Recording medium, its controller and controlling method

• US 20040013062A1
• Filed: 05/01/2003
• Published: 01/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Toshio, Hino, Yasumori
• Granted Patent: US 7,224,650 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 369/47.14
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 11/10565 Marks for track change, e.g. prepits, gray codes
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1217 on discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1258 where blocks are arranged within multiple radial zones, e.g. Zone Bit Recording or Constant Density Recording discs, MCAV discs, MCLV discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1403 characterised by the use of two levels
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1883 Methods for assignment of alternate areas for defective areas
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1232 sector, i.e. the minimal addressable physical data unit
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1267 Address data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1274 stored in pre-pits, i.e. in embossed pits, ROM marks or prepits
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/1294 Increase of the access speed
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2525 Magneto-optical [MO] discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/19 by using information detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/24 by sensing features on the record carrier other than the transducing track ; sensing signals or marks recorded by another method than the main recording
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/00 Recording or reproducing by optical means, e.g. recording using a thermal beam of optical radiation by modifying optical properties or the physical structure, reproducing using an optical beam at lower power by sensing optical properties; Record carriers therefor G11B11/00, G11B13/00 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/007 Arrangement of the information on the record carrier, e.g. form of tracks , actual track shape, e.g. wobbled, or cross-section, e.g. v-shaped; Sequential information structures, e.g. sectoring or header formats within a track
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 7/00745 Sectoring or header formats within a track formats in general G11B20/12

Abstract

A recording medium which has a high recording density and realizes a short search time is provided. The recording medium according to the present invention is a recording medium which comprises addresses indicative of positions on the recording medium and which is for recording or reproduction using sectors as data rewrite units or data read units, and starting positions of said addresses and starting positions of said sectors are different in the recording medium.

Claims

1. A recording medium which comprises addresses indicative of positions on said recording medium and which is for recording or reproduction using sectors as data rewrite units or data read units, wherein starting positions of said addresses and starting positions of said sectors are different.

2. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the length of one sector is different from the length which is n times as long as the length of one address (where n is an integer equal to or larger than 1).

3. The recording medium of claim 1 having a disk-like shape, wherein the angle of one sector is different from the angle which is n times as large as the angle of one address (where n is an integer equal to or larger than 1).

4. The recording medium of claim 1, having a disk-like shape and comprising one or more recording tracks, a plurality of segments which are generated by radially dividing said recording tracks, a plurality of zones which are divided in accordance with a distance along the radius direction of the disk, addresses, and sectors, wherein the number of segments m contained in one sector is different from a figure which is calculated by multiplying the number of segments n contained in one address by k (where k is any desired integer which is equal to or larger than 1).

5. The recording medium of claim 1, comprising a plurality of sectors including a first sector and a second sector, wherein the number of segments contained in said first sector is smaller than the number of segments contained in said second sector, and the volume of information recorded in said segments of said first sector is larger than the volume of information recorded in said segments of said second sector.

6. The recording medium of claim 1, having a disk-like shape and comprising a plurality of sectors, wherein the number of segments contained in one sector located in an outer round portion is smaller than the number of segments contained in one sector located in an inner round portion, and the volume of information recorded in one segment located in said outer round portion is larger than the volume of information recorded in one segment located in said inner round portion.

7. The recording medium of claim 1, comprising a plurality of zones including a first zone and a second zone, wherein the number of segments contained in one sector within said first zone is smaller than the number of segments contained in one sector within said second zone, and the volume of information recorded in said segments of said first zone is larger than the volume of information recorded in said segments of said second zone.

8. The recording medium of claim 1, comprising a plurality of zones, wherein the volume of information recorded in one segment is different between at least two zones.

9. The recording medium of claim 1, comprising a plurality of zones, wherein the number of segments contained in one sector of each zone is different between at least two zones.

10. The recording medium of claim 1, comprising information which specifies positions of said sectors on said recording medium.

11. The recording medium of claim 10, wherein said information is information based on which it is possible to derive the positions of said sectors by a calculation formula.

12. The recording medium of claim 10, wherein said information is information specifies starting points of said sectors from said addresses and the number of said segments.

13. The recording medium of claim 10, comprising sector information which contains a relationship between said addresses and said sectors, wherein said sector information comprises at least one piece of data among a sector number or segment number of a starting point of each zone and the number of said segments per sector within each zone, and a calculation formula for deriving starting positions of sectors using such data.

14. The recording medium of claim 10, further comprising information regarding a data bit count per segment or a frequency divide ratio of an oscillator.

15. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein one sector comprises a spare segment.

16. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein said segments as a whole assigned to one sector have a larger information recording capacity than the volume in information of this sector.

17. The recording medium of claim 1, wherein the number of segments contained in said sector which includes a defective segment is larger than the number of segments contained in said sector which does not include a defective segment.

18. The recording medium of any one of claims 13 through 17, comprising position information regarding a defective segment.

