is arranged therein. A field F34 is set as a user partition note pointer (user_partition_note_pointer) area, and a pointer indicating the address of the user partition note area shown in the field F6 of FIG. 8 is arranged. The subsequent field F35 is an absolute volume map pointer (absolute_volume_map_pointer).
A pointer indicating the address of the area of the absolute volume map shown in the field F2 of FIG. 8 is arranged. The field F36 area is unreserved

The area of the field F37 is used as a garbage cell pointer (garbage_cellpointer). Although not shown in the MIC, an area called a garbage cell for storing data that is not particularly used is provided, and a pointer indicating the address of the garbage cell area is arranged in the garbage cell pointer area. Will be done. The field F38 is used as an area for comments, and some comment information is stored by the user or vendor.

(C) System Log Area Next, the system log area F5a will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, the system log area F5a contains partition information (field F
The area 5) is formed to correspond to each partition recorded on the magnetic tape 3.
In this case, if there are a plurality of partitions recorded on the magnetic tape, the system log area F5a stores information about the partitions. However, if there is one partition, the information in the system log area F5a will be recorded on the magnetic tape. It's about the whole thing. The following description is based on the former case where the system log area F5a stores information about partitions.

The data structure of one system log area F5a is defined, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, and in this case, it is formed by fields F101 to F115. In these fields F101 to F115, first, the field F101 is set as an area of a previous group written. In this area, information on the number of groups in the partition physically recorded on the magnetic tape, starting from the time when the system log area F5a was last updated, is shown. In addition, the field F102 is a region of Total Groups written,
The total number of groups recorded for the partition so far is shown. This value is added up until the tape cassette reaches the end of its life and cannot be used or is discarded. If the data is being recorded on the magnetic tape 3 by the tape streamer drive, for example, the pre-group group return and the total group return are updated by the current recording operation by the processing of the system controller 15 of the tape streamer drive. The value of the area is incremented according to the number of groups recorded in.

The field F103 is set as a previous group read, and indicates the number of groups physically read from the time when the system log area F5a was last updated. . A field F104 is a total group read (Total Groups read) and indicates a value obtained by accumulating the number of groups read from the partition so far.

The field F105 is an area of Total Rewritten frames. By the way, in the tape streamer drive of the present embodiment, the reproducing heads 13A and 13B are the recording heads 12.
The rotary head 11 is provided so as to have a positional relationship that leads the A and 12B by a predetermined number of tracks. During recording, the two recording heads 1
Recording is performed in units of frames (2 tracks) on the magnetic tape by 2A and 12B.
In A and 13B, data is read from the frame written on the magnetic tape by the recording heads 12A and 12B. This operation is performed by READ-AFTER-WRITE (hereinafter abbreviated as RAW
Is described). The error rate of the frame data read by the RAW is detected by the system controller 15, and when it is detected that an error has occurred, the frame data in which the error has occurred is rewritten. The recording system is controlled. The total relit frame of the field F105 indicates a value obtained by integrating the number of frames for which data rewriting is requested based on the RAW in the partition.

The field F106 has a total of 3rdE.
It is used as a CC count (Total 3rd ECC count) area. In the tape streamer drive system of the present embodiment, the data read from the magnetic tape 3 is C
Although the error correction is performed by the parity of 1, C2, C3, the C3 parity is used when the data cannot be recovered only by the C1, C2 parity.
The total 3rd ECC count indicates a value obtained by accumulating the number of groups in which the error correction is performed using the C3 parity in the partition. Field F1
Reference numeral 07 denotes a load count area, which indicates a value obtained by integrating the number of times the tape has been loaded. A field F108 is an access count area and indicates the number of times the tape streamer drive has accessed the partition. Field F10
9 is the previous rewritt frame
The RAW described above indicates the number of frames in the partition where the data rewrite request is made, counting from the time when the system log area F5a was last updated. Be done. The field F110 shows the Pre-Bead 3rd ECC count (P
revious 3rd ECC count), counting from the time when the system log area F5a was last updated, C3
The number of groups in which error correction is performed using parity is shown. The five areas F105 to F110 are used as the judgment area DF which is a candidate for the judgment element for judging the life of the cleaning tape of the present embodiment, which will be described later.

