JPH11176104A - Disk-shaped recording medium and disk unit using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To miniaturize a sector pulse generation table without largely deteriorating the format efficiency, and reduce the time required for address conversion processing. SOLUTION: A disk has a servo area for recording servo information in each of a plurality of segments in the rotational direction, and a data area for recording user data. The segment and the logical sector do not correspond to each other on the one-to-one basis. The data area of each segment is divided into a plurality of uniform virtual segments, and each sector is aligned with a virtual segment. The virtual segment is a theoretical segment. To generate a sector pulse, it suffices to have a table having information of the number of bytes per virtual segment and the number of virtual segments per sector. In comparison with the case where the sector is aligned with the segment, reduction in the format efficiency can be restrained. Conversion between the sector number and the segment number, that is, arithmetic processing of the address can be carried out in a short time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk-shaped recording medium suitable for application to, for example, a magnetic disk device or an optical disk device, and a disk device using the same. Specifically, the data area in the segment of the disk-shaped recording medium is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments,
By arranging the logical sector, which is the recording / reproducing unit, in accordance with the virtual segment, it is possible to reduce the size of the sector pulse generation table and reduce the address conversion time without significantly deteriorating the format efficiency. The present invention relates to a recording medium and a disk device using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, on a disk-shaped recording medium used in a disk device such as a magnetic disk device or a magneto-optical disk device, a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data are alternately arranged in a rotating direction. So-called embedded servo (Embedded Serv)
o) There are many types.

In this embedded servo system, a synchronization signal for reproducing servo information and a synchronization signal for obtaining data recording / reproduction timing are extracted from a recorded reference signal (preamble) or a data string itself. The method performed is called a sector servo method. on the other hand,
A method in which a synchronization signal for obtaining the reproduction timing of servo information is generated from a clock mark previously formed at a discrete position (such as a servo area) on a medium by magnetic means or physical means is referred to as a synchronous servo method. I have.

[0004] In the following, the prior art will be described by taking a magnetic disk device adopting the synchronous servo system as an example.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a magnetic disk used in a synchronous servo type magnetic disk device. In the magnetic disk 201, tracks are equally divided into a plurality of, for example, several hundred segments (frames) in the rotational direction. Each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area (servo segment) for recording servo information and a data area (data segment) for recording user data.

[0006] The servo area includes an address area, a fine area, and a clock area. Clock marks 202 for generating a clock signal are radially and continuously recorded in the clock area. In this case, in the reproduced isolated waveform of the clock mark 202, for example, the peak existence time gives clock information synchronized with the rotation of the magnetic disk 201 to the data system and the servo system.

In the fine area, a fine pattern 20
4 are recorded. The fine pattern 204 is necessary in a tracking mode of positioning the head accurately at the center of the target track among the positioning servos of the magnetic head, and is a pattern indicating a relative position of the magnetic head with respect to the track. This fine pattern 204
Is composed of four magnetic patterns A, B, X, and Y.

[0008] An access pattern (track address code) 203 is recorded in the address area. The access pattern 203 is required in the track seek mode of moving the magnetic head to the target track in the positioning servo of the magnetic head, and the track address is encoded by a gray code or the like, and the length and arrangement are changed so as to be different for each track. Pattern.

Synchronization with the clock mark 202 is performed by a clock generation circuit, which will be described later. Before establishing initial synchronization, an approximate position of the clock mark 202 must first be found. As a synchronization auxiliary pattern for this purpose, a unique pattern 205 is recorded in the address area in place of the access pattern 203 at a constant period, for example, about several tens of points in one round of the track. The unique pattern 205 is composed of a plurality of lines (patterns) that are continuous in the radial direction, and can be easily detected even before a clock signal is generated. Generally, a violation code that cannot appear in an encoded data sequence is used. At the time of initial synchronization establishment, first, a unique pattern 205 is detected, and a clock gate signal is generated after a certain number of clocks, and a reproduced isolated waveform corresponding to the clock mark 202 is extracted.

In order to know the position of the magnetic disk 201 in the rotational direction, a pattern 206 called a home index pattern, which is distinguished from the others, is used as the rotation origin.
Are recorded in the address area in place of the unique pattern 205, one per rotation. Unique pattern 205
After the initial synchronization is established, in order to know the position in the rotation direction of the magnetic disk 201 (the position where the magnetic head is flying), the detection of the home index pattern 206 is waited for one round at worst, and then the segment synchronization (frame synchronization) is performed. Is established, and the mode is finally shifted to a mode in which normal recording and reproduction can be performed.

In the data area, user data is recorded and reproduced in units called sectors (logical sectors) of 512 bytes or the like. Then, a sector ID (Sector Identification Code), an ECC (Error Correction Code) and the like are added to the user data of each sector and recorded. As the sector ID, definition information of a data sector, flag information indicating a defective sector, and the like are recorded together with a CRC (cyclic error detection code). The sector ID includes, for example, track number, head number, and sector number information, as well as skip information indicating that the sector is unusable due to a defect or the like (see FIG. 15).

The above-mentioned segments and sectors do not have a one-to-one correspondence. FIG. 16 shows an example of correspondence between a physical segment (frame) and a logical sector. In this example, sector 0 straddles segment 0 and segment 1, and sector 1 straddles segment 1 and segment 2. The recording / reproducing operation for each sector is performed while repeating stop and restart so as to mask the servo area interrupted in the sector. These operations are performed by a hard disk controller (HD) by a timing signal output from a timing generation circuit.
C) or by controlling the recording / reproducing circuit system.

In recent years, in response to demands for large capacity and high performance, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-174498, a method of recording without adding a sector ID to user data (sector IDless recording). Method) has been proposed and implemented. In the sector ID-less method, the information of the sector ID is stored not in the magnetic disk 201 but in a semiconductor memory or the like. As a result, a few percent of the area that should originally be secured on the magnetic disk 201 as the sector ID area can be allocated for user data recording.

FIG. 17 shows a conventional sector-ID-less magnetic disk drive 210.

The magnetic disk drive 210 has a magnetic head 211 for recording and reproducing data on the magnetic disk 201. The magnetic head 211 is attached to one end of an arm (not shown) held by a rotatable pivot, and a voice coil motor (VCM) 212 as a drive motor is attached to the other end.

The magnetic disk drive 210 has an interface function for connecting to a host computer, a data write / read control function, an error correction code added to write data, and an error correction code added to read data. And a microprocessor (MPU) 214 for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus.

Here, an operation program of the microprocessor 214 is stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory) 214M incorporated in the microprocessor 214.
A logical block number LBA given in a write or read command from a host computer is stored in a boot area of a disk or a memory such as an EEPROM.
A conversion table for converting (Logical Block Address) into a physical position (head number, track number, sector number) of the magnetic disk 201, and a sector ID information table 21 indicating information of the sector with respect to the sector number
5T is stored. FIG. 18 shows an example of the conversion table, and FIG. 19 shows an example of the sector ID information table (see corresponding examples in FIG. 16).

The magnetic disk device 210 has a buffer RAM (random access memory) 215 for temporarily storing write data transferred from the host computer and read data transferred to the host computer.
have. Note that a sector ID information table 215T is generated on the buffer RAM 215. This is the boot area of the above disk during drive initialization,
Alternatively, it is copied from a memory such as an EEPROM.

The sector ID information table shown in FIG. 19 will be described. Defect indicates that the sector cannot be used due to a defect or the like. The segment (Segment) indicates the segment number where the sector exists. The count (Count) indicates the number of bytes until the start of the servo area, and indicates that the processing for stopping the recording and reproduction of data until the passage of the servo area is started after the number of bytes has elapsed. Note that "0" indicates that the servo area is not interrupted by the sector.

The magnetic disk device 210 performs digital modulation processing and write compensation processing on write data read from the buffer RAM 215 and added with an error correction code by the hard disk controller 213 at the time of writing. A recording data generating circuit 216 for generating recording data;
And a recording amplifier 217 for obtaining a recording current signal corresponding to the recording amplifier 216. In the write compensation process, minute correction of the magnetization reversal timing at the time of writing is performed for the peak shift of the read signal due to the magnetization reversal interference generated at the time of high density recording.

