WO2022195983A1

WO2022195983A1 - Information processing device, information processing method, and information processing program

Info

Publication number: WO2022195983A1
Application number: PCT/JP2021/045633
Authority: WO
Inventors: 豊大石; 輝江渡邊; 理貴近藤; 優子宇野
Original assignee: 富士フイルム株式会社
Priority date: 2021-03-18
Filing date: 2021-12-10
Publication date: 2022-09-22
Also published as: JPWO2022195983A1

Abstract

This information processing device performs a control in which, when user data is recorded in a first partial region of a magnetic tape having a plurality of first partial regions where user data is recorded and a second partial region that is located between first partial regions forming a pair and that is for a purpose other than recording of user data, the travel directions of the magnetic tape in the same lap of the first partial regions forming the pair are configured to be opposite each other.

Description

Information processing device, information processing method, and information processing program

The present disclosure relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-221487 discloses a technique of providing a blank area in which no data is recorded when recording data on a magnetic tape.

It is preferable to shorten the seek distance of the magnetic head when writing or reading data on the magnetic tape. However, the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-221487 has room for improvement in terms of shortening the seek distance of the magnetic head.

The present disclosure has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to provide an information processing device, an information processing method, and an information processing program capable of shortening the seek distance of the magnetic head.

An information processing apparatus according to the present disclosure is an information processing apparatus including at least one processor, and the processor includes a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded and between the paired first partial areas. When user data is recorded in a first partial area of a magnetic tape having a second partial area not subject to recording of user data, the traveling direction of the magnetic tape is reversed for the same wrap of the paired first partial area. Control the direction.

In the information processing apparatus of the present disclosure, the paired first partial areas may be adjacent first partial areas with the second partial area interposed therebetween.

Further, in the information processing apparatus of the present disclosure, the processor may perform control to stop the magnetic head in the second partial area.

Further, in the information processing method of the present disclosure, a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded and a second partial area not to be recorded in user data are provided between the paired first partial areas. A processor in an information processing apparatus that performs control to reverse the running direction of the magnetic tape for the same wrap in the paired first partial area when user data is recorded in the first partial area of the magnetic tape. is what is executed.

In addition, the information processing program of the present disclosure includes a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded, and a second partial area not to be recorded in user data between the paired first partial areas. A processor in an information processing apparatus that performs control to reverse the running direction of the magnetic tape for the same wrap in the paired first partial area when user data is recorded in the first partial area of the magnetic tape. to run

According to the present disclosure, the seek distance of the magnetic head can be shortened.

1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information processing system; FIG. It is a block diagram which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of an information processing apparatus. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of a magnetic tape. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of an information processing device; FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the recording order and recording direction of user data; 6 is a flowchart showing an example of user data recording processing; FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a magnetic tape according to a modified example;

Embodiments for implementing the technology of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

First, the configuration of an information processing system 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, the information processing system 10 includes an information processing device 12 and a tape drive 18 . Examples of the information processing device 12 include a server computer and the like.

A magnetic tape T as an example of a recording medium is stored in the tape drive 18 . A tape drive 18 is connected to the information processing device 12 . The tape drive 18 has a control device (not shown) including a processor, and writes data to or reads data from the magnetic tape T under the control of the information processing device 12 . An example of the magnetic tape T is an LTO (Linear Tape-Open) tape.

Next, the hardware configuration of the information processing device 12 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2 , the information processing device 12 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 20 , a memory 21 as a temporary storage area, and a non-volatile storage section 22 . The information processing device 12 also includes a display 23 such as a liquid crystal display, an input device 24 such as a keyboard and a mouse, a network I/F (Interface) 25 connected to a network, and an external I/F 26 to which a tape drive 18 is connected. including. CPU 20 , memory 21 , storage unit 22 , display 23 , input device 24 , network I/F 25 and external I/F 26 are connected to bus 27 .

The storage unit 22 is implemented by a HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), flash memory, or the like. An information processing program 30 is stored in the storage unit 22 as a storage medium. The CPU 20 reads out the information processing program 30 from the storage unit 22 , expands it in the memory 21 , and executes the expanded information processing program 30 .