19. A control apparatus for recording medium, comprising:

a signal reproducing part which reads from said recording medium addresses which are indicative of positions on said recording medium and sector information which expresses a relationship between said addresses and sectors which are used as data rewrite units or data read units; and

a control part which makes a head part move to a starting position of a sector, using said address and said sector information,

wherein a starting position of at least one sector is different from a top portion of an area which is specified by said address.

20. The control apparatus for recording medium of claim 19, wherein said recording medium has a disk-like shape and comprises tracks which are arranged in a spiral arrangement or a concentric arrangement, said tracks comprise segments which are divided into a plurality of areas, one address is recorded over a plurality of segments, and

said control part counts the number of segments or the number of output signals from a counter which is in synchronization to said segments along the circumferential direction from said address on said recording medium, and makes a head part move to a starting position of a sector.

21. The control apparatus for recording medium of claim 19, wherein said sector information comprises at least one piece of data among a sector number or segment number of a starting point of each zone and the number of said segments per sector within each zone, and a calculation formula for deriving starting positions of sectors using such data.

22. The control apparatus for recording medium of claim 19, comprising:

an oscillator;

a phase lock part which has a frequency divider, which frequency-divides an output signal from said oscillator at a frequency divide ratio which is derived based on information regarding a data bit count per segment or a frequency divide ratio of said oscillator read out from said recording medium, and which synchronizes said output signal from said oscillator to said segments; and

a signal processing part which records data in said recording medium or reproduces data from said recording medium by using a clock signal which is based on said output signal from said oscillator.

23. A recording apparatus for recording medium of the control apparatus for recording medium of claim 19, comprising:

a defect position specifying part which specifies a defective segment based on information reproduced from said recording medium; and

a sector allocating part which, when said defect position specifying part determines that one sector contains- a defective segment, additionally allocates the same number of segments as defective segments or a larger number of segments than defective segments to said sector which contains said defective segment.

24. A recording apparatus for recording medium of the control apparatus for recording medium of claim 19, comprising:

a detector part which detects a defective segment; and

a re-arranging part which re-arranges said sectors on said recording medium when said detector part detects a defective segment.

31. The control apparatus of claim 19 for a recording medium which is an optical disk and comprises one or more tracks, in which said tracks are radially divided into a plurality of segments, address data are distributed in said plurality of segments thus divided, said address data contain segment management numbers which express position information along the disk rotation direction and track numbers which express position information along the disk diameter direction, comprising:

a counter which is in synchronization to positions of said segments which are generated from said segment management numbers; and

a control part which controls, based on a value of said counter, a starting position and an end position of recording or reproduction of a sector which is a collection of said plurality of segments and constitute a rewrite unit.

25. A control method for recording medium, comprising:

a first signal reproducing step of reading, from a recording medium, sector information which expresses a relationship between addresses indicative of positions on said recording medium and sectors which are used as data rewrite units or data read units;

a second signal reproducing step of reading said addresses from said recording medium; and

a controlling step of making a head part move to a starting position of a sector using said address and said sector information,

wherein a starting position of at least one sector is different from a top portion of an area which is specified by said address.

26. The control method for recording medium of claim 25, wherein said recording medium has a disk-like shape and comprises tracks which are arranged in a spiral arrangement or a concentric arrangement, said tracks comprise segments which are divided into a plurality of areas, one address is recorded over a plurality of segments, and

at said controlling step, said head part is made move to a starting position of a sector, while counting the number of said segments or the number of output signals from a counter which is in synchronization to said segments along the circumferential direction from said address on said recording medium.

27. The control method for recording medium of claim 25, wherein said sector information comprises at least one piece of data among a sector number or segment number of a starting point of each zone and the number of segments per sector within each zone, and a calculation formula for deriving the starting points of said sectors using such data.

28. The control method for recording medium of claim 25, comprising:

a third signal reproducing step of reading, from said recording medium, information regarding a data bit count per segment or a frequency divide ratio of an oscillator;

a phase locking step of frequency-dividing an output signal from an oscillator and synchronizing thus frequency-divided signal to said segments at a frequency divide ratio which is derived based on said information read out at said third signal reproducing step; and

a signal processing step of recording data in said recording medium or reproducing data from said recording medium by using a clock signal which is based on said output signal from. said oscillator.

29. The recording method for recording medium of the control method for recording medium of claim 25, comprising:

a defective segment specifying step of specifying a defective segment based on information reproduced from said recording medium; and

a sector allocating step of additionally allocating, when it is determined that one sector contains a defective segment at said defective segment specifying step, the same number of segments as defective segments or a larger number of segments than defective segments to said sector which contains said defective segment.

30. The recording method for recording medium of the control method for recording medium of claim 25, comprising:

a detecting step of detecting a defective segment; and

a re-arranging step of re-arranging said sectors on said recording medium when a defective segment is detected at said detecting step.