The magnetic disk device 210 also includes a reproducing amplifier 218 for amplifying a signal reproduced from the magnetic disk 201 by the magnetic head 211 at the time of reading, and a recording current signal output from the recording amplifier 217 at the time of recording. A changeover switch 219 for supplying a signal reproduced by the magnetic head 211 from the magnetic disk 201 to the reproduction amplifier 218 during reproduction.
And In this case, the W-side fixed terminal of the changeover switch 219 is connected to the output side of the recording amplifier 217, the R-side fixed terminal is connected to the input side of the reproduction amplifier 218, and the movable terminal is connected to the magnetic head 211. You.

The magnetic disk drive 210 detects a waveform peak from the output signal of the reproducing amplifier 218 and digitally demodulates the detected pulse, that is, the reproduced data, to obtain read data.
It has 0. An error correction code is added to the read data, and the hard disk controller 213
Are stored in the buffer RAM 215 after error correction processing.

The magnetic disk drive 210 detects a clock mark reproduction signal from the output signal of the reproduction amplifier 218 and generates a clock signal synchronized with the rotation of the magnetic disk 201 based on the signal.
21 and a servo information detector 222 for detecting other servo information from the output signal of the reproduction amplifier 218.

The servo information detector 222 detects the home index pattern from the reproduced signal and
A detection unit that outputs a signal indicating the origin position of 01, a detection unit that detects a unique pattern from the reproduction signal at the time of initial synchronization, and outputs a clock gate signal after a certain number of clocks;
A detection unit that detects an access pattern from the reproduction signal and performs a decoding process or the like to obtain track address information; and a detection unit that detects a fine pattern from the reproduction signal and performs a signal process to obtain tracking information. I have.

The clock generation circuit 221 is supplied with a clock gate signal from the servo information detector 222. Then, the clock generation circuit 221 extracts a reproduced isolated waveform of the clock mark by the clock gate signal, and generates a clock signal synchronized with the rotation of the magnetic disk 201 based on the extracted waveform. Note that the clock generation circuit 2
The clock signal generated at 21 is a servo information detector 22
2 is supplied. The clock signal generated by the clock generation circuit 221 is supplied to the hard disk controller 213, the recording data generation circuit 216, and the data demodulation circuit 220, as well as to other necessary parts.

The magnetic disk drive 210 has a position control circuit 223 for controlling the voice coil motor 212 to position the magnetic head 211 on a target track on the magnetic disk 201. The position control circuit 223 controls the voice coil motor 212 based on the track address information and the tracking information output from the servo information detector 222. It should be noted that the position control circuit 223 has a microprocessor 21 when writing or reading user data as described later.
4 provides information on the target track address.

The magnetic disk drive 210 has a timing generation circuit 224 for generating timing signals indicating various information point positions on the magnetic disk 201. To the timing generation circuit 224, a signal indicating the origin position is supplied from the servo information detector 222 as a reset signal, and a clock signal is supplied from the clock generation circuit 221. In the timing generation circuit 224,
The number of clocks from the origin position is counted, and various timing signals are generated based on the counted value.

For example, as a timing signal, a servo gate signal or a data gate signal required for a recording / reproducing circuit system,
A signal indicating the origin position of the magnetic disk 201 necessary for the hard disk controller 213, a segment pulse indicating a segment start position, a byte pulse indicating a byte start position, a sector pulse indicating a sector start position,
Further, there is a changeover control signal of the changeover switch 219 and the like.

By the way, the start position of a sector in which a sector pulse should be generated can be easily obtained if the sector matches a segment or one of the sectors is an integral multiple of the other. However, at present, zone bit recording (ZBL) for keeping the line density constant at the inner and outer peripheries has become widespread, and the above-described relationship between the sector and the segment does not hold in all zones. That is, a sector could start at any position in the segment. (See the corresponding example in FIG. 16).

Therefore, in the timing generation circuit 224,
A method is employed in which the start position of a sector is obtained by referring to, for example, a sector start position information table. After the format design, the sector start position information table
It must be uniquely determined and the position information for the number of sectors needs to be written. When zone bit recording is used, it is necessary for each zone.

FIG. 20 shows, for example, 20 tracks per track.
An example of a sector start position information table is shown in a case where zone bit recording is performed on 8 zones with 0 segments and the maximum number of sectors per track is 256 sectors (outermost circumference). Now, assuming that zone 0 is the innermost zone and zone 0 has 151 sectors per track, the value of zone 0 is as shown in FIG. For convenience of calculation, a table for each zone is created according to the number of sectors in the outermost zone. In this case, when the number of segments is less than 256 sectors, the number of segments is indicated by “FF” and the number of bytes is indicated by “FFFF”.

FIG. 21 shows the hard disk controller 2
13 shows a configuration example. The hard disk controller 213 has an I / O for connecting to a host computer.
An O interface unit 231, a buffer control unit 232 for controlling the writing / reading of the buffer RAM 215, a disk sequencer 233 for controlling the writing / reading of user data to / from the magnetic disk 201, and the disk sequencer 233
And a control register unit 234 for holding a data value necessary for the sequence control.

Here, the control register section 234
Has a counter function for counting the number of segments from the origin position and a counter function for counting the number of bytes from the sector start position. I / O interface unit 2
31, the buffer control unit 232, the disk sequencer 233, and the control register unit 234 are connected to the microprocessor 214 via the bus 235.

The hard disk controller 213
Supplies various timing signals supplied from the timing generation circuit 224 to the disk sequencer 233 and the control register unit 234, and generates a recording gate signal according to the instruction of the disk sequencer 233 during the write operation and supplies the recording gate signal to the timing generation circuit 224. A chip control unit 236 and a clock generation circuit 221
And a clock control unit 237 for supplying the supplied clock signal to each unit.

The hard disk controller 213
Converts the write data (parallel data) read from the buffer RAM 215 into serial data at the time of writing, and converts the ECC circuit 2 (described later) at the time of reading.
The read data (serial data) corrected in step 39 is converted into parallel data, and
And a serializer / deserializer 238 that supplies the data to the output data of the serializer / deserializer 238 at the time of writing.
16 and a data demodulation circuit 2 at the time of reading.
And an ECC circuit 239 for performing error correction processing on the 20 output data.

Next, the magnetic disk drive 21 shown in FIG.
The operation of 0 will be described. Immediately after the power is turned on or after the synchronization is lost, the operation of establishing the initial synchronization is performed. In this case, the changeover switch 219 is connected to the R side, and a signal reproduced from the magnetic disk 201 by the magnetic head 211 is transmitted to the changeover switch 21.
9 is supplied to the reproduction amplifier 218 through the R side. Then, a unique pattern is detected by the servo information detector 222 from the output signal of the reproducing amplifier 218, and after a certain number of clocks, the servo information detector 222 sends the clock generation circuit 22
1 is supplied with a clock gate signal. Then, the clock generation circuit 221 regards an isolated reproduction waveform appearing during the period in which the clock gate signal is output as a reproduction waveform of a normal clock mark and has a PLL (Phase-Locked) inside.
Loop), and synchronize the phase of the clock signal with the clock mark.

After the establishment of the initial synchronization, the write / read operation is performed. Prior to the writing / reading operation, the sector ID information table 215 is stored in the buffer RAM 215 under the control of the microprocessor 214.
T (see FIG. 19) is generated.

The control of the write operation of the microprocessor 214 is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step ST1, when a write command sent from the host computer is received, in step ST2, the LBA is magnetically converted using a conversion table (see FIG. 18) stored in a disk or a semiconductor memory such as an EEPROM. It is converted into the physical position (head number, track number, sector number) of the disk 201.

Next, in step ST3, the control register section 234 of the hard disk controller 213
, Necessary values such as the start segment number, the current sector number (the first sector number in the start frame minus 1), and the end sector number are set.

For example, if the write command is LBA "00A
When it is intended to instruct writing of three sectors from “1”, in step ST2, the LBA is set to the head number =
“0”, track number = “0010”, sector number =
Convert to "0001". Then, in step ST3, the start segment number = “0001”, the current sector number = “0000”, the start sector number = “0001”,
Set the end sector number = “0004” (since sector 2 is defective).