The field F111 is used as an ID map number (ID Map number) to store information on the definition number of the search index, but in the case of the present embodiment, it is always set to "0" as a value. There is. Field F
The valid maximum absolute frame count of 112 (Valid Max. Absolute frame count) indicates the information of the frame count up to the last frame that is valid in the partition, and the field F113.
Maximum Absolute Frame Count (Max.
The Absolute frame count) area shows information on the last frame count of the partition. In addition, update replacement count (U
The pdate Replace count) area shows information obtained by integrating the number of times data is rewritten to the magnetic tape in the partition by updating. A flag (Flags) area of the last field F115 is, for example, a flag indicating write permission / prohibition, read permission / prohibition for the partition, and rewriting permission / prohibition of data based on RAW at the time of recording, by a tape streamer drive. Data such as a flag indicating that some processing is currently being performed on the partition is stored.

5. Data management mode of cleaning cassette of this embodiment and operation of recording / reproducing apparatus at the time of cleaning As described above, the cleaning cassette of this embodiment has the structure shown in FIGS. To M
It is supposed to have an IC4. For example, in a normal cleaning cassette, no data is recorded on the cleaning tape, and the cleaning tape has a function of simply cleaning the head. On the other hand, in the cleaning cassette of the present embodiment, as described below, data is recorded on the cleaning tape in a manner similar to that of the data recording performed on a normal tape cassette, and the recording is performed. By rewriting the data of the MIC 4 according to the history or the like, the cleaning time per cleaning cassette and the life of the cleaning cassette can be managed by the tape streamer drive system. Therefore, as described above, the cleaning tape provided in the cleaning cassette of the present embodiment is made of the same magnetic material as the magnetic material applied to the magnetic tape of the normal tape cassette so that data can be recorded. Used. By treating the coated surface so as to be rougher than usual, a cleaning effect for the magnetic head is provided.

FIG. 10 conceptually shows a structural example of a partition recorded on the cleaning tape (magnetic tape) of the cleaning cassette of this embodiment. In this cleaning cassette, the cleaning tape has a plurality of partitions # 0 to #n for each data length corresponding to a preset tape running time of T seconds.
To be separated by. Therefore, each partition provided on the cleaning tape has a fixed length. Although it is arbitrary how many seconds the tape running time of T seconds is actually set, for example, it may be set to about ten and several seconds so as to correspond to the specified cleaning time per time. Also, the number of partitions can be arbitrarily set according to various conditions such as the tape length as long as it is within the maximum manageable number as a format (256 in this case). In addition, in the case of the present embodiment, it is not always necessary that the data size of each partition be the same, but when the fixed length is used, the efficiency of manufacturing management and data management during actual use is improved. It

In this embodiment, the tape streamer drive records dummy data on the cleaning tape divided into the partitions in this manner at the time of cleaning. At this time, the data format to be recorded in the entire magnetic tape and in each partition is the same as that in the case of a normal tape cassette, and the data recording is performed according to the format described above with reference to FIGS. It is supposed to be done. And
As the data is written during the cleaning, the data is also written to the MIC 4 so that the information in the required area of the data structure shown in FIG. 8 is appropriately updated. That is, the cleaning tape according to the present embodiment writes dummy data to the magnetic tape divided for each partition, and
As described above with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9, the information about the magnetic tape (cleaning tape) is stored in the MIC 4 as in the case of the normal tape cassette.

As the information peculiar to the cleaning cassette in the MIC header, the information of the ID number indicating the cleaning cassette is stored in the area of the MIC logical format type of the field F32 of the MIC header (see FIG. 9). To be done. On the tape streamer drive side, M of the cleaning cassette installed
By reading the information of the area of the MIC logical format type from the IC 4, it is possible to identify that the currently loaded tape cassette is the cleaning cassette. Then, the tape streamer drive and the host computer can execute the operation and control corresponding to the cleaning cassette. When there are a plurality of types even in the same cleaning cassette, it is possible to identify the type of the cleaning cassette by giving different ID numbers of different MIC logical format types to each type. In addition, as described later, the tape streamer drive side determines whether or not the cleaning effect is present once for each time.
The judgment is made based on the degree of the error rate of the recording data detected by AW (READ-AFTER-WRITE). The information on the threshold value of the error rate is used as the information about the cleaning tape in the volume information of the field F3 of the MIC. It is stored in the area (see FIG. 8). Further, setting information regarding the determination area DF of the system log area F5a used for determining the life of the cleaning tape, which will be described later, is also stored in the volume information area.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the processing operation of the system controller 15 of the tape streamer drive corresponding to the case where cleaning is performed by the cleaning cassette of this embodiment. The operation of the tape streamer drive and the management of the cleaning cassette associated therewith will be described.

According to the processing operation shown in this figure, the tape streamer drive is not only compatible with the tape cassette having the MIC, but also with the tape cassette having the "ID board" instead of the MIC. . In the present embodiment, for example, when a tape cassette equipped with an ID board is loaded in the tape streamer drive, the type of the tape cassette is determined based on the ID number specified by the resistance value provided in the ID board. It is assumed that the streamer drive side can be identified. In FIG. 1, the structure of the detection mechanism for the ID board is omitted.