Next, the configuration of the magnetic tape T according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, the magnetic tape T is divided into a plurality of partial areas P1 and P2 along straight lines along the width direction of the magnetic tape T (hereafter referred to as the "tape width direction") in which user data is recorded. be done. The area in which user data is recorded is, for example, the area from LP (Logical Point) 3 to LP4 on the LTO tape.

The two first partial regions P1 are regions that form a pair and are regions that are adjacent to each other with the second partial region P2 interposed therebetween. User data is recorded in each partial area P1. One partial area P2 is an area between two partial areas P1 that form a pair and is an area outside the recording target of user data. The length of the partial area P2 along the longitudinal direction of the magnetic tape T (hereinafter referred to as the "longitudinal direction of the tape") is the lower limit of the length over which the magnetic head can stop. Also, the two partial regions P2 have the same length in the longitudinal direction of the tape. Note that the two partial regions P2 may have different lengths in the longitudinal direction of the tape. Also, there may be three or more partial regions P1, and two or more partial regions P2 may be provided.

Next, with reference to FIG. 4, the functional configuration of the information processing device 12 according to this embodiment will be described. As shown in FIG. 4 , the information processing device 12 includes a reception section 40 and a control section 42 . By executing the information processing program 30 , the CPU 20 functions as a reception unit 40 and a control unit 42 .

The reception unit 40 receives user data to be recorded and an instruction to record on the magnetic tape T transmitted from the user terminal.

The control unit 42 performs control to record the user data received by the receiving unit 40 in the partial area P1. At the time of this control, as shown in FIG. 5 as an example, the control unit 42 performs control to record the user data on the lap of each partial area P1 in a predetermined order. A lap here is a unit in which user data from LP3 to LP4 are recorded. Further, during this control, the control unit 42 performs control to reverse the traveling direction of the magnetic tape T for the same wrap of the two partial regions P1 forming a pair.

The solid arrow in FIG. 5 represents the data recording direction, that is, the direction of movement of the magnetic head relative to the magnetic tape T. The recording direction of this data is the direction opposite to the running direction of the magnetic tape T. As shown in FIG. Also, the numbers written above the solid-line arrows in FIG. 5 represent the recording order of the user data, and the alphabets represent laps. That is, in the example of FIG. 5, the user data is recorded in the order of 1A, 2B, 3A, 4B, . . . and 1A and 3A, 2B and 4B, .

Further, during this control, the control unit 42 performs control to lower the signal level for writing when the magnetic head passes through the partial area P2 so that user data is not recorded in the partial area P2. do. The control unit 42 controls the signal level by, for example, the voltage level of the voltage applied to the magnetic head.

Also, the control unit 42 performs control to stop the magnetic head in the partial area P2 after performing control to record the user data in the partial area P1. Further, the control unit 42 controls the magnetic head to stop at the partial area P2 even after performing the control of reading the user data from the partial area P1 according to the reading instruction from the user terminal. It should be noted that the control unit 42 may perform control to stop the magnetic head at the position where the writing or reading of the user data is finished immediately after the writing or reading of the user data to the partial area P1 is finished. In this case, the control unit 42 performs control to stop the magnetic head in the partial area P2 when no instruction to write or read user data is input from the user terminal for a certain period of time.

When the magnetic head is stopped outside the area where the user data is recorded on the magnetic tape T (for example, on the head side of the magnetic tape T from LP3), the user data is written or read at a maximum of about 1 wrap. The magnetic head seeks a distance of 10 minutes. This is the case, for example, when the user data writing or reading is started at the end of the area of the magnetic tape T where the user data is recorded, opposite to the stop position of the magnetic head. Here, seeking means moving the magnetic head from a stop position to a position where writing or reading is started.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the magnetic head is stopped in the partial area P2 between the two partial areas P1, so the maximum seek distance of the magnetic head is about 1/2 wrap. Therefore, the seek distance of the magnetic head can be shortened.