In step ST4, the switch 219 is controlled to be connected to the R side corresponding to the servo area and connected to the W side corresponding to the data area, and the position control circuit 223 is provided with the target track address. (Track number), and then start the track seek operation. The track seek operation is performed as follows.

That is, the position control circuit 223 compares the track address based on the track address information obtained by detecting the access pattern 203 with the servo information detector 222 with the target track address, and the current track address matches the target track address. The voice coil motor 212 is controlled so as to perform the operation. After the track address of the current location matches the target track address, the position control circuit 223 moves the magnetic head 211 to the center of the target track based on the tracking information obtained by detecting the fine pattern 204 by the servo information detector 222. The voice coil motor 212 is controlled to be located. When the magnetic head 211 is located at the center of the target track, the track seek is completed.

Next, in step ST5, it is determined whether or not the track seek has been completed. Although not described above, the information that the track seek operation has been completed is transmitted to the position control circuit 223.
Is supplied to the microprocessor 214. When the track seek is completed, in step ST6, the disk sequencer 233 of the hard disk controller 213 is set.
Start.

The disk sequencer 233 is controlled by various timing signals supplied from the timing generation circuit 224, and the buffer RAM 2 at a predetermined timing.
The write data temporarily stored in the memory 15 is read out, converted into serial data by a serializer / deserializer 238, added with an error correction code by an ECC circuit 239, and supplied to a recording data generation circuit 216. In this case, the segment counter of the control register unit 234 is counted up by the segment pulse from the timing generation circuit 224. Further, the current sector number of the control register unit 234 is counted up by the sector pulse from the timing generation circuit 224.

In step ST7, it is determined whether or not the count value matches the start segment number. When the count value matches the start segment number, it is determined in step ST8 whether the current sector number matches the start sector number. When the current sector number matches the start sector number, the process proceeds to step ST9.

In this step ST9, the buffer RAM
By referring to the sector ID information table 215, it is confirmed that the sector is not a defective sector (defect = 0), that write data is stored in the buffer RAM 215, and the like. The data is read and transferred to the recording data generation circuit 216. Thus, recording is started.

Next, in step ST10, it is determined whether one sector is completed. When one sector is completed, it is determined in step ST11 whether or not the current sector number matches the end sector number. If the current sector number does not match the end sector number in step ST11, the start sector number is changed to correspond to the next sector in step ST12. Then, returning to step ST7, the same control as described above is performed. On the other hand, if the current sector number matches the end sector number in step ST11, the write operation ends.

Here, in the sector ID information table shown in FIG. 19, it can be seen that the servo area is interrupted "b" bytes after the start of sector 1. In this case, the recording is stopped in the servo area based on the count value of the byte counter of the control register unit 234, not described above. These pieces of information are transmitted from the disk sequencer 233 to the sector ID information table 215 of the buffer RAM 215.
Can be obtained by accessing T by sector,
The operation proceeds according to the information.

In the sector ID information table shown in FIG. 19, since sector = 1 is defective = 1, it is known that the sector 2 is a defective sector. In this case, from step ST8, steps ST9 and ST10 are skipped, and the process proceeds to step ST11.

In the control of the read operation, the disk sequencer 233 is started after the track seek is completed, similarly to the control of the write operation described above. Then, the start sector is accessed, the ECC circuit 239 performs an error correction process on the read data output from the data demodulation circuit 220, converts the data into parallel data with the serializer / deserializer 238, and supplies the parallel data to the buffer RAM 215 to temporarily store the read data. To remember. Thereafter, the data is transferred to the host computer via the I / O interface unit 231.
At the time of this reading, the changeover switch 219 is connected to the R side.

[0052]

The above-mentioned conventional magnetic disk drive 210 has the following problems. (A) As a sector start position information table used by the timing generation circuit 224 to generate a sector pulse, a storage area of the number of sectors × the number of zones is required (see FIG. 20). For example, zone bit recording into 8 zones with 200 segments per track,
The maximum number of sectors per track is 256 sectors (outermost zone).
In the case of the format of 000 bytes, the sector number can be represented by 1 byte (8 bits), the segment number can be represented by 1 byte, and the number of bytes can be represented by 2 bytes, and about 8 kbytes (= 4 bytes) as a sector start position information table. A storage area of (byte × 256 sectors × 8 zones) is required. Therefore, the circuit scale of the timing generation circuit increases.

(B) At the time of recording / reproducing, the microprocessor 214 needs to frequently convert the logical sector number and the physical position. At this time, the number of the segment where the sector starts, or vice versa, is obtained from the sector number. Conventionally, as described above, sector I
It was determined from the D information table. However, since it is necessary to scan this table, it takes a very long time for the address conversion process, which hinders high-speed recording and reproduction.

(C) To avoid the above-mentioned problems (a) and (b), it is conceivable to arrange logical sectors in accordance with the segments. However, in this case, even if the zoning position is optimized, the format efficiency is significantly deteriorated as compared with the case where the logical sectors are continuously arranged from an arbitrary position.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to reduce the size of the sector pulse generation table and to shorten the time required for address conversion processing during recording and reproduction without significantly deteriorating the format efficiency.

[0056]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk-shaped recording medium in which a track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotational direction, and each of the plurality of segments is used for recording servo information. The data area is divided into a servo area and a data area for recording user data. The data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged according to the virtual segment. .

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk device for handling a disk-shaped recording medium according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the disk device counts every byte in a data area from a rotation origin of the disk-shaped recording medium. First counting means; second counting means for counting each time the first counting means counts the number of bytes per virtual segment; and virtual counting means for each virtual sector per logical sector. Sector pulse generating means for generating a sector pulse every time counting is performed for several minutes.

In the present invention, the data area of each segment of the disk-shaped recording medium is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged in accordance with the virtual segments. Therefore, in the data area from the rotation origin of the disc-shaped recording medium,
Each byte is counted by the first counting means.
Counting by the second counting means each time counting by the number of bytes per one virtual segment by the counting means, the sector is counted by the second counting means by counting by the number of virtual segments per logical sector. , The sector pulse is generated by the sector pulse generating means at that timing.

In this case, for example, in the case where zone bit recording is performed, in order to generate a sector pulse, information on the number of virtual segments constituting the logical sector for each zone and the number of bytes per virtual segment is provided. You just need to have a table. Therefore,
The conventional sector start position information table of several kilobytes is unnecessary, and the circuit scale can be reduced.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk apparatus for handling a disk-shaped recording medium according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein a segment number and a byte within a segment are used as a start position of a next logical sector. Calculating means for calculating the number, and a sector pulse for generating a sector pulse when the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment become the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment which are the start position of the next logical sector sent from the calculating means. It is provided with generating means.

In the present invention, the data area of each segment of the disk-shaped recording medium is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged in accordance with the virtual segments. Therefore, the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment which are the start position of the next logical sector c can be obtained by the calculation.
For example, when the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a and the number of segments is b, the segment number is obtained by an operation taking an integer part of c × b / a, and the byte in the segment is obtained. The number is c
It is obtained by an operation of multiplying the decimal part of × b / a by the number of bytes in one segment to obtain an integer part.

When the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment become the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment, which are the start position of the next logical sector sent from the arithmetic means, the start position of the next logical sector from the sector pulse generator Is generated. In this case, when calculating sector information, a table storing information for generating a sector pulse is not required, and a several kilobyte sector start position information table as in the related art is unnecessary, thereby reducing the circuit scale. It becomes possible.

In a disk-shaped recording medium, the number of virtual segments in one data area and the number of segments in one track are multiplied by 10 or more times the number of sectors per track. In addition, zone bit recording for setting the number of virtual segments as described above and making the recording density constant at the inner and outer circumferences is performed, and a radius position where the number of the virtual segments constituting one logical sector is reduced by an integral number is set as a zone switching position. It may be. These make it possible to increase the format efficiency.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk apparatus for handling a disk-shaped recording medium according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the number of sectors in a minimum repetition unit of a phase relationship between a logical sector and a segment is provided. Where a is the number of segments and b is the number of segments, a calculation means for obtaining the number of the segment at which the logical sector with the sector number c starts by an operation taking an integer part of c × b / a is provided.