In the routine shown in FIG. 11, first, when it is detected in step S101 that a tape cassette has been loaded, it is identified whether the loaded tape cassette has an MIC or an ID board in step S102. To do. If it is determined that the tape cassette is equipped with the ID board, step S1.
In step 17, it is determined whether or not it is a cleaning cassette based on the ID number set in the ID board. If it is a cleaning cassette, the process proceeds to step S108, and if it is a tape cassette of a type other than the cleaning cassette, this The routine for the cleaning operation is exited to perform another processing operation based on the discriminated tape cassette type.

If it is identified in step S102 that the tape cassette is equipped with the MIC,
The system controller 15 proceeds to step S103 to read data from the MIC 4 of the loaded tape cassette and take it in the inside. next,
The system controller 15 refers to the MIC logical format type area (field F32 in FIG. 9) of the MIC header from the data read from the MIC to determine whether the tape cassette is a cleaning cassette. If it is determined that the cleaning cassette is not the cleaning cassette, the routine exits from this routine to execute another processing operation based on the determined type of the tape cassette, but if it is determined that the cleaning cassette is the cleaning cassette, step S105. Proceed to.

In step S105, it is determined whether or not the cleaning tape of the loaded cleaning cassette has reached the end of its life. This determination is
By using the MIC data, it can be performed as follows, for example.

As the element for determining the life of the cleaning cassette, all or part of the information in the determination area DF of the fields F105 to F110 highlighted in the system log area F5a in FIG. 8 is used. It Since the definition of each area of the fields F105 to F110 has been described above, the description thereof is omitted here. However, in these fields F105 to F110, the load count (field F107) and the access count (field F108) are The system log area F5a can be regarded as information on the number of times of practical use of the corresponding partition and handled. Therefore, a load count number and an access count number corresponding to the life of the cleaning tape are set in advance and used as thresholds, and the system log area F5 of the MIC is set.
By comparing the values of the load count and the access count stored in a with the above threshold values, it is possible to use them as a material for determining the life of the cleaning tape.

In fields F105 to F110, total relit frames (field F10
5), total 3rd ECC count (field F1
06), Privia Surilitun Frame (Field F
109), the PREVIOUS 3rd ECC count (field F110) can be treated as information indicating a substantial deterioration of the cleaning ability of the cleaning tape.
In other words, as the number of times cleaning is performed increases, the cleaning effect deteriorates due to stains on the cleaning tape itself, changes in the state of the magnetic material application surface, and the like. Will not be obtained (become a lifespan). Such deterioration of the tape itself is reflected as a symptom such as an increase in the error frequency of the data and an increase in the error level when viewed as data recorded / reproduced on the cleaning tape. The count of information in the above four areas increases as the data error frequency and error level increase. Therefore, the cleaning tape is set as a threshold value for the total number of relit frames, the total number of 3rd ECC counts, the number of pre-retired retune frames, and the number of 3rd ECC counts for the pre-repair, which corresponds to the degree of damage of the tape, and the MIC.
It can be used as a material for determining the life of the cleaning tape by comparing it with the actual count value referred to more. In this case, since the error state of the recorded data corresponds to the degree of damage to the tape, it is possible to make a substantial life judgment rather than simply judging the life of the cleaning tape only by the number of times of use as in the conventional case. It will be possible.

Further, the fields F105 to F110 described above are used.
Is an area in the system log area F5a and stores information for each partition. Therefore, in the present embodiment, it is possible to determine the life of the entire cleaning tape in physical units corresponding to each partition.

In the present embodiment, all or some of the candidates for the judgment elements presented by the judgment area DF of the fields F105 to F110 are adopted in combination and the judgment result is guided by a predetermined judgment condition. Alternatively, one candidate may be adopted independently, and can be arbitrarily set according to the actual usage conditions.
In this embodiment, the field F105-
If there are multiple items to be adopted as judgment elements from F110, threshold values set for each adopted item, and if there are a plurality of judgment elements, the combination conditions of the threshold values of the respective items for deriving the life judgment result and the like are set in advance. Determined. Then, these setting conditions are stored in the volume information (field F3) of the MIC as setting information regarding the cleaning cassette.

Therefore, in step S105 of FIG. 11, the system controller 15 determines from the determination area DF of the fields F105 to F110 of the MIC based on the life determination setting condition stored in the volume information area. The count value of the elemental area is compared with the threshold value, and the life of the cleaning tape is judged from the set judgment condition. In this case, the determination element area is referred to for each of the system log areas F5a corresponding to all partitions on the tape. Then, the life of the tape is judged for each partition.

