JPS63131388A - Recording system of management information in optical recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the processing time and to improve the system efficiency by setting a prescribed track in plural tracks of an optical recording medium to a management information recording track and recording the management information required for the processing thereby utilizing the feature of an off- line portable medium. CONSTITUTION:A prescribed track, e.g., 1st track among plural tracks of an optical card 11 is used as a management information recording track 15, other track is used as a data recording track, and a mark 16 of a prescribed length (l) is recorded consecutively without any interval onto the management information recording track 15 as the management information at each write of data onto the data recording track. Thus, the total length of the marks 16 recorded on the track 15 is measured so as to recognize how many data recording tracks are already written and the address of the final track after recording if the data recording track is used in the ascending order. Thus, the on-line processing or the off-line processing is applied inexpensively and efficiently.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for recording management information in an optical recording medium.

[Conventional technology]

For example, conventional write-once optical discs have low data reliability and cannot be erased, so they are not suitable for recording management information for discs that are frequently rewritten. The management information of the optical disc is stored in a rewritable and highly reliable recording medium.

On the other hand, in a system where information is added to the system, if previously recorded information is referenced infrequently, it is not necessarily necessary to rewrite the management information on the recording medium, and it may be sufficient to manage it simply by adding information. . For example, in a prepaid card system such as a telephone card using an optical card as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-500462, it is sufficient to be able to quickly find out the balance that can be used with the card.

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of an optical card used in the above prepaid card system.

This optical card 1 includes a recording layer 2 in which a plurality of tracks extending in the longitudinal direction of the card are formed in parallel to the width direction of the card, and a track address or a sector address is previously written in this recording layer 2 corresponding to each track. It is provided with a recorded ID section 3 and a data section 4 into which data is inserted. In a prepaid card system using such an optical card, as shown in FIG.
The remaining amount data is transferred to the host computer 6, and the host computer 6 subtracts the amount used this time from the remaining amount data. I try to record it.

Here, the recording is made to the address next to the address where the previous final balance was written.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As mentioned above, in systems using conventional optical recording media, management information such as track attributes and the last track is stored on the floppy disk or hard disk in the host computer, and the management information is recorded on the recording medium. It's not meant to be.

For this reason, in the system using the optical card shown in FIG. 5, for example, if separate card read/write devices connected to different host computers attempt to execute predetermined processing, the card itself will not be able to manage the data. Since it does not have any information, it is necessary to exchange management information between different host computers. Therefore, if you try to realize this with an online system, there are problems in that it is expensive and the system must be constantly running, and if you try to realize it with an offline system, you will need to exchange data every day using floppy disks etc. , there is a problem that it cannot be used in remote areas.

These problems with optical cards also occur with write-once optical discs.

The present invention was made in view of these conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method for recording management information in an optical recording medium that can efficiently and inexpensively realize online processing or offline processing. shall be.

[Means and operations for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a predetermined track among a plurality of tracks of an optical recording medium is set as a management information recording track, and the corresponding track is set as a management information recording track. Records information for managing optical recording media.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows the structure of an example of an optical card as an optical recording medium used in the present invention. This optical card 11
is similar to that shown in FIG. 5, and includes a recording layer 12 in which a plurality of tracks extending in the longitudinal direction of the card are formed in parallel to the width direction of the card, and a track is formed in this recording layer 12 corresponding to each track. It is provided with an ID section 13 in which an address is recorded in advance, and a data section 14 in which data is written. Information is recorded on the track of the data section 14 by exposing the inner layer with low reflectance by irradiating a suitable amount of laser light modulated according to the information, and reading is performed by detecting the difference in reflectance. This is done by Note that the ID section 13
As for the track addresses, the track addresses are written by patterns having different reflectances formed in advance by printing or the like.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, a predetermined track, for example, the first track, among the plurality of tracks of the optical card 11 shown in FIG. 1 is used as the management information recording track 15, and the other tracks are used as the data recording tracks. As management information on the management information recording track 15, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, marks 16 of a constant length l are continuously recorded at regular intervals every time data is written on the data recording track.

That is, the first track of the data recording tracks (
When data is written to the second track of the optical card 11, 1
Read part 0 13, confirm that it is the management information recording track 15, record a mark 16 of a certain length l indicating that one track has been written as shown in FIG. 2A, and record the next data. After writing the data to the recording track, read the ID section 13 in the same way and write it to a certain length l as shown in FIG. 2B.
The marks 16 are written consecutively on the previous marks 16. Thereafter, in the same manner, every time data is written on the data recording track, marks 16 of a constant length l are recorded on the management information recording track 15 at regular intervals.