A disk device according to an eleventh aspect of the present invention is a disk device for handling the disk-shaped recording medium according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is provided. Is a and the number of segments is b, the number of the first logical sector c after the segment of the segment number c is c × a
It is provided with an operation means for obtaining by an operation taking an integer part of / b + 1.

In the present invention, the number of the segment where the sector starts is calculated from the sector number, or vice versa. Therefore, the address conversion time for obtaining the sector start segment number from the sector number at the time of recording / reproduction is greatly reduced, instead of scanning and retrieving the sector ID information table as in the prior art. It is possible to shorten the time until the operation is completed.

[0067]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment,
The present invention is applied to a synchronous servo type magnetic disk drive.

FIG. 1 shows a magnetic disk 101 according to the embodiment. In the magnetic disk 101, tracks are equally divided into a plurality of, for example, 100 or more segments (frames) in the rotation direction. Each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area (servo segment) for recording servo information and a data area (data segment) for recording user data.

The servo area includes an address area, a fine area, and a clock area. The clock area includes a clock mark 10 for generating a clock signal.
2 are continuously recorded radially. In this case, in the reproduced isolated waveform of the clock mark 102, for example, the time when the peak exists is determined by the data system and the servo system.
Clock information synchronized with the rotation of 01 is given.

In the fine area, the fine pattern 10
3 is recorded. The fine pattern 103 is required in a tracking mode of positioning the head accurately at the center of the target track among the positioning servos of the magnetic head, and is a pattern indicating a relative position of the magnetic head with respect to the track. This fine pattern 103
Is composed of four magnetic patterns A, B, X, and Y.

In the address area, one out of two addresses
For example, an access pattern (track address code) 104 is recorded in an odd segment. The access pattern 104 is a track seek / movement for moving the magnetic head to the target track in the magnetic head positioning servo.
This is a pattern that is required in the mode, the track address is encoded by a gray code or the like, and the length and arrangement are changed so as to be different for each track.

In the address area, a segment ID (Segment Identification Code) is set at a ratio of one to four.
e) 105 is recorded. The segment ID is a code having information on the frame number (segment number) from the origin position. In the address area, the unique pattern 106 has a segment ID of 1 for every four.
It is recorded instead of 05. That is, in the address area, access pattern 104 → segment ID 10
5 → Access pattern 104 → Unique pattern 106
→ access pattern 104 → segment ID 105 →
Access pattern 104, segment I
D105 and the unique pattern 106 are repeatedly recorded.

Synchronization with the clock mark 102 is performed by a clock generation circuit, which will be described later. Before establishing initial synchronization, an approximate position of the clock mark 102 must first be searched. As a synchronization auxiliary pattern for that purpose, the unique pattern 1
06 is recorded. This unique pattern 106
Is composed of a plurality of lines (patterns) that are continuous in the radial direction, and can be easily detected even before the clock signal is generated. Generally, a violation code that cannot appear in an encoded data sequence is used. When the initial synchronization is established, first, the unique pattern 106 is detected, and a clock gate signal is generated after a certain number of clocks, and a reproduced isolated waveform of the clock mark 102 is extracted.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the segment ID 105. In this example, the address area is composed of 12 bits, and the segment ID 105 is composed of a 7-bit segment number (frame number) code and a 5-bit CRC.
(Cyclic error detection code).
The segment number code represents, for example, a segment number (frame number) as it is, and is numbered sequentially from 0. Here, the CRC generating polynomial G
As (x), for example, G (x) = (x + 1) (x ⁴ +
x + 1) is used. Here, (x ⁴ + x + 1) is a primitive irreducible polynomial.

Thus, the CRC generating polynomial G (x)
In the form of (x + 1) × (primitive irreducible polynomial), it is possible to generate a CRC with high detection capability. Note that it is better to use a generator polynomial having a higher degree as much as possible. In general, n
When the following generator polynomial is used, a pattern in which the CRC operation result is 0 appears in the access pattern 104 with a probability of 1 / (2 ^n-1 ).

In the servo area of the magnetic disk 101, the above-described servo information is recorded, for example, as uneven pits. In this case, after the concave and convex pits are collectively formed by stamping, a magnetic layer 101b is formed on the nonmagnetic substrate 101a (see FIG. 1), or the magnetic layer of a normal flat substrate on which the magnetic layer is formed is etched. To form a pattern independent of the data area. This pattern is DC-magnetized in one direction by a magnetic head, so that the segment ID 1
05, unique pattern 106, access pattern 10
4. The clock mark 102 and the fine pattern 103 are formed. When these patterns are reproduced by a magnetic head, an isolated waveform is reproduced at the leading edge and the trailing edge of the pattern.

In the data area, recording and reproduction of user data are performed in units called sectors (logical sectors) of 512 bytes or the like. Then, ECC (error correction code) and the like are added to the user data of each sector and recorded.

Note that segments and sectors do not correspond one-to-one. FIG. 3 shows an example of correspondence between segments (frames) and sectors. In this example, sector 0
Extends over segments 0 and 1, and sector 1 extends over segments 1-3. Then, the data area of each segment is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and each sector is arranged according to the virtual segment. Here, the virtual segments are theoretical and are not physically divided.

In the example of FIG. 3, each data area is divided into eight equal virtual segments, and each sector is composed of 14 virtual segments. In this case, exactly four sectors are arranged in seven segments, which is the minimum repetition unit (unit) of the phase relationship between the segments and the sectors.

The recording / reproducing operation for each sector is performed while repeating stop and restart so as to mask the servo area interrupted in the sector. These operations are performed by controlling a hard disk controller (HDC) and a recording / reproducing circuit system with a timing signal output from a timing generation circuit.

FIG. 4 shows a magnetic disk drive 110 of a sector ID-less system as an embodiment. In the magnetic disk drive 110, zone bit recording is performed on the magnetic disk 101 so that the recording density is constant at the inner and outer circumferences. In the present embodiment, zoning is optimized. Here, the zoning optimization means that, when zone bit recording is performed, a radius at which the number of virtual segments forming one sector is exactly an integer smaller is set as a zone switching position. FIG. 5 shows an example in which zoning is optimized. Each sector in zones 0 to 3 is composed of 8 to 5 virtual segments.

The magnetic disk drive 110 has a magnetic head 111 for recording and reproducing data on the magnetic disk 101. The magnetic head 111 is attached to one end of an arm (not shown) held by a rotatable pivot, and a voice coil motor (VCM) 112 as a drive motor is attached to the other end.

The magnetic disk drive 110 has an interface function for connecting to a host computer, a data write / read control function, an error correction code added to write data, and an error correction code added to read data. And a microprocessor (MPU) 114 for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus.

Here, the ROM 114M built in the microprocessor 114 stores the microprocessor 114
Is stored. Also, the logical block number LBA given in the write or read command from the host computer is stored in the boot area of the disk or in a memory such as an EEPROM in the physical position of the magnetic disk 101 (head number, track number, sector number).
A conversion table (see FIG. 18) for converting the data into a sector number and a sector I indicating information of the sector with respect to the sector number
A D information table (see FIG. 6) is stored.

The magnetic disk drive 110 has a buffer RAM 115 for temporarily storing write data transferred from the host computer and read data transferred to the host computer. The sector ID information table 1 is stored in the buffer RAM 115.
15T is generated. This is copied from the boot area of the disk or a memory such as an EEPROM when the drive is initialized.

The sector ID information table shown in FIG. 6 will be described. Defect indicates that the sector cannot be used due to a defect or the like. The segment (Segment) indicates the segment number where the sector exists. The count (Count) indicates the number of bytes until the start of the servo area, and indicates that the processing for stopping the recording and reproduction of data until the passage of the servo area is started after the number of bytes has elapsed. Note that "0" indicates that the servo area is not interrupted by the sector.

Returning to FIG. 4, the magnetic disk drive 1
Reference numeral 10 denotes recording data generation for performing digital modulation processing on write data read from the buffer RAM 115 and added with an error correction code by the hard disk controller 113 at the time of writing, and performing write compensation processing to generate recording data. It has a circuit 116 and a recording amplifier 117 for obtaining a recording current signal corresponding to the recording data generating circuit 116. In the write compensation process,
Fine correction of the magnetization reversal timing at the time of writing is performed for the peak shift of the read signal due to the magnetization reversal interference generated at the time of high density recording.

