HK1118373B - Method and system for setting optical drive write speed - Google Patents

Description

Method and system for setting optical drive writing speed

The present application is a divisional application entitled "method and system for setting optical drive writing speed" with application number 200410084058.5 and application date 2004, 10/18.

Technical Field

The present invention relates generally to the field of information handling system optical drive operations, and more particularly to a method and system for setting an optical drive writing speed for writing information to an optical medium.

Background

As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and companies seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. Information handling systems typically process, compile, store, and/or communicate information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary as to what information is handled, how the information is handled, processed, how much information is stored or transferred, or how quickly and efficiently the information is processed, stored, or transferred. Variations of information handling systems allow information handling systems to be generic to or structured for a particular user or a particular application, such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, an information handling system may include various hardware and software components for processing, storing, and communicating information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.

As information handling systems proliferate, there is a vast amount of information that is processed and stored by information handling system users. An increasingly used option for storing these large amounts of information is optical media. Optical disc drives write information to an optical medium by a laser that illuminates the optical medium to selectively change the reflective qualities of the optical medium, and read information by illuminating the optical medium with a lower power laser to measure reflections from the optical medium. Typically, each optical drive writes to a different type of optical media via a write strategy developed by the optical drive manufacturer. As optical media manufacturers produce improved optical media, such as optical media that will accept information at greater optical drive writing speeds, optical drive manufacturers update the firmware of the optical drives for write strategies developed for the improved optical media. For example, a CD-RW optical drive reads an embedded ATIP start code from a CD-R optical disc to uniquely identify the CD-R medium. The optical drive then writes the information to the medium using a write strategy associated with the ATIP start code that the optical drive has in the firmware table. The standard system known as Orange Forum assigns code to CD-R and CD-RW optical media manufacturers each time a new optical media is released so that the optical media manufacturers can develop the optimum write speeds and strategies for use with the media and store the developed write speeds and strategies in firmware. Other optical media, such as DVD media, have or may have similar implementations to such identification codes, either by standards body designation or self-implementation.

One difficulty that arises with using an embedded code on an optical medium to identify the medium for an optical drive is that the optical drive can read the embedded code from an inserted optical medium that is not recognized by the optical drive. If the embedded identification code of the optical medium is not found in the firmware of the optical drive, the optical drive typically reverts to the general write strategy and write speed. In general, optical drives reduce the writing speed for a general write strategy to a value that results in an acceptable quality writing of information, independent of the optical medium. However, the writing speed of optical drives and optical media tends to increase over time, so that with unrecognized embedded codes, the use of slow writing speeds is often an overly conservative approach. For example, CD-R and CD-RW optical drive manufacturers typically load the current ATIP boot tables into the firmware of the optical drive at the time of manufacture, but typically do not update the firmware after manufacture. Therefore, an optical drive installed in an information processing system cannot recognize an ATIP start code of a released optical medium after manufacturing the optical drive, resulting in that even if a newly developed optical medium is generally designed to be written at a higher speed, it can only be written at a slower speed by a general write strategy. One solution is to compare the unrecognized ATIP start code with known codes, such as the last two bits of the ATIP start code. Information is written to a medium with unknown code using a write strategy for the last known code. However, write strategies using close-valued codes are unreliable and it is also only guesswork that optical media that are typically close to values have similar writing characteristics to unknown optical media.

Disclosure of Invention

Therefore, there is a need for a method and system that allows an optical disc drive to adequately recognize even optical media released after the optical drive in order to associate a write strategy with the optical media.

In accordance with the present invention, a method and system are provided that substantially reduce the disadvantages and problems associated with previous methods and systems for writing information from an optical disc drive to optical media released after the optical disc drive. The optical medium identification code is preassigned to the intended optical medium, such as by specifying a standard system, or by a parameter set including an issue date, and made available for loading onto an optical disc drive. An optical disc drive manufactured prior to developing a write strategy for a planned optical medium associates a preassigned identification code with design parameters based on the planned optical medium, such as the latest general write strategy available to drive the manufacturer's medium. Pre-assigning an identification code to an optical medium increases the writing speed of an optical drive writing on an optical medium released after manufacture of the optical drive, because the optical drive defaults to a slow general write strategy if the identification code is unknown.

