Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-25
2004-04-06
Neyzari, Ali (Department: 2655)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
C369S030880, C369S030930, C369S031010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06717890
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of information processing utilizing optical discs and particularly to a high-efficient optical-disc-type apparatus allows a host computer to effectively and/or multitaskingly perform various information processing actions directly from optical discs so as to alleviate the heavy burden of a hard-disk drive in the process of information reproducing.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An optical disc or compact disc (CD) is made from a transparent plastic material with a thickness of about 1.2 mm that contains a protected thin metal film wherein pits (or depressions) are formed. The pits have light reflectivities different from the light reflectivity of nonpitted portions of the metal film, thus forming a series of 0s and 1s for digital storage of data. In production, a master disc is first developed from a glass disc coated with a uniform layer of photoresist material that is subjected to a series of exposures to a high-power energy beam or laser for forming various pits via the technology of photolithography. The master disc is then used to develop a nickel mother for use in stamping out multiple copies of the discs in transparent plastic material. Each of these is then coated with a thin metallic reflecting layer and then with a protective polymer coating on top of that. When reproducing the stored information, a low-power laser is used to sense the presence or absence of pits. Because a laser beam can be so focused, adjacent tracks of the spiral of pits need be no larger than 1.6 &mgr;m. As a result, one side of a typical 120-mm (4.72-in) CD can have 20,000 tracks for holding a minimum of 500 megabytes of data which can easily store the text of a 20-volume encyclopedia, while both surfaces of a typical 133-mm (5.25-in) or a 89-mm (3.5-in) floppy disk are able to respectively hold only 1.2 or 1.44 megabytes.
Owing to the nature of their high storage capacity, optical discs are especially suitable for storing information requiring or taking large storage spaces, such as patent information, video data, and digital audio files. In addition to the floppy-disk version, software developers have recently produced the 120-mm read-only-memory CD (CD-ROM) version of executable software programs, such as IBM® OS/2 and Microsoft Windows® 95 for use in personal information processing apparatuses, such as desktop- or notebook-type computers.
Even though becoming increasingly popularly equipped in computers, a CD-ROM drive plays a much less significant role in information processing when compared with a hard-disk drive that utilizes the magnetic recording technology. This is because the currently available computers are designed to execute a program or software basically through reproducing the information stored on hard-disk drives, especially when the size of a program exceeds the storage capacity of a floppy disk. When sold to an end user, a software program for use in applications such as disk controlling, word processing, spread sheet, drawing, and presentation making, is compressedly stored on a plurality of floppy disks or an optical disc. Regardless of being either stored in floppy disks or an optical disc, a purchased software program needs to go through a tedious software installation process through which all program files are decompressedly copied to a hard-disk drive wherefrom the software program is then executed. In accordance with this conventional practice, the storage space of a hard-disk drive is quickly filled up. This not only incurs indirect cost in the expenditure of the hard-disk drive in addition to the purchased price of a software program to the end user, but eventually slows down the read-and-write operation efficiency of the hard-disk drive because any data files created are constantly rewritten, fragmentally relocated, and eventually scattered all over the hard-disk drive. Accordingly, a longer time is needed to find all of the data of a particular file. The only remedy currently available for this problem is to routinely run a hard-disk maintenance process in order to remove file fragmentation. Unfortunately, as more software programs or data files are stored on the hard-disk drive, the hard-disk maintenance process becomes more and more time-consuming, because it also involves relocation of the program files that occupy most of the space of the hard-disk drive but are never changed or altered throughout the entire life of their usage. Still there is another concern that a hard-disk drive is subject to nonphysical damages, for instance, such as program files being truncated or cross-linked due to improper assessing or writing during information reproducing or being infected by computer virus. As a result, a software program becomes corrupted; and, another tedious software installation process is again needed. All of these point to the fact that the currently available computers are designed to preform information processing by reproducing the information stored on hard-disk drives; and, this is not necessarily desirable.
Since a software program is mostly stored on a plurality of floppy disks for its distribution, an end user is routinely advised to make a set of backup copies because floppy disks are susceptible to physical and external damages. Inevitably, another disadvantage is incurred: a time-consuming process for making backup copies.
The need to install a purchased software to a hard-disk drive further incurs another problem: it is extremely difficult for software developers to stop or prevent illegal-copying of software. There are existing hardware-type protection devices and password-type protection approaches; but they are affordable only for high-price software programs with an aim of selling at most a few thousand copies for use in trading stocks or futures in real time, for instance. In contrast, volume software programs are sold in sealed envelopes. Once a sealed envelope is opened, an end user is assumed to accept the software license agreement set by a software developer; and, the software program is not returnable. Unfortunately, there is no practical way to prevent an end user from illegally coping such a software program. As the software developers producing high-volume and low-price software programs suffer from their products being illegally copied, the consumers lose their opportunity to try out a software program before purchasing.
In view of the disadvantages and problems mentioned hereinbefore, it is clear that currently available computers and optical disc or floppy-disk apparatuses are not designed to achieve their optimal potential. Owing to the nature of durability and storage capacity far superior to that of a floppy disk, an optical disc has a greater potential to become a memory storage medium for constructing a special type of apparatus to remedy the disadvantages currently encountered in the available information processing apparatuses. Thus, the main interest of the present invention is to design a high-efficient optical disc apparatus wherefrom software programs can be directly launched so as to eliminate tedious, time-consuming software installation and thus to offer an alternative of copy-right protection to software developers, as well as to alleviate the heavy burden of a hard-disk drive in information processing. Also essential for an information processing apparatus of this type is the feature of disc-loading and -unloading flexibility that allows a user to easily change or replace desired discs at will. In order to achieve the highest efficiency in information reproduction, any discs and thus disc positions should be readily accessible by at least one optical unit at any time. An optical read head should be able to travel from one disc to another, and its travelling should be limited to one-directional movement (either linear or circular) because multiple-directional or three-dimensional movement greatly slows down optical-read-head travelling efficiency. It is also highly desirable that an information processing apparatus of this type in accordance
Intellectual Science and Technology Inc.
Neyzari Ali
LandOfFree
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