The magnetic disk drive 110 includes a reproduction amplifier 118 for amplifying a signal reproduced from the magnetic disk 101 by the magnetic head 111 at the time of reading, and a recording current signal output from the recording amplifier 117 at the time of recording. And a switch 119 for supplying a signal to be reproduced by the magnetic head 111 from the magnetic disk 101 to the reproduction amplifier 118 during reproduction.
And In this case, the fixed terminal on the W side of the changeover switch 119 is connected to the output side of the recording amplifier 117, the fixed terminal on the R side is connected to the input side of the reproducing amplifier 118, and the movable terminal is connected to the magnetic head 111. You.

The magnetic disk drive 110 detects a waveform peak from the output signal of the reproducing amplifier 118 and digitally demodulates the detected pulse, and thus the reproduced data, to obtain the data demodulation circuit 12 which obtains the read data.
It has 0. An error correction code is added to this read data, and the hard disk controller 113
Are stored in the buffer RAM 115 after error correction processing.

The magnetic disk drive 110 generates a clock signal synchronized with the rotation of the magnetic disk 101 and controls the synchronization of the system.
A servo information detector 151 for detecting servo information from an output signal of the reproducing amplifier 118;
And a timing generation circuit 124 for generating timing signals indicating various information point positions on the first information point.

The timing generation circuit 124 includes a segment counter 50 of the synchronization management circuit 150 as described later.
2, a segment number (count value) is supplied, and a clock signal is supplied from a clock generation circuit 501. The timing generation circuit 124 counts the number of clocks from the origin position, and generates various timing signals based on the count value.

For example, as a timing signal, a servo gate signal and a data gate signal necessary for a recording / reproducing circuit system,
A signal indicating the origin position of the magnetic disk required for the hard disk controller 113, a segment pulse indicating the start position of the segment, a byte pulse indicating the start position of the byte, a sector pulse indicating the start position of the sector, and switching control of the switch 119. There are signals, etc.

FIG. 7 shows a specific configuration of the synchronization management circuit 150, the servo information detector 151, and the timing generation circuit 124. The servo information detector 151 detects the unique pattern 106 from the reproduced signal in the servo area and outputs a unique pattern detection signal, and detects the unique pattern 106 at the time of initial synchronization and outputs a clock gate signal after a certain number of clocks. The unique pattern detector 511 detects and outputs data in the address area from the reproduced signal in the servo area, and outputs
The access pattern 104 is detected from the segment ID detector 512 for performing the RC operation and the reproduction signal of the servo area,
An access pattern detector 513 that obtains track address information by performing a decoding process or the like, and a fine pattern detector 514 that detects the fine pattern 103 from a reproduced signal in the servo area and performs signal processing to obtain tracking information. I have.

Here, the unique pattern detector 511,
Data detected from the reproduced signal is supplied to the segment ID detector 512 and the access pattern detector 513, respectively. When the result of performing a CRC operation on the data in the address area becomes a predetermined value indicating that there is no error, for example, “0”, the segment ID detector 512
It outputs a CRC-OK signal.

The synchronization management circuit 150
The segment number data from the clock generation circuit 501 that generates a clock signal synchronized with one rotation and the segment ID detector 512 of the servo information detector 151 when segment synchronization is established, and counts the number of segments from the origin position. And a segment counter 502 for detecting whether or not the address area data (excluding the CRC portion) detected and output by the detector 512 after the loading of the segment number data matches the count value of the number of segments. I have. Here, the segment counter 5
In the case of 02, when the number of segments per track is N, for example, an N-ary counter is used, and a signal indicating the origin position is output when the count value becomes "0".

The synchronization management circuit 150 detects the detection signal of the unique pattern 106 from the unique pattern detector 511 of the servo information detector 151, the CRC-OK signal from the segment ID detector 512, and the coincidence detection from the segment counter 502. A segment manager 503 supplies a load signal to the segment counter 502 based on the signal, and outputs a segment lock signal after confirming that the segment is synchronized.
The segment lock signal output from the segment manager 503 is supplied to the microprocessor 114, the timing generation circuit 124, and the position control circuit 123, as well as to other necessary parts.

The clock generation circuit 501 is supplied with a clock gate signal from the unique pattern detector 511 of the servo information detector 151. Then, the clock generation circuit 501 regards the isolated reproduction waveform signal appearing in the reproduction signal during the period in which the clock gate signal is output as the reproduction signal of the regular clock mark, updates the phase of the PLL contained therein, and updates the clock mark. To obtain a clock signal that is phase-synchronized with the clock signal. This clock generation circuit 501
After that, in addition to the clock signal, a PLL lock signal is output when the clock signal is in phase synchronization with the clock mark.

The clock signal generated by the clock generation circuit 501 is supplied to the servo information detector 151.
The clock signal generated by the clock generation circuit 501 is supplied to the hard disk controller 113, the recording data generation circuit 116, the data demodulation circuit 120, the timing generation circuit 124, and the like, and also to other necessary parts. You. Further, the clock generation circuit 5
The PLL lock signal output from 01 is supplied to the above-described microprocessor 114 and also to other necessary parts.

The timing generation circuit 124 has a sector information register 241 for holding information on the number of bytes per virtual segment and the number of virtual segments per sector, and a pulse generator 242 for generating a sector pulse SCP. doing. Without the above, MPU114
Is an R containing information on the number of bytes per virtual segment per zone and the number of virtual segments per sector.
An OM table is provided.

In the sector information register 241 of the timing generation circuit 124, at the time of initialization and zone switching, the MPU 114 stores information on the number of bytes per virtual segment and the number of virtual segments per sector in the corresponding zone from the ROM table. Is read and set.

The pulse generator 242 is provided for the magnetic disk 10 whose count value of the segment counter 502 is "0".
First counting means for counting the number of bytes based on a clock signal in a data area from one rotation origin;
The first counting means includes second counting means for counting each time counting is performed by the number of bytes per virtual segment set in the sector information register 241. Every time counting is performed for the number of virtual segments per logical sector set in the H.241, the sector pulse SCP
Occurs.

In FIG. 7, the timing generation circuit 124 shows only a portion related to the generation of the sector pulse SCP. In FIG. 7, the MPU 114 has an RO having information on the number of bytes per virtual segment and the number of virtual segments per sector in all zones.
Although the ROM table is provided with the M table, the timing table 124 may include the ROM table.

Returning to FIG. 4, the magnetic disk drive 1
Reference numeral 10 denotes a voice coil motor 1 for positioning the magnetic head 111 on a target track on the magnetic disk 201.
12 has a position control circuit 123 for controlling it. In the position control circuit 123, the servo information detector 151
The voice coil motor 112 is controlled based on the track address information output from the access pattern detector 513 and the tracking information output from the fine pattern detector 514.

The position control circuit 123 is further supplied with a segment lock signal output from the segment manager 503 of the synchronization management circuit 150. Note that the position control circuit 123 has a microprocessor 114 when writing or reading user data as described later.
More information on the target track address is given.

FIG. 8 shows the hard disk controller 11
3 shows a configuration example. The hard disk controller 113 has an I / O for connecting to a host computer.
An interface unit 131, a buffer control unit 132 for controlling writing / reading of the buffer RAM 115, a disk sequencer 133 for controlling the writing / reading of user data to / from the magnetic disk 101, and a sequence control of the disk sequencer 133 And a control register unit 134 for holding a data value necessary for the operation.

Here, the control register section 134 has a counter function for counting the number of segments from the origin position and a counter function for counting the number of bytes from the sector start position. I / O interface unit 13
1. The buffer control unit 132, the disk sequencer 133, and the control register unit 134 are connected to the microprocessor 114 via a bus 135, respectively.

The hard disk controller 113
Supplies various timing signals supplied from the timing generation circuit 124 to the disk sequencer 133 and the control register unit 134, and generates a recording gate signal according to the instruction of the disk sequencer 133 during the write operation and supplies the recording gate signal to the timing generation circuit 124. A chip control unit 136 and a clock generation circuit 501
And a clock control unit 137 for supplying a clock signal supplied thereto to each unit.