If it is determined in step S105 that the entire magnetic tape (that is, all partitions) has reached the end of its life, the operation proceeds to step S118, in which the cleaning tape has reached the end of life via the SCSI interface 20 to the host computer 25. Data indicating that is transmitted and output as error information, and the process proceeds to step S115. After this, step S115 described later,
By returning to the original routine through the processing of S116,
If necessary, the data contents of the MIC are rewritten and later ejected from the tape streamer drive. At this time, for example, the host computer 25 side may be configured to output an alert display or the like indicating to the end user that the cleaning cassette is at the end of its life, by processing such as driver software compatible with the tape streamer drive. . Then, the end user may take measures such as discarding the cleaning cassette which is considered to have reached the end of its life. On the other hand, if the magnetic tape has not reached the end of life in step S105, the process proceeds to step S106.

For example, even if it is determined in step S105 that the remaining life is remaining, the life determination is performed for each partition on the tape as described above. Naturally, there can be situations where partitions that do not exist are mixed. Therefore, in step S106, a partition that has not reached the end of its life and is usable for cleaning is identified, and in the next step S107, control of a functional circuit unit required to access the usable partition identified in step S106. To execute. If a plurality of usable partitions remain, for example, the partition closest to the tape position when the cleaning cassette is loaded may be accessed. Although detailed description of the processing for this access is omitted, it is possible to perform high-speed search and access to the position of the target partition by referring to the absolute volume map of the MIC, for example.

When the access to the usable partition is completed in step S107, the system controller proceeds to step S108 to start cleaning. As the cleaning operation, the loaded cleaning cassette is loaded, and the recording heads 12A and 12B are loaded onto the cleaning tape.
Dummy data is written by (step S1
09) is performed. At this time, as a matter of course, since the magnetic material application surface of the cleaning tape is in contact with the rotary head 11 that is rotationally driven, the cleaning tape is used to record the recording heads 12A and 12B and the reproducing head 13.
Cleaning of A and 13B will be performed. Further, in parallel with the operation of writing dummy data on the cleaning tape as described above, the reproducing head 13A,
The RAW operation by 13B is also performed, and the system controller 15 measures the error rate of the data read by the RAW (step S11).
0). At this time, in the present embodiment, even if it is a cleaning tape, for example, when an error is detected in the recorded data due to RAW, the same operation as a normal tape cassette, such as rewriting of data, is performed. If the data is rewritten, for example, the values of the total relit frame (field F105) and the previa relit frame (field F109) corresponding to the partition are incremented. To be taken.

Then, the above steps S109 and S110.
While continuing the processing of
In step S111, the process waits until the preset one cleaning specified time elapses. The information on the specified cleaning time for one time is stored in the volume information (field F3) of the MIC as information related to the cleaning cassette as described above, and the waiting time in this step S111 is the cleaning specified time information. System controller 15
Will be set by referring to. If it is determined in step S111 that the specified cleaning time has not elapsed, the process proceeds to step S112. In this step S112, in the current cleaning operation period, the error rate measured by the RAW at the present time is compared with the information of the past error rate measured by the RAW before the current time, and the error rate at the current time is compared. If is not improved, step S
The cleaning operation is continued by returning to 109. On the other hand, if it is determined that the error rate has been improved, the system controller 15 determines that the head has already been normally cleaned, and proceeds to step S113 to end the cleaning operation. That is, the running of the magnetic tape and the data write control are stopped. In the present embodiment, when it is determined that the cleaning of the head is completed by the determination step of step S112, the cleaning operation is immediately terminated even if the specified cleaning time has not elapsed. As a result, the amount of cleaning tape used per cleaning is not wasted, and the life of the magnetic tape can be extended accordingly.

In step S111, if the specified cleaning time has elapsed, that is, if the error rate is not improved within the specified cleaning time, the process proceeds to step S119, for example, the SCSI interface 20 to the host computer 25 side. After the data indicating that the cleaning effect is not obtained even after performing the cleaning operation for a prescribed time is transmitted and output as error information via, the process proceeds to step S113 to end the cleaning operation. In this situation,
If the head is already in a clean state that cleaning is not necessary before cleaning, conversely, if the head is dirty to the extent that the error rate cannot be recovered by cleaning within the specified time, or the cleaning tape has reached the end of its life due to MIC data. Although it was not determined that it is, it is conceivable that the life may have already expired due to some factor. In such a case,
For example, the end user takes a countermeasure such that the cleaning is not necessary for a while and the cleaning operation is performed again, or the cleaning cassette is discarded in some cases.