Specifically, the manufacturer loads preassigned optical medium identification codes into pre-assigned manufactured optical disc drives and associates the preassigned identification codes with a general write strategy. The general write strategy is developed by manufacturer design parameters so that the proposed optical medium identified by the pre-specified code has a general write strategy that allows for a higher write speed than allowed by the more conservative general purpose (catch-all) general write strategy of the optical disc drive. For example, the optical medium identification code is pre-assigned by the optical medium manufacturer so that the disc drive can use the write strategy of the manufacturer's existing optical medium as a base point for the manufacturer's planned optical medium. In one embodiment, the identification code has a common number for designating the set of associated optical media and ends with a date stamp identifying the version of the optical media by its release date. A write strategy component of the optical disc drive reads the identification code from the inserted optical medium and determines whether the identification code is associated with an assigned, preassigned, or unknown optical medium. If the identification code is assigned or pre-assigned so that it has an associated write strategy, that write strategy is used to write information onto the optical medium. If the identification code is unknown, a general write strategy is applied to write the information.

The present invention provides various important technical advantages. One example of an important technical advantage is that an optical disc drive is sufficient to recognize an optical medium in order to associate a write strategy with the optical medium, even for optical media released after the optical disc drive. The preassigned optical medium identification code allows for the development of a generic write strategy for a planned optical medium so that an optical disc drive released prior to the development of the write strategy for the optical medium can write at a faster speed than supported by a conservative generic write strategy. The ability to write to newly released media at a faster rate through existing optical drives reduces the perception of user optical drive malfunction, thereby increasing user satisfaction through reduced service calls and backups of the optical drive.

Drawings

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like elements.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an information handling system having an optical drive that writes information to an optical medium based on a preassigned identification code;

FIG. 1A depicts one detail of the block diagram shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart of a method for writing information via a preassigned optical medium identification code.

Detailed Description

An optical disc drive stores information generated by an information handling system on an optical medium by recognizing an identification code of the optical medium as a preassigned identification code, wherein the disc drive lacks a write strategy at the time of manufacture. Information from the information handling system is written onto the optical medium by a general write strategy that is associated with a preassigned identification code and that is developed based on design parameters of the optical medium planned at the time of manufacture of the optical drive. For purposes of this application, an information handling system may include any instrumentality or aggregate of instrumentalities operable to compute, classify, process, transmit, receive, retrieve, originate, switch, store, display, manifest, delete, record, reproduce, handle, or utilize any form of information, intelligence, or data for business, scientific, control, or other purposes. For example, an information handling system may be a personal computer, a network storage device, or any other suitable device and may vary in size, shape, performance, functionality, and price. The information handling system may include Random Access Memory (RAM), one or more processing resources such as a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or hardware or software control logic, ROM, and/or other types of nonvolatile memory. Additional components of the information handling system may include one or more disk drives, one or more network ports for communicating with external devices as well as various input and output (I/O) devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and a video display. The information handling system may also include one or more buses operable to transmit communications between the various hardware components.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram depicts an information handling system 10 having an optical disc drive 12, the optical disc drive 12 writing information to an optical medium 14 via a write strategy associated with a preassigned optical medium identification code. Information processing components associated with information handling system 10 generate information for storage and transfer the information to optical disc drive 12. Optical disc drive 12 prepares to write information to optical medium 14 by reading an optical medium identification from optical medium 14 with laser 16. For example, an ATIP start code issued by the Orange Forum for CD optical media is read from the inner diameter area. Other types of writable optical media, such as CD + RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD + RW optical media, may be identified by similar codes embedded in the optical media at the time of manufacture. The read optical medium identification code is compared to the codes listed in the write strategy table 18 to determine a write strategy for writing information to the optical medium.

Write strategy table 18 is stored in a memory associated with optical disc drive 12, such as the firmware of optical disc drive 12 or a memory of an information processing component accessible by the firmware. Write strategy table 18 is loaded at the time of manufacture of optical disc drive 12 by write strategies developed by the manufacturer for known and tested optical media. For example, optical disc drive manufacturers test each of the different types of available optical media to determine the write strategy settings for power, speed, and pulse characteristics, such as pulse length, duration, delay, and shape, used to write information on each optical medium with the desired accuracy. The optical disc drive manufacturer associates a write strategy with a unique identification code for each type of optical medium. Since each identification code is assigned to a specific optical media type of the optical media manufacturer, these write strategies are stored as assigned write strategies.