Also, the hard disk controller 113
Converts the write data (parallel data) read from the buffer RAM 115 into serial data at the time of writing, and converts the ECC circuit 1 described later at the time of reading.
The read data (serial data) corrected in error at 39 is converted into parallel data,
And a serializer / deserializer 138 to be supplied to the memory, and an error correction code added to the output data of the serializer / deserializer 138 at the time of writing.
16 and a data demodulation circuit 1 at the time of reading.
And an ECC circuit 139 for performing error correction processing on the 20 output data.

Next, the magnetic disk drive 110 shown in FIG.
Will be described. Immediately after the power is turned on or after the synchronization is lost, the operation of establishing the initial synchronization is performed. In the operation of establishing initial synchronization, clock synchronization processing is first performed from the out-of-synchronization state, and then segment synchronization processing is performed. In this case, the changeover switch 119 is connected to the R side, and the signal reproduced from the magnetic disk 101 by the magnetic head 111 is:
The signal is supplied to the reproduction amplifier 118 through the R side of the changeover switch 119.

First, the clock synchronization processing will be described. From the reproduced signal of the servo area, the servo information detector 151
Unique pattern 1 with unique pattern detector 511
06 is detected, and after a certain number of clocks, the synchronization management circuit 15
The clock gate signal is supplied to the 0 clock generation circuit 501. Then, the clock generation circuit 501 regards the isolated reproduction waveform appearing during the period in which the clock gate signal is output as the reproduction waveform of the normal clock mark, updates the phase of the PLL therein, and changes the phase of the clock signal to the clock. Synchronize with the mark. Then, when the phase of the clock signal is synchronized with the clock mark and the clock synchronization is established, the clock generation circuit 501 outputs a PLL lock signal.

Next, using the flowchart of FIG.
The segment synchronization processing will be described. First, in step ST21, the segment manager 503 of the synchronization management circuit 150 determines whether or not the unique pattern 106 has been detected based on the detection signal of the unique pattern 106 from the unique pattern detector 511 of the servo information detector 151. . When the unique pattern 106 is detected, in step ST22, it is determined whether or not the unique pattern 106 is detected in the position of the next unique pattern, that is, in the address area after four segments.

At step ST22, the unique pattern 1
When 06 is detected, the segment counter 502 of the synchronization management circuit 150 is started in step ST23. Thus, the segment counter 502 starts counting up with the segment pulse from the timing generation circuit 124.

Next, in step ST24, the segment ID detector 512 of the servo information detector 151 detects data in the address area from the reproduced signal and starts the CRC operation. Then, in step ST25, the segment manager 503 sends the CR from the segment ID detector 512.
It is determined whether the C-OK signal has been supplied. CRC-
When the OK signal is supplied, the segment manager 503 sets the segment counter 502 in step ST26.
And loads the data (excluding the CRC) of the address area output from the segment ID detector 513 to the segment counter 502.

If the data in the address area is the segment ID 105, the segment ID detector 51
2 outputs a CRC-OK signal. Therefore, it is considered that frame number data is normally loaded into the segment counter 502. However, even when the data in the address area is data corresponding to the access pattern 104, the segment ID detector 512 outputs the CRC-
An OK signal may be output. Therefore, the following processing is further performed.

First, in step ST26, the 4-segment counter is reset to "0". The four-segment counter is constituted by a quaternary counter, and is built in the segment manager 503, for example. Without the above,
The four-segment counter is counted up by a segment pulse from the timing generation circuit 124, similarly to the segment counter 502.

Next, in step ST27, it is determined whether or not a segment pulse has been output from the timing generation circuit 124. When a segment pulse is output, the 4-segment counter is counted up, and step ST
At 28, the segment manager 503 determines whether or not the count value of the 4-segment counter is "0". If the count value of the four-segment counter is "0", in step ST29, the segment ID detector 5
It is determined whether or not the data (excluding the CRC portion) of the address area detected at step 12 matches the count value of the number of frames.

In this case, the CRC-O in step ST25
When the data in the address area related to the output of the K signal is the segment ID, the data in the address area that is compared with the count value of the segment counter 502 in step ST29 after four segments also becomes the segment ID, and the data in the address area (CRC part) ) Coincides with the count value of the segment counter 502.

When a match detection signal is supplied from the segment counter 502 to the segment manager 503, and it is determined in step ST29 that both match, a segment lock signal is output in step ST30, and the processing operation for establishing segment synchronization ends. I do. On the other hand, if it is determined in step ST29 that they do not match, the process returns to step ST25, and the same processing as described above is repeated.

Note that the above steps ST21 and ST22
In the part, the unique pattern 106 is used, but the access pattern 104 may be used instead.

After the initial synchronization is established, a process of detecting the loss of synchronization is performed. In that case, the synchronization management circuit 1
Each time the count value of the four-segment counter becomes “0”, that is, every time the data in the address area becomes the segment ID 105, the segment manager 503 of the servo information detector 151 executes the CRC from the segment ID detector 513 of the servo information detector 151. Loss of synchronization is detected based on whether or not the -OK signal is output and whether or not the match detection signal is output from the segment counter 502. Then, when either the CRC-OK signal or the coincidence detection signal is not output, it is regarded that the segment is out of synchronization, and the output of the segment lock signal is stopped.

The write / read operation is performed in the state where the initial synchronization is established. Prior to the write / read operation, a sector ID information table 115T (see FIG. 6) is generated on the buffer RAM 115 under the control of the microprocessor 114.

The control of the write operation of the microprocessor 114 is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

At step ST31, when a write command sent from the host computer is received, at step ST32, a conversion table stored in a disk or a semiconductor memory such as an EEPROM (see FIG. 18).
Is used to convert the LBA into a physical position (head number, track number, sector number) of the magnetic disk 101.

Next, in step ST33, the control register section 134 of the hard disk controller 113
, Necessary values such as a start segment number, a current sector number (the number of the first sector in the start segment minus one), a start sector number, and an end sector number are set. In this case, it is necessary to find the start segment number corresponding to the sector number. Conventionally, when the start segment number is obtained, the start segment number is obtained by scanning the sector ID information table (see FIG. 6).

However, in this embodiment, the start segment number is obtained by calculation. That is, when the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit (unit) of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a and the number of segments is b, the microprocessor 114 sets the start segment number corresponding to the sector number c to c × b It is obtained by an operation that takes an integer part of / a. For example, when the number of sectors a = 4 and the number of segments b = 7 in a unit and the start segment number of sector 2 is determined, 2 × 7/4
= 3.5, and the start segment number is determined to be 3 (see the corresponding example in FIG. 3).

In step ST34, control is performed such that the changeover switch 119 is connected to the R side corresponding to the servo area and connected to the W side corresponding to the data area.
The target track address (track number) is set in the position control circuit 123, and then the track seek operation is started. The track seek operation is performed as follows. That is, the position control circuit 123 compares the track address based on the track address information obtained by detecting the access pattern 104 with the access pattern detector 513 of the servo information detector 151 with the target track address, and determines that the current track address is the target track address. The voice coil motor 112 is controlled so as to match the address. After the track address of the current position matches the target track address, the position control circuit 123 determines the magnetic head 111 based on the tracking information obtained by detecting the fine pattern 103 by the fine pattern detector 514 of the servo information detector 151. Is controlled at the center of the target track.
When the magnetic head 111 is located at the center of the target track, the track seek is completed.

Next, in step ST35, it is determined whether or not the track seek has been completed. Although not described above, the information that the track seek operation has been completed is transmitted to the position control circuit 12.
3 to the microprocessor 114. When the track seek is completed, in step ST36, the disk sequencer 1 of the hard disk controller 113
33 is started.

The disk sequencer 133 is controlled by various timing signals supplied from the timing generation circuit 124, and operates at a predetermined timing in the buffer RAM1.
The write data temporarily stored in the memory 15 is read out, converted into serial data by a serializer / deserializer 138, added with an error correction code by an ECC circuit 139, and then supplied to a recording data generation circuit 116.