Next, the operation of the information processing device 12 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. User data recording processing shown in FIG. 6 is executed by the CPU 20 executing the information processing program 30 . The user data recording process shown in FIG. 6 is executed, for example, when the information processing apparatus 12 receives user data to be recorded and an instruction to record on the magnetic tape T transmitted from the user terminal.

At step S10 in FIG. 6, the reception unit 40 receives the user data to be recorded and the instruction to record on the magnetic tape T transmitted from the user terminal. In step S12, the control unit 42 performs control to record the user data received in step S10 in the partial area P1, as described above. In step S14, the control unit 42 performs control to stop the magnetic head in the partial area P2. When the process of step S14 ends, the user data recording process ends.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the seek distance of the magnetic head can be shortened.

It should be noted that in the above embodiment, two partial regions P1 forming a pair need not be adjacent to each other as long as at least one partial region P2 is sandwiched therebetween. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, two partial regions P1 may be paired with three partial regions P2 and two partial regions P1 sandwiched therebetween. In FIG. 7, two partial areas P1 having the same alphabet at the end of the reference number are paired partial areas P1. Further, the solid line arrows in FIG. 7 represent the data recording direction.

Further, in the above embodiment, the functions of the reception unit 40 and the control unit 42 implemented by the CPU 20 may be implemented by a processor included in the control device of the tape drive 18 .

Further, in the above embodiment, for example, as the hardware structure of the processing unit that executes various processes such as the reception unit 40 and the control unit 42, the following various processors can be used. can be done. As described above, the various processors include, in addition to the CPU, which is a general-purpose processor that executes software (programs) and functions as various processing units, circuits such as FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), etc. Programmable Logic Device (PLD) which is a processor whose configuration can be changed, ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) etc. Circuits, etc. are included.

One processing unit may be composed of one of these various processors, or a combination of two or more processors of the same type or different types (for example, a combination of multiple FPGAs, a combination of a CPU and an FPGA). combination). Also, a plurality of processing units may be configured by one processor.

As an example of configuring a plurality of processing units with a single processor, first, as represented by computers such as clients and servers, a single processor is configured by combining one or more CPUs and software. There is a form in which a processor functions as multiple processing units. Second, as typified by System on Chip (SoC), etc., there is a form of using a processor that realizes the functions of the entire system including multiple processing units with a single IC (Integrated Circuit) chip. be. In this way, the various processing units are configured using one or more of the above various processors as a hardware structure.

Furthermore, as the hardware structure of these various processors, more specifically, an electric circuit combining circuit elements such as semiconductor elements can be used.

Also, in the above embodiment, the information processing program 30 has been pre-stored (installed) in the storage unit 22, but the present invention is not limited to this. The information processing program 30 is provided in a form recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory), a DVD-ROM (Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Memory), and a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory. good too. Further, the information processing program 30 may be downloaded from an external device via a network.

The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2021-044956 filed on March 18, 2021 is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In addition, all publications, patent applications, and technical standards mentioned herein are to the same extent as if each individual publication, patent application, or technical standard were specifically and individually noted to be incorporated by reference. , incorporated herein by reference.

Claims

An information processing device comprising at least one processor,
The processor
said first partial area of a magnetic tape having a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded and a second partial area not subject to recording of user data between the paired first partial areas an information processing apparatus for controlling the running direction of the magnetic tape to be reversed for the same wrap of the paired first partial areas when user data is recorded on the magnetic tape.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pair of first partial areas are adjacent first partial areas with the second partial area interposed therebetween.
The processor
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein control is performed to stop the magnetic head in the second partial area.
said first partial area of a magnetic tape having a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded and a second partial area not subject to recording of user data between the paired first partial areas an information processing method in which a processor provided in an information processing apparatus executes control to reverse the traveling direction of the magnetic tape for the same wrap of the paired first partial area when user data is recorded on the second partial area.
said first partial area of a magnetic tape having a plurality of first partial areas in which user data is recorded and a second partial area not subject to recording of user data between the paired first partial areas an information processing program for causing a processor provided in an information processing apparatus to perform control to reverse the running direction of the magnetic tape for the same wrap of the paired first partial area when user data is recorded on the .