Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-07
2002-06-25
Dinh, Tan (Department: 2653)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
C369S178010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06411571
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a changer which transports one of many housed information recording media (for example, disks) that is designated by a computer system, to a designated one of plural incorporated information recording medium driving means (for example, disk drives), thereby enabling the computer system to rapidly access any one of the many housed information recording media, and particularly to a changer which can incorporate information recording medium driving means in a larger number (for example, sixteen) than the maximum number of devices that can be supported by one SCSI bus.
As a device for providing rapidly and accurately only required information among an enormous quantity of information stored in many information recording media (for example, disks such as CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, DVD-ROMs, DVD-Rs) to a computer system, conventionally, known is a changer configured in the following manner. Among many housed disks, a disk which is designated by the computer system is transported to designated one of plural incorporated disk drives, so that the computer system can access any one of the many housed disks.
FIG. 10
schematically shows a usual electrical hardware configuration of an example of a changer of the conventional art, and connection relationships between the changer and a computer system. As shown in the figure, the changer
1
incorporates a changer controller
2
which mainly controls transportation of disks, and four disk drives
31
to
34
which are mounted at positions identified by a series of element addresses (EA) and serve as transport destinations of the disks, respectively.
The computer system
6
is connected to each of elements (the changer controller
2
and the disk drives
31
to
34
) of the changer
1
via a SCSI (an abbreviation for Small Computer System Interface) bus. Eight SCSI controllers respectively corresponding to SCSI IDs=0 to 7 can be connected to a SCSI bus of an 8-bit width. In this example, a SCSI controller (host adapter)
47
corresponding to SCSI ID=7 is connected to the computer system
6
, a SCSI controller
45
corresponding to SCSI ID=5 is connected to the changer controller
2
, and SCSI controllers
41
to
44
corresponding to SCSI IDs=1 to 4 are connected to the four disk drives
31
to
34
, respectively. There are no SCSI controllers corresponding to SCSI IDs=0 and 6.
In the changer
1
, between the changer controller
2
and device connectors (not shown) corresponding to the element addresses (EA), a local bus line
5
elongates through which drive identification data are sucked from a disk drive connected to the connector, to the changer controller
2
. In this example, as the drive identification data, the SCSI IDs (IDs=1 to 4) allocated to the SCSI controller to which the disk drive are connected is used as they are, because, when there is only one SCSI bus, the SCSI IDs correspond to the disk drives in one to one relationship. The SCSI IDs can be respectively set for the SCSI controllers by using a DIP switch or the like. As required, the SCSI IDs can be read from the side of the disk drives. The SCSI IDs set by the DIP switch or the like are used also for enabling the computer system
6
to access a desired one of the disk drives via the corresponding SCSI controller.
In order to enable the computer system
6
to read desired data from one of the disks housed in the disk changer
1
, instructions for transporting the disk to one of the disk drives
31
to
34
, and also those for controlling the disk drive serving as the transport destination of the disk and reading the desired data from the transported disk must be given from the computer system
6
to the disk changer
1
. These instructions are given by issuing predetermined commands (hereinafter, such commands are referred to as “disk transportation command,” and “disk access command,” respectively) onto the SCSI bus from the computer system
6
while designating the corresponding SCSI ID.
Specifically, the instructions for transporting a specific disk to one of the disk drives
31
to
34
are performed in the following manner. The computer system
6
issues the disk transportation command (containing designation of the disk) onto the SCSI bus while designating the SCSI ID (ID=5) allocated to the SCSI controller
45
to which the changer controller
2
is connected. At this time, in the designation of the disk drive of transport destination, the element address EA allocated for specifying the disk drive in the changer is used in place of the SCSI ID of the SCSI controller to which the disk drive is connected. This is specified in the SCSI standard. In the disk transportation control performed by the changer controller
2
, it is necessary and sufficient that only the changer controller
2
recognizes the physical position of a disk drive to which a disk is to be transported. Therefore, the element address EA having a one to one relationship with the physical position of the disk drive is used as a logical address.
By contrast, the instructions for controlling the disk drive positioned at the transport destination of the disk and reading the desired data from the disk set to the disk drive are performed in the following manner. The computer system
6
issues the disk access command onto the SCSI bus while designating the SCSI ID allocated to the SCSI controller to which the transport destination disk drive is connected.
In the changer
1
, correspondence relationships between SCSI IDs for recognizing the disk drives and the element addresses EA given to the disk drives are not uniquely defined. When the disk transportation command and the disk access command are to be issued, therefore, the computer system
6
must previously recognize correspondence relationships in the changer
1
, i.e., those between the SCSI ID for identifying a disk drive and the element address EA indicating the position where the disk drive is mounted. The correspondence relationships are recognized by the computer system
6
in the following procedure.
Prior to the disk transportation control, first, the changer controller
2
acquires the SCSI IDs serving as drive identification data from the four incorporated disk drives
31
to
34
via the local bus line
5
, and recognizes correspondence relationships between the element addresses EA and the disk drives (SCSI IDs). The acquisition of the SCSI IDs by the changer controller
2
can be performed in any one of various know methods. In this example, the changer controller
2
first performs an initializing process immediately after power-on, or issues a predetermined internal request command via the local bus line
5
to each of the four incorporated disk drives
31
to
34
which are incorporated in the changer and which can be respectively designated by the corresponding element address. In response to the command, the disk drives
31
to
34
read the SCSI IDs (=1 to 4) from their own SCSI controllers
41
to
44
, respectively, and send the SCSI IDs to the changer controller
2
via the local bus line
5
. When the changer controller
2
receives the SCSI IDs, the changer controller recognizes correspondence relationships between the SCSI IDs of the disk drives
31
to
34
and the element addresses. In
FIG. 11A
, an example of the thus recognized correspondence relationships is shown in the form of a table. As seen from the table, in the example, it is recognized that the four disk drives
31
to
34
are mounted at positions indicated by element addresses EA=4000 to 4003, and the SCSI IDs of the disk drives
31
to
34
are
1
to
4
, respectively.
In order to correctly issue various commands to the elements (the changer controller
2
and the disk drives
31
to
34
) of the changer
1
, the computer system
6
must previously know the manner of connecting the elements to the SCSI bus. Prior to the start of the control, therefore, the computer system
6
sequentially issues an inquiry command to all the SCSI IDs (=0 to
Kasuga Satomi
Koizumi Harui
Mitsunari Yoshitaka
Sugawara Hiroshi
Tada Atsuki
Dinh Tan
Pioneer Corporation
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