Here, if the length of the area in which data can be written in each track is L, the management information recording track 15 also has a data writing area of the same length, so one management information recording track corresponds to 71 marks. 16 can be recorded. Therefore, by measuring the entire length of the mark 16 recorded on this management information recording track 15, it is possible to know how many data recording tracks have been written, and also to know how many data recording tracks have been written. If it is in ascending order, the address of the last recorded track can be known. Note that the length of the mark 16 is determined by, for example, optical power,
- The mark 16 is placed by moving the card 11 and its reading head relatively in the track direction, and by driving the counter at a constant clock from the starting position and stopping the driving at the end position, from the count value. It can be measured. Furthermore, when managing data recording tracks of I, 11 or more, it is sufficient to set a plurality of management information recording tracks 15 in advance and use them in order.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are diagrams for explaining a second embodiment of the invention. In the first embodiment described above, marks 16 of a fixed length l are continuously recorded on the management information recording track 15 each time data is written to each track of the data recording track, but in this second embodiment In this case, instead of the mark 16 having a constant length l, the pitches 7 are arranged in a pulsed manner at intervals of 2.
' and record. That is, after writing data to the first track of the data recording tracks, read the ID section 13, confirm that it is the management information recording track 15, and write one track there as shown in FIG. 3A. After recording one pit 17 indicating that the 17 at a predetermined interval l'. Thereafter, each time data is written to the data recording track in the same manner, RE' is left in the management information recording track 15 for a certain period of time, and then pit 1 is written.
Record 7.

If the length of the data writing area in each track is L, as in the first embodiment, then /l' pits 17 can be recorded in one management information recording track. By counting the number of pits 17, it is possible to know how many data recording tracks have been written, and if the data recording tracks should be used in ascending order, the address of the last recorded track can be determined. You can know.

In this second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3B, if there is a non-pit area such as dust or scratches on the management information recording track 15 and the reflectance thereof is about the same as that of the pit 17,
This may be mistaken for a pit. however,
The pits 17 are formed at regular intervals l', whereas the non-pit portions 18 occur randomly, so such a defect causes the read signal of the management information recording track 15 to change to a period corresponding to the pit interval β'. This problem can be solved by discriminating the signal by passing it through a frequency band bandpass filter, so that the pits 17 can always be read accurately.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, when each of the data recording tracks described above is divided into a plurality of sectors 21 by sector marks 20 as shown in FIG. 4, which shows the format of one data recording track 19, It manages the final track and sector. Here, the sector mark 20 represents a division between each sector 21, and is formed by a specific pattern that can be detected when reading data, a mechanically readable hole, or the like.

In an optical card having such a format, since information can be written in units of sectors, it is also necessary to manage the data in units of sectors. Therefore, in this embodiment, the unit of information to be managed in the first and second embodiments described above is replaced from one track to one sector and recorded on the management information recording track. That is, data recording track 1
For every 1 sector written in 9, 1 is written to the management information recording track.
Continuously write marks of a certain length to indicate that the sector has been written.
Alternatively, pits are recorded at predetermined intervals.

In this way, if the number of sectors in one data recording track 19 is N, and the number of recorded marks and pits in the management information recording track is P, CP/N) represents the number of written data recording tracks. Kudashi, [
] represents the largest integer not exceeding the value of P/N), (P
/N) + P-CP of the 1st data recording track/
N) It is found that up to the XN-th sector has been written, so that it is possible to manage the recorded final track and final sector in the data recording track.

Here, the preset management information recording track may have a sector mark like the data recording track 19, or may not have a sector mark as in the first and second embodiments described above. If there is a sector mark,
To avoid this, marks and focus can be recorded and read separately from sector marks.

Note that this invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and can be modified or changed in many ways. for example,
This invention can be effectively applied not only to optical cards but also to optical discs and the like.

Further, the management information is not limited to the mark or focus corresponding to the written track described above, but it is also possible to record the address itself of the last written track, a replacement address, etc. In other words, optical recording media such as optical cards and optical disks have a high raw error rate, so strong error correction codes are used. Immediately after, this is read out (Read After Write), and if error correction is not possible, processing is performed to write it again to another address (alternative processing). In such a replacement process,
It is also possible to record as management information the replacement address indicating which address the replacement processing was performed on.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a predetermined track among a plurality of tracks of an optical recording medium is set as a management information recording track, and management information necessary for processing is recorded there. Even when processing is performed by a plurality of different devices, it is possible to take advantage of the advantages of an offline portable medium, reduce processing time, and improve system efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an example of an optical card as an optical recording medium used in this invention, FIGS. 2A and B are diagrams for explaining the first embodiment of this invention, and FIGS. 3A and B is a diagram for explaining the second embodiment, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the third embodiment, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are diagrams for explaining the conventional technology.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Set a predetermined track among the plurality of tracks of an optical recording medium having a plurality of tracks for optically readable recording of data as a management information recording track, and record the relevant information on the management information recording track. A method for recording management information on an optical recording medium in which information for managing the optical recording medium is recorded.