The write strategy table 18 is also loaded with general and generic write strategies for use when manufacturing the optical disc drive 12, wherein the optical medium 14 has unknown identification codes or identification codes for which the optical disc drive manufacturer has not developed an associated write strategy. A typical write strategy writes information at a conservative rate setting to allow the optical disc drive 12 to write information on any practical optical medium with an unknown identification code, with acceptable quality. Although this conservative general write strategy ensures that information is written accurately on less advanced optical media designed for use at low writing speeds, its use on newly developed optical media designed for use at higher writing speeds does not degrade writing of information by optical disc drive 12. For example, an information handling system user placing a new optical medium in a new optical disc drive may desire that the drive write at or near its maximum speed. However, if the optical disc drive manufacturer does not have a write strategy for a new optical medium at the time of manufacturing the optical disc drive, using a general write strategy for an unknown optical medium will result in a slow write speed and a perception of improper performance to the user.

To prevent unnecessary reliance on having a conservative slow general write strategy available for use with unknown optical media, optical medium identification codes may be pre-assigned to the intended optical media and stored in write strategy table 18. For example, each optical media manufacturer pre-designates an optical media identification code for an optical media that a certain manufacturer plans to develop, even if the media manufacturer has not yet started any development work. The manufacturer provides the optical disc drive manufacturer with design parameters for the planned optical medium, such as the planned writing speed or the planned optical medium's relationship to the manufacturer's existing optical medium. The optical disc drive manufacturer can then develop a general write strategy for the proposed optical medium and associate the general write strategy with the pre-assigned optical medium identification code stored in the write strategy table 18. Thus, the optical disc drive 12 receives an optical medium developed after manufacturing the optical disc drive and applies a general write strategy to write information onto the optical medium by reading an identification code from the optical medium, matching the read identification code with a preassigned identification code of the write strategy table 18, and using the general write strategy associated with the preassigned identification code. The optical disc manufacturer prepares a general write strategy based on the backward compatibility of the new media and looks at the existing related media to find the most suitable for the planned media. In one embodiment, the associated media have the same identification code, except for a timestamp added to the end of the identification code of the version of the specified media. In this embodiment, if the entire identification code is present in the write strategy table, information is written on the optical medium by the specified write strategy, and if the version timestamp does not have a general write strategy selected by the portion of the identification code equal to the timestamp, the information is written by the general write strategy.

Referring now to FIG. 1A, the use of pre-assigned optical medium identification codes for the manufacturer of the optical medium is illustrated in the example of an optical disc drive write strategy table 18 for a CD-R or CD-RW drive. Three parts of the ATIP start code are associated with the designated and future planned optical media. The optical drive write strategy table has a write strategy including a write speed for each ATIP start code. The ATIP start code assigned to an existing optical medium of the manufacturer has a corresponding entry in the write strategy table 18 with the write strategy developed by the optical disc drive manufacturer for that optical medium. The ATIP start code pre-assigned to the future planned optical medium has a corresponding entry in the write strategy table 18 of a general write strategy prepared by the optical disc drive manufacturer based on an analysis of design parameters of the future optical medium. For example, an optical disc drive manufacturer may use a write strategy for optical media with similar design parameters, or may simply use a general write strategy with a higher writing speed. In addition, if the identification code is implemented using a time stamp, the optical disc drive manufacturer implements an algorithm for finding the version of the optical medium by referring to the time stamp portion of the identification code having the specified write strategy and using the specified write strategy as a general write strategy. The write strategy for the pre-assigned optical medium identification code will select the lower limit of the planned maximum write speed of the optical medium or the maximum write speed of the optical disc drive.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a flow chart depicts a method of writing information to an optical medium via a write strategy associated with a preassigned optical medium identification code. At step 20, the process begins by reading an optical medium identification code from an optical medium by an optical disc drive. At step 22, the read identification code is compared to the identification code of the write strategy table to determine whether the identification code is associated with the optical medium. For example, it is determined whether the identification code is in the write strategy table that matches the timestamp of the read identification code, and if not, the process continues to step 24 to compare the read identification code to the identification code of the write strategy table to determine whether the identification code is preassigned to the intended optical medium. For example, it is determined whether there is a match in the write strategy table for the first portion of the identification code instead of the timestamp. If there is a match on the first part, the assigned write strategy for that identification code part with the latest timestamp is selected as the general write strategy. If the result of step 22 or 24 is yes, the procedure continues with step 26, where the writing speed of the optical medium is compared with the maximum writing speed of the optical disc drive so that the writing speed of the write strategy does not exceed the maximum writing speed of the optical disc drive. The result of step 22 is that a write strategy is selected from a write strategy table associated with the optical medium assigned to the read identification code. The result of step 24 is to select a general write strategy from a write strategy table associated with the intended optical medium preassigned to the read identification code. If the result of step 24 is negative, the procedure continues with step 28 for selecting a general write strategy. Selecting a generic write strategy means that, for example, the identification code read is from an unknown optical medium manufacturer.