In this case, the segment pulse of the control register unit 134 is counted up by the segment pulse from the timing generation circuit 124. Further, the current sector number of the control register unit 134 is counted up by the sector pulse from the timing generation circuit 124.

In step ST37, it is determined whether or not the count value matches the start segment number. And
If the count value matches the start segment number, it is determined in step ST38 whether the current sector number matches the start sector number. If the current sector number matches the start sector number, step ST3
At 9, it is determined whether or not synchronization has been lost. Synchronization management circuit 15
0 or no PLL lock signal is output from the clock generation circuit 501 or the segment manager 50
When no frame lock signal is output from 3,
It is determined that synchronization is lost.

If it is determined in step ST39 that the synchronization has been lost, in step ST40, the write prohibition process is urgently performed, and the write gate of the timing generation circuit 124 is turned off. do. Thereafter, in step ST41, the above-described initial synchronization establishment processing is performed. In this case, when only the frame lock signal is not output, a frame synchronization process as shown in FIG. 9 is performed.

If it is determined in step ST39 that the synchronization is not lost, the process proceeds to step ST42. Step ST
At 42, it is confirmed by referring to the sector ID information table 115T of the buffer RAM 115 that the sector is not a defective sector (defect = 0), that write data is stored in the buffer RAM 115, and the like. The write data is read from the buffer RAM 115 and the recording data generation circuit 11
Transfer to 6. Thus, recording is started.

Next, in step ST43, it is determined whether one sector has been completed. If one sector has not been completed, the process returns to step ST39. When one sector is completed, it is determined in step ST44 whether or not the current sector number matches the end sector number. In step ST44, when the current sector number does not match the end sector number, in step ST45,
Change the starting sector number to correspond to the next sector. Then, returning to step ST37, the same control as described above is performed. On the other hand, if the current sector number matches the end sector number in step ST45, the write operation ends. Other operations are described in FIG.
Is similar to the conventional magnetic disk device 210 shown in FIG.

In the control of the read operation, the disk sequencer 133 is started after the track seek is completed, similarly to the control of the write operation described above. Then, the start sector is accessed, the ECC circuit 139 performs error correction processing on the read data output from the data demodulation circuit 120, converts the data into parallel data with the serializer / deserializer 138, and supplies the parallel data to the buffer RAM 115 to temporarily store the read data. To remember. Thereafter, the data is transferred to the host computer via the I / O interface unit 131.
At the time of this reading, the changeover switch 119 is connected to the R side.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the intra-segment data area of the magnetic disk 101 is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and the logical sectors, which are recording and reproducing units, are arranged in accordance with the virtual segments. The storage area of a table in which information for generating a sector pulse is stored can be significantly reduced.
The circuit scale of the microprocessor 114 having the table and the timing generation circuit 124 can be reduced. For example,
When zone bit recording is performed in 8 zones, when the number of bytes per virtual segment is 1 byte and the number of virtual segments per sector is 1 byte, 2
Only a storage area of × 8 = 16 bytes is required.

In this embodiment, the data area in the segment of the magnetic disk 101 is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and the logical sector which is a recording / reproducing unit is arranged in accordance with the virtual segment. In addition, a decrease in format efficiency can be suppressed as compared with the case where logical sectors are arranged according to segments. In this case, the number of virtual segments in one data area is set so that the result of multiplying the number of virtual segments in one data area by the number of segments in one track is 10 times or more the number of sectors in one track. When the zoning position is further optimized, the format efficiency can be reduced to about 1% as compared with a case where sectors are continuously arranged from an arbitrary position without performing virtual segmentation.

FIG. 11 shows a simulation result of the format efficiency in a case where zone bit recording is performed in eight zones and the number of segments in one track is 200 and the number of sectors in one track is 150 in an intermediate zone. Is shown. The horizontal axis indicates the number of virtual segments per segment, and the vertical axis indicates the recording capacity when the recording capacity is set to 1 when sectors are continuously arranged from an arbitrary position without virtual segmentation. . In this case, when the number of virtual segments per segment is 8, the result of multiplying the number of virtual segments in one data area by the number of segments in one track is 10 times or more the number of sectors in one track, and The capacity is 0.988, which is about 1% degradation.

Further, in this embodiment, the intra-segment data area of the magnetic disk 101 is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and logical sectors as recording / reproducing units are arranged in accordance with the virtual segments. The address conversion for obtaining the number of the segment where the sector starts from the sector number or vice versa can be performed by calculation. Therefore, the time required for the address conversion process can be greatly reduced as compared with the one obtained by scanning the sector ID information table, the time until the start of writing or reading after receiving the command can be shortened, and high-speed recording / reproducing can be performed. .

FIG. 12 shows a magnetic disk drive 110A of a sector ID-less system according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Is shown. 12, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. FIG.
The timing generator circuit 124 in the magnetic disk device 110 shown in FIG. 12 repeatedly generates a sector pulse SCP every time the number of virtual segments per sector is counted, but the timing generator circuit 124 in the magnetic disk device 110A shown in FIG. In 124A, a sector pulse SCP is generated based on the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment which are the start position of the next logical sector transferred from the microprocessor 114 by serial communication for each sector.

FIG. 13 shows a specific configuration of the synchronization management circuit 150, the servo information detector 151, and the timing generation circuit 124A. Since the configuration is the same as the specific configuration shown in FIG. 7 except for the portion related to the timing generation circuit 124A, only the timing generation circuit 124A will be described here.

The timing generation circuit 124A has a sector information register for holding information on the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment, which are the start position of the next logical sector and transmitted from the microprocessor 114 by serial communication for each sector. 243 and the sector pulse SC
And a pulse generator 244 for generating P. When the segment number supplied from the segment counter 502 of the synchronization management circuit 150 matches the segment number set in the sector information register 243, the pulse generator 244 counts the number of bytes in the data area based on the clock signal, When the count value matches the number of bytes in the segment set in the sector information register 243, a sector pulse SCP is generated.

The sector pulse SCP generated by the pulse generator 244 is supplied to the interrupt line of the microprocessor 114. Thereby, the pulse generator 244
Each time the sector pulse SCP is generated, the interrupt processing of the microprocessor 114 is started. In this interrupt processing, information on the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment as the start position of the next logical sector is obtained, and the timing generation circuit 124
A. From the above, the timing generation circuit 124
A pulse generation section 244 sequentially outputs sector pulse SCP
Is generated. When the segment lock is released or when the zone is switched, the microprocessor 114 acquires the segment number after the lock is confirmed, and obtains information on the sector position closest to the segment number (segment number and byte in the segment). ) Is calculated by referring to a calculation or a table, and transferred to the timing generation circuit 124A again by serial communication.

When the microprocessor 114 calculates the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment as the start position of the next logical sector by calculation, for example, the following calculation is performed. That is, if the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a, the number of segments is b, and the number of the segment where the logical sector next to the sector number c starts is c × b An operation for taking an integer part of / a is performed, and when calculating the number of bytes in a segment, an operation of multiplying the decimal part of c × b / a by the number of bytes in one segment to take an integer part is performed.

In FIG. 13, the timing generation circuit 124A shows only a portion related to the generation of the sector pulse SCP. In FIG. 13, the information of the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment, which are the start position of the next logical sector obtained by the microprocessor 114, is transmitted by the serial communication to the timing generation circuit 12.
Although the data supplied to 4A is shown, the data may be transmitted using an MPU bus.

As in the magnetic disk drive 110A shown in FIG. 12, a sector pulse based on the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment which is the start position of the next logical sector transferred from the microprocessor 114 by serial communication for each sector. Even in the case of generating SCP, the microprocessor 114 calculates the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment as the start position of the next logical sector by calculation, thereby eliminating the need for a table for storing information for generating sector pulses. Thus, the circuit scale of the microprocessor 114 and the timing generation circuit 124 can be reduced.

The magnetic disk drive 110 shown in FIG.
In A, the sector information of the corresponding zone is transferred from the microprocessor 114 at the time of the initial setting and the zone switching, but the sector information of all the zones may be transferred at the time of the initial setting. In that case, the timing generation circuit 124 needs to have sector information registers for the number of zones.

