JPH0544893Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to an optical disk device suitable for recording large-capacity data, and in particular, it is an optical disk device suitable for recording large-capacity data. This is a hardware implementation of a so-called mini disk that serves as each division unit when used.

[Summary of the idea]

The present invention provides an optical disk device having an optical pickup head for optically reproducing at least a data signal, in which the tracking of a light beam is coarsely adjusted by means of a head driving means for controlling the movement of the optical pickup head in the radial direction of the optical disk. , the tracking of the light beam is finely adjusted by means of accessing within the field of view of the light beam of the optical pickup head, and the range accessible by this within-field access means is used as one partitioned mini-disk. This provides an optical disk device with a file structure that enables high-speed access within each mini-disk and is convenient for the user to use.

[Conventional technology]

In relatively large-capacity data recording devices such as hard disk drives, so-called partitioning is performed, in which the data recording area is divided and used as so-called mini disks, depending on usage patterns such as so-called multi-tasking and multi-user usage. The mini-disk concept mentioned above is increasingly being supported by software. Here, in one physical disk drive, the user area is divided into several parts and each divided area is redefined as one drive.
Originally, one drive was treated as multiple drives. This division is called a partition. In particular, with the increase in data recording capacity, it may be more convenient to divide the data as described above for so-called multi-user systems in which multiple users share the same recording device. many. In this case, each of the divided mini-disks is allocated to each user.

By the way, in recent years, so-called optical disk devices using disk-shaped optical recording media have been put into practical use, and these optical disk devices can store, for example, several hundred MB.
It has an extremely large storage capacity. The optical recording/reproducing means in such an optical disk device includes a light emitting element such as a semiconductor laser, a prism,
It has at least an optical system such as a mirror and a lens, and a light receiving element such as a photodiode, and the objective lens, mirror, etc. of these constitute a so-called optical pickup head. and,
Data recorded on an optical disk is generally accessed by moving the pick up head in the radial direction of the disk.

[Problem that the invention attempts to solve]

However, since the optical pick-up head includes at least an objective lens, it tends to have a large mass, and the access operation requires a long time to move the pick-up head. Therefore, access speed is limited, making it difficult to perform high-speed access.

Furthermore, when actually using a large-capacity recording medium such as an optical disk, it is practical to divide it into mini-disks as described above, and high-speed access is possible with such partitioning. It is hoped that

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to provide an optical disk device that can introduce the concept of a mini-disk that is convenient to use and that allows high-speed access within each mini-disk.

[Means for solving problems]

The optical disk device of the present invention has an optical pickup head for optically reproducing at least a data signal from an optical disk recording medium, and the recording area of the optical disk recording medium is arranged every predetermined amount in the disk radial direction. The optical pick-up head is divided into a plurality of divided areas, and the optical system in the optical pick-up head is controlled to direct the light beam to the optical disk without moving the optical pick-up head. an in-field access means for accessing within the divided area of the optical disc recording medium by swinging the medium a predetermined amount in the radial direction; The above-mentioned problem is solved by comprising a head driving means for controlling the movement of the optical pickup head stepwise in the radial direction of the optical disc recording medium in units of the predetermined amount.

[Effect]

For each divided area, a so-called mini-disc, obtained by dividing the recording capacity of a large-capacity optical disc into the predetermined areas in the radial direction of the optical disc recording medium, the optical pickup head is moved by the head driving means to the optical disc. A desired mini-disc can be selected by moving the recording medium in steps in the radial direction, and the recorded contents in the selected mini-disc can be accessed by using the optical pick-up head lens or Access within the field of view within a predetermined area in the radial direction of the optical disk recording medium by a swinging motion of a mirror or the like enables high-speed access.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention, in which an optical disk 1 is rotationally driven by a spindle motor 2. As shown in FIG. An optical pickup head 10 is arranged opposite the recording surface of the optical disk 1. The optical pick-up head 10 is fixedly attached to, for example, a slide plate 5, and the slide plate 5 is controlled to move stepwise in the disk radial direction (in the direction of arrow A) by a stepping motor 6.

The optical pickup head 10 includes a semiconductor laser 11 serving as a laser light source, a polarizing prism 12, an objective lens 13, and a photodiode 1 serving as a light receiving element.
By moving or swinging one of these elements, for example, the objective lens 13, the light beam can be swung in the radial direction of the disk (in the direction of arrow A).

Optical disk 1 corresponding to the deflection angle of this light beam
The so-called field of view of the upper region or pick-up is generally about several hundred tracks. For example, when the track pitch is 1.6 μm, it is about ±256 tracks,
A total of about 512 tracks can be accessed within the field of view. To explain this intra-field access, normal access is performed by a combination of coarse access using a slide motor and fine access using a two-axis device, but among these, access using only the two-axis device is called intra-field access. Note that the two-axis device has a lens that moves in two directions: a focusing direction and a tracking direction. Such in-field access is extremely fast since it does not involve movement of the entire head, and the latency is limited only by approximately the time required to rotate the disk 1. Now, assuming that one track is 16 KB (kilobytes), the above-mentioned high-speed access is possible for a recording capacity of approximately 8 MB (megabytes), which is sufficient recording capacity for a so-called mini disk in normal use. That is, in FIG. 2, each mini disk MD obtained by dividing the optical disk 1
For example, access to each center position CT is performed by the stepping motor 6, and each center position CT is
If access within the field of view is performed by swinging the light beam of the optical pickup head 10, efficient and high-speed access will be possible.