When the cleaning operation is completed in step S113, it is determined in the next step S114 whether the currently loaded tape cassette has the MIC or the ID board. If it is equipped with an ID board,
The process directly proceeds to step S116, the cleaning cassette is ejected, and then the original routine is returned to. On the other hand, in the case where the MIC is provided, the process proceeds to step S115, and after updating the information of the MIC to be changed by the recording operation accompanying the cleaning operation up to now, The process proceeds to step S116. Therefore, at the time of the next cleaning, the system controller 15 determines the life of the cleaning tape by referring to the updated MIC data.

The present invention is not limited to the contents described as the embodiments above, and the configurations of the tape streamer drive and the cleaning cassette, the data format, etc. are determined according to the actual use conditions. It can be changed appropriately. For example, the present invention can be applied to a fixed head other than the rotary head, a magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus that employs a scanning method other than helical scanning, and a cleaning cassette corresponding thereto.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, the cleaning cassette is provided with the non-volatile memory in which the magnetic tape and the information about the usage history of the magnetic tape are stored. By doing so, the tape usage history information and the like that are changed in accordance with this data recording operation are rewritten in the nonvolatile memory. By doing so, the data contents of the nonvolatile memory provided in the cleaning cassette are changed. Based on this, the tape streamer drive system itself can manage the life of the cleaning tape and the cleaning time per cleaning operation to perform the cleaning operation. For this reason, it is not necessary for the end user to pay attention to the life (the number of times of use) of the cleaning tape and the cleaning time per cleaning as in the conventional case, so that the end user is very easy to use. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to manage the usage status of the cleaning tape for each partition by performing the cleaning by using the tape usage history information in the nonvolatile memory for each partition. Will be done efficiently. In addition, although many conventional cleaning tapes have a short tape length, since the usage status of the cleaning tape can be managed for each partition, a long tape can be created by providing many partitions for one magnetic tape. It also has the advantage that a long cleaning tape can be used, and the economy is improved accordingly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a tape streamer drive which is a recording / reproducing apparatus of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view schematically showing the internal structure of the tape cassette according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of the tape cassette according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure recorded on a magnetic tape.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure of tracks on a magnetic tape.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure in one partition recorded on a magnetic tape.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure of a group.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure of MIC.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a data structure of an MIC header.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a partition structure on a magnetic tape in the cleaning cassette according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing operation during cleaning of the tape streamer drive according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 tape cassette, 3 magnetic tape, 4 non-volatile memory, 11 rotating drum, 12A, 12B recording head, 13A, 13B reproducing head, 15 system controller, 17 mechanical controller, 18 ECC / modulation / demodulation circuit, 19 RF amplifier, 20 SCSI interface, 21 compression / expansion circuit, 22 buffer controller, 23 buffer memory, 25 host computer

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A magnetic tape for cleaning formed to enable recording of digital data and cleaning of a head, at least information relating to the cleaning cassette, and a magnetic tape for cleaning. A cleaning cassette comprising: a non-volatile memory having a storage area for information related to usage history; 2. The cleaning magnetic tape is divided into partitions, and at least a storage area for information related to a usage history of the cleaning magnetic tape is provided for each partition. The cleaning cassette according to Item 1. 3. A non-volatile memory reading means capable of reading information of a non-volatile memory provided in a mounted tape cassette, and information related to the tape cassette read by the non-volatile memory reading means. And the type of the loaded tape cassette is determined based on the information related to the usage history of the magnetic tape, and when it is determined that the type of the loaded tape cassette is the cleaning cassette, this cleaning cassette A magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a control unit capable of performing life-time determination and control relating to a cleaning operation. 4. The control means uses the information related to the usage history of the magnetic tape stored corresponding to each partition provided on the magnetic tape of the tape cassette, and divides it in units of partitions. 4. The magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus is configured to be able to determine the life of the magnetic tape and perform control related to the cleaning operation. 5. The control means, among the information related to the usage history of the magnetic tape stored in the non-volatile memory, information related to the usage frequency of the magnetic tape and data recorded on the magnetic tape. 4. The magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the life determination is performed by using all or a part of the information related to the error. 6. The control means writes data to a magnetic tape of a cleaning cassette within a predetermined period as control during a cleaning operation, and measures an error state of recorded data based on a read-after-write operation. The cleaning operation is terminated when it is determined that the measurement result of the error state of the print data is improved within the predetermined period. The magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to. 7. The control means is configured to update and write at least information relating to a usage history of a magnetic tape changed by an operation relating to cleaning to a nonvolatile memory of a cleaning cassette. The magnetic recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 3.