Further, even if not described above, when a read command is received, or when a sector is accessed across tracks, in order to reduce the rotation waiting time until reading, after seeking to a predetermined track, the head immediately adjacent to the landing point of the head is used. The technique of reading from the sector is applied. In this case, at the stage where the data is temporarily stored in the buffer RAM 115 and transferred to the host computer, the order of output from the buffer RAM 115 is changed, and the data is correctly transferred in ascending LBA order.

When using this technique, it is necessary for the microprocessor 114 to find the number of the first sector after the segment of the detected segment number. This sector number is calculated by the following operation. Desired. That is, the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit (unit) of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a,
When the number of segments is b, the microprocessor 11
No. 4 finds the number of the first logical sector after the segment with the segment number c by an operation using an integer part of c × a / b + 1. For example, when the number of sectors a = 4 and the number of segments b = 7 in the unit, and the number of the first sector after the segment with the segment number 3 is obtained, 3 × 4/7 + 1 ≒ 2.7, and the sector number Is obtained as 2. As described above, by performing the conversion from the segment number to the sector number by calculation, the required time can be shortened, and quick reading can be performed.

In the above embodiment, the clock mark 102 and the unique pattern 106 are formed continuously on the magnetic disk 101 radially, but are formed intermittently along the radius. You may.

In the above-described embodiment, the servo information in the servo area, that is, the clock mark 102, the fine pattern 103, the access pattern 104, the segment ID 105, and the unique pattern 106 are not formed by forming a concavo-convex pit row by batch molding, for example. Although the recording is described by forming the magnetic layer 101b on the magnetic substrate 101a, the present invention can be similarly applied to a magnetic recording of servo information in a servo area of a flat magnetic disk.

In the above-described embodiment, the magnetic head 111 is a general recording / reproducing head. However, dedicated heads may be used for recording and reproduction. Alternatively, a read head based on another principle may be used as long as the pattern in the servo area such as the magnetic clock mark and the magnetization reversal in the data area can be detected.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, a magnetic disk device capable of recording / reproducing is assumed. However, the magnetic disk device may be dedicated to reproduction, or may be a magneto-optical disk device or an optical disk device. Further, the above-described embodiment can be applied not only to the synchronous servo system but also to the sector servo system.

[0153]

According to the present invention, the intra-segment data area of the disk-shaped recording medium is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and the logical sector which is a recording / reproducing unit is arranged according to the virtual segments. . Therefore, for example, in the case where zone bit recording is performed, in order to generate a sector pulse, the number of virtual segments constituting a logical sector for each zone and 1
It is only necessary to provide a table having information on the number of bytes per virtual segment, and a conventional several-kbyte sector start position information table is not required, and the circuit scale can be reduced.

In addition, a decrease in format efficiency can be suppressed as compared with the case where logical sectors are arranged according to segments. In this case, the number of virtual segments in one data area is set so that the result of multiplying the number of virtual segments in one data area by the number of segments in one track is 10 times or more the number of sectors in one track. By further optimizing the zoning position, the format efficiency can be reduced to about 1% as compared with a case where sectors are continuously arranged from an arbitrary position without performing virtual segmentation.

In addition, the address conversion for obtaining the number of the segment where the sector starts from the sector number or vice versa can be performed by calculation. Therefore, the time required for the address conversion process can be greatly reduced as compared with the conventional method in which the sector ID information table is scanned and obtained, and the time from when a command is received to when writing or reading is started can be shortened. Will be effective.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a magnetic disk according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a segment ID.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of correspondence between segments (frames) and sectors.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a sector ID-less type magnetic disk device as an embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of optimizing a virtual segment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a sector ID information table.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a synchronization management circuit, a servo information detector, and a timing generation circuit.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a hard disk controller.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a segment synchronization processing operation.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a write operation.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a simulation result of format efficiency when virtual segmentation is performed.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a magnetic disk drive of a sector ID-less system as another embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of a synchronization management circuit, a servo information detector, and a timing generation circuit according to another embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a magnetic disk used in a conventional synchronous servo magnetic disk device.

FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sector ID.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an example of correspondence between segments (frames) and sectors.

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional sector-ID-less magnetic disk drive.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of a conversion table.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an example of a sector ID information table.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a sector start position information table.

FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a hard disk controller.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing a write operation of a conventional magnetic disk device.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: magnetic disk, 102: clock mark, 103: fine pattern, 104: access pattern, 105: segment ID, 106
..Unique pattern, 110: magnetic disk device, 111: magnetic head, 112: voice coil motor, 113: hard disk controller,
114: microprocessor, 115: buffer RAM, 115T: sector ID information table,
116: recording data generation circuit, 117: recording amplifier, 118: reproduction amplifier, 119: changeover switch, 120: data demodulation circuit, 123: position control circuit, 124, 124A ..Timing generation circuits, 241,243... Sector information registers, 24
2, 244: pulse generation unit, 150: synchronization management circuit, 151: servo information detector, 501: clock generation circuit, 502: frame counter, 50
3 ... frame manager, 511 ... unique pattern detector, 512 ... segment ID detector, 5
13: Access pattern detector, 514: Fine pattern detector

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotation direction, and each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data. A disk-shaped recording medium, wherein the data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged according to the virtual segment. 2. The result of multiplying the number of virtual segments in one data area by the number of segments in one track is 1
2. The disk-shaped recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the number of the virtual segments in the one data area is set so as to be 10 times or more the number of logical sectors in a track. 3. A zone bit recording in which the recording density is made constant at the inner and outer perimeters, wherein a radius position at which the number of the virtual segments constituting one logical sector is reduced by an integer is set as a zone switching position. The disk-shaped recording medium according to claim 1, wherein 4. A track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotation direction, and each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data. The data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a disk device for handling a disk-shaped recording medium in which a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged in accordance with the virtual segment, First counting means for counting every byte from the rotation origin in the data area, second counting means for counting each time the first counting means counts the number of bytes per virtual segment, The second counting means counts the number of virtual segments per logical sector. A sector pulse generating means for generating a sector pulse every time the disk drive is operated. 5. The disk drive according to claim 4, further comprising a table having information on the number of bytes per virtual segment and the number of virtual segments per sector. 6. A track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotational direction, and each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data, The data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a disk device for handling a disk-shaped recording medium in which a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged in accordance with the virtual segment; Calculating means for calculating the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment as the position; and the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment as the start position of the next logical sector sent from the calculating means. The sector pulse generating means for generating a sector pulse. Disk apparatus characterized by obtaining. 7. The calculating means calculates the segment number and the number of bytes in the segment which are the start position of the next logical sector by using the sector pulse generated by the sector pulse generating means as a trigger. 7. The disk device according to claim 6, wherein the disk device is sent to a means. 8. When the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a and the number of segments is b, the arithmetic means calculates a segment number as a start position of the next logical sector c. 7. The disk device according to claim 6, wherein the value is obtained by an operation taking an integer part of c × b / a. 9. When the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship between the logical sector and the segment is a and the number of segments is b, the number of bytes in the segment that is the start position of the next logical sector c is c × 7. The disk device according to claim 6, wherein the fraction is calculated by multiplying the fractional part of b / a by the number of bytes in one segment to obtain an integer part. 10. A track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotational direction, and each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data, The data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a disk device handling a disk-shaped recording medium in which a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged according to the virtual segment, wherein the logical sector and the segment Assuming that the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship is a and the number of segments is b, an arithmetic means for obtaining the number of the segment at which the logical sector having the sector number c starts by taking an integer part of c × b / a A disk device comprising: 11. A track is equally divided into a plurality of segments in a rotational direction, and each of the plurality of segments is divided into a servo area for recording servo information and a data area for recording user data, The data area is further divided into a plurality of equal virtual segments, and a disk device handling a disk-shaped recording medium in which a logical sector as a recording / reproducing unit is arranged according to the virtual segment, wherein the logical sector and the segment Assuming that the number of sectors in the minimum repetition unit of the phase relationship is a and the number of segments is b, the number of the first logical sector after the segment with the segment number c is obtained by an operation using an integer part of c × a / b + 1. A disk device comprising arithmetic means.