Although the present invention has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made hereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims (29)

1. An information processing system comprising:

an information processing component operable to generate information for storage and to transmit the information for storage to an optical drive, the optical drive operable to accept the information for storage and to write the information to an optical medium, the information for storage including a predetermined identification code associated with the optical medium, the predetermined identification code being predetermined by an optical medium manufacturer for the optical medium prior to planned development of the optical medium, the predetermined identification code being embedded in the optical medium and readable by an optical drive issued prior to the optical medium and used to determine a write strategy for writing information to the optical medium.

2. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined identification code is provided by an optical media manufacturer prior to distribution of the optical media.

3. The information processing system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the predetermined identification code is used to determine a write strategy for writing information to the optical medium.

4. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined identification code comprises an identification of a planned writing speed or a planned relationship of the optical medium to an existing optical medium.

5. The information handling system of claim 4, wherein the projected writing speed or the identification of the projected optical medium's relationship to existing optical media is used to determine a write strategy for the optical medium by using a write strategy of the existing optical medium associated with the optical medium that is the same as or modified from the write strategy of the existing optical medium.

6. The information handling system of claim 5, wherein the write strategy of the optical medium has an increased write speed compared to a write speed of an existing optical medium associated with the optical medium.

7. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined identification code is preassigned to the intended optical medium by a set of parameters including a release date of the optical medium.

8. The information processing system of claim 7, wherein if the identification code is implemented using a timestamp, using an algorithm, a version of the optical medium is looked up by referencing a portion of the identification code having the specified write strategy and using the specified write strategy as a general write strategy.

9. The information handling system of claim 1, wherein the predetermined identification code associated with the optical medium is pre-assigned to the optical medium by a parameter set including a release date of the optical medium.

10. The information handling system of claim 1, the optical medium being used in an optical drive released prior to the optical medium, the optical drive having a write strategy table having a plurality of optical medium identification codes, each optical medium identification code having a write strategy associated therewith,

a typical write strategy table has a plurality of predetermined optical medium identification codes,

the write strategy module may read an optical medium identification code from the optical medium and select a write strategy associated with the identification code from a write strategy table to write information to the optical medium;

comparing the read identification code with an optical medium identification code of a write strategy table, and if the read identification code is matched with the optical medium identification code of the write strategy table, selecting a corresponding write strategy from the write strategy table for the optical medium by the write strategy module; if there is no match, the read identification code is further compared with identification codes of a write strategy table to determine whether the identification codes are preassigned to the intended optical media, if there is a match, the write strategy module selects a corresponding general write strategy for the optical media from the write strategy table, and if there is no match, the write strategy module selects a general write strategy for the optical media.

11. A method of writing information to an optical medium by an optical drive, comprising the steps of:

generating information for storage at the information handling system and transferring the information for storage to the optical drive;

accepting the information for storage at the optical drive and writing the information to the optical medium, the information for storage including a predetermined identification code associated with the optical medium, the predetermined identification code being predetermined by an optical medium manufacturer for the optical medium prior to planned development of the optical medium, the predetermined identification code being embedded in the optical medium and readable by an optical drive released prior to the optical medium and used to determine a write strategy for writing the information to the optical medium.

12. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 11, including providing the predetermined identification code by an optical medium manufacturer prior to distribution of the optical medium.

13. A method of writing information to an optical medium as claimed in claim 11 or 12, wherein the predetermined identification code is used to determine a write strategy for writing information to the optical medium.

14. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the predetermined identification code comprises an identification of a planned writing speed or a planned optical medium relationship to an existing optical medium.

15. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 14, wherein the projected writing speed or the identification of the projected optical medium's relationship to the existing optical medium is used to determine a write strategy for the optical medium by using a write strategy that is the same as or modified from a write strategy for the existing optical medium associated with the optical medium.

16. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the write strategy of the optical medium has an increased write speed compared to a write speed of an existing optical medium associated with the optical medium.

17. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the predetermined identification code is pre-assigned to the intended optical medium by a set of parameters including a release date of the optical medium.

18. The method of writing information to an optical medium as claimed in claim 17, wherein if the identification code is implemented using timestamps, using an algorithm, the version of the optical medium is looked up by referring to the portion of the identification code having the specified write strategy and using the specified write strategy as the general write strategy.

19. The method of writing information to an optical medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the predetermined identification code associated with the optical medium is pre-assigned to the optical medium by a parameter set including a release date of the optical medium.

20. An information processing system comprising:

an information processing component operable to generate information for storage;

an optical drive operable to accept information for storage from an information processing component and to write the information into an optical medium according to a write strategy having a write speed;

a write strategy table associated with the optical drive and having a plurality of optical medium identification codes, each optical medium identification code having an associated write strategy;

a general write strategy table associated with the optical drive and having a plurality of predetermined optical medium identification codes, each of the predetermined optical medium identification codes being associated with one of a plurality of general write strategies and with optical media planned to be developed by an optical media manufacturer;

a write strategy module to read an identification code from an optical medium and to provide an optical drive with a write strategy associated with said identification code read from said optical medium;

comparing the read identification code with an optical medium identification code of a write strategy table, and if the read identification code is matched with the optical medium identification code of the write strategy table, selecting a corresponding write strategy from the write strategy table for the optical medium by the write strategy module; if there is no match, the read identification code is further compared with identification codes of a write strategy table to determine whether the identification codes are preassigned to the intended optical media, if there is a match, the write strategy module selects a corresponding general write strategy for the optical media from the write strategy table, and if there is no match, the write strategy module selects a general write strategy for the optical media.

21. The information handling system of claim 20, wherein the write strategy module is further operable to read an unknown optical medium identification code and provide the optical drive with a generic write strategy associated with the unknown optical medium.

22. The information processing system of claim 20 or 21, wherein each of the predetermined optical medium identification codes is predetermined by an optical medium manufacturer and associated with a write strategy for writing information to the optical medium of the optical medium manufacturer with the optical disc drive.

23. The information handling system of claim 22, wherein each of the predetermined optical medium identification codes is associated with an optical medium identification code of the write strategy table.

24. The information handling system of claim 22, wherein each of the predetermined optical medium identification codes generally comprises a write speed, and wherein the optical drive writes the information at a lower limit of a maximum write speed of the optical medium or the maximum write speed of the optical drive.

25. An information handling system as claimed in claim 20 or 21 wherein the optical drive comprises a DVD disc drive.

26. A method of configuring an optical disc drive to write information to an optical medium, the method comprising:

presetting an optical medium identification code to an optical medium manufacturer;

associating design parameters of the planned optical medium with a preset optical medium identification code;

transmitting a predetermined optical medium identification code to a disc drive manufacturer, and associating design parameters with the disc drive manufacturer;

manufacturing an optical disc drive to recognize a predetermined optical medium identification code and write information with a general write strategy according to design parameters; and

an optical medium having a predetermined optical medium identification code is distributed so that information can be written to the distributed optical medium using a general write strategy associated with the predetermined optical medium identification code.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the design parameter comprises a disc writing speed.

28. The method of claim 26 or 27, wherein the design parameters include similarities to one or more existing optical media of the manufacturer.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the design parameter comprises a pulse length.