Looking at this in reverse, when using the optical disc 1 divided into multiple mini disc MDs by partition, the optical pickup head 1
By configuring a mini-disk file whose capacity is less than the range that can be covered by in-field access by swinging the light beam at 0 (e.g. 8MB), files that satisfy this condition can be accessed at extremely high speed. If you create a file structure that is actively used, it will be very easy for users to use.

In other words, when the maximum capacity that can be covered by in-field access is Ma, the total capacity T of the optical disk 1 is defined as the capacity Wi (where i=1, 2,
When dividing into n by 3...n), Τ=ΣWi Ma≧Wi (i=1, 2, 3...n). At this time, it is useful for the user to have both a directory for managing the Wi and a directory for managing the Wi, since high-speed access is possible for each Wi.

Next, an example of an access operation for the optical disk 1 having such a structure will be explained. First, the host computer device 20 includes, for example, a CRT display and a keyboard input device. Access to the optical disk device from the host computer device 20 is performed via a disk control circuit (disk controller) 21 that manages and controls the overall operation of the optical disk device. Control signals are sent from the disk controller 21 to the tracking control circuit 22 in response to disk read/write command signals and the like from the disk controller 21 . As an example of the operation at this time, consider a so-called multi-user case in which multiple users independently use the same disk device. In this case, a user inputs a registration number, password, etc. using a keyboard input on the host computer device 20. When the user starts using the disk, the optical pickup head 10 itself is driven by the stepping motor 6 in the disk radial direction (in the direction of arrow A) until it reaches the center position of a predetermined mini-disk area corresponding to the user. be moved. After this predetermined mini-disk has been accessed, a desired track within the mini-disc can be accessed within the field of view by only the swinging motion of the light beam of the optical pickup head 10 in response to keyboard input by the user. access. This intra-field access is extremely fast because it can be achieved by, for example, moving or swinging the objective lens 13, or moving or swinging a prism, mirror, or laser light source, without moving the head 10 itself.

As explained above, by controlling the feeding of the optical pick-up head 10 using the stepping motor 6 or the like, a desired mini-disc MD of the mini-discs obtained by dividing the recording area of the optical disc 1 into a plurality of parts can be transferred. By performing access and performing the final access within this mini-disk at high speed using the above-mentioned within-field access, the mini-disk concept suitable for a multi-user system etc. can be demonstrated with high performance. In this case, when dividing the optical disc into mini discs, by limiting the maximum capacity to within the recording capacity of the area that can be accessed within the field of view,
Access operations within a single mini-disk can always be performed within the field of view without moving the entire head, and are therefore extremely fast.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments; for example, the drive for moving the optical pick-up head in the disk radial direction may be similar to the head drive means of an ordinary hard disk; In addition to the reciprocating means described above, a structure in which a head is attached to the tip of a swinging arm, a structure in which a head support member is moved by rotation of a worm screw threaded rod, etc. can be used. Furthermore, the structure of the optical pickup head and the number of tracks depending on the deflection of the light beam are merely examples.

[Effect of idea]

According to the optical disc device of the present invention, a plurality of mini discs can be divided into a plurality of mini discs based on the concept of a so-called partition data set, which is convenient for using optical discs with a large recording capacity. When you configure multiple split areas by performing
In order to select a desired mini-disc from among the mini-discs, a head driving means controls the optical pickup head to move stepwise in the radial direction of the optical disc recording medium corresponding to a predetermined amount in the radial direction of the divided areas. For access to the recorded contents in a predetermined mini-disc, that is, access within the divided area, the optical system within the optical pick-up head is controlled by the in-field access means with or without movement of the optical pick-up head. An optical disc that is convenient for the user and capable of high-speed access by achieving high-speed access by deflecting a light beam by a predetermined amount (within the divided area) in the radial direction of the optical disc recording medium. equipment can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the optical disk. 1... Optical disk, 6... Stepping motor, 10... Optical pick up head, 11...
Semiconductor laser, 12...Polarizing prism, 13...
Objective lens, 14...Photodiode, 20...
. . . host computer device, 21 . . . disk controller, 22 . . . tracking control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims for Utility Model Registration] In an optical disk device having an optical pick-up head for optically reproducing at least a data signal from an optical disk recording medium, the recording area of the optical disk recording medium is arranged every predetermined amount in the disk radial direction. The optical pick-up head is divided into a plurality of divided areas, and the optical system in the optical pick-up head is controlled to direct the light beam to the optical disk without moving the optical pick-up head. an in-field access means for accessing within the divided area of the optical disc recording medium by swinging the medium a predetermined amount in the radial direction; An optical disk device characterized by comprising a head driving means for controlling the movement of the optical pickup head stepwise in the radial direction of the optical disk recording medium in units of the predetermined amount.