JP2001210001A - Reproduction system and optical storage device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] In an optical storage device such as a DVD-ROM drive, it is possible to satisfy both high-speed reproduction demand and low power consumption demand in the market. An optical storage device is provided with a “normal mode” emphasizing performance such as high-speed reproduction and a “low power consumption mode” emphasizing power consumption reduction. When it is necessary to reduce the power consumption depending on the state of the power supplied to the optical storage device and the disk to be reproduced, the optical storage device is operated in the “low power consumption mode” to reduce the power consumption. If high-speed reproduction is possible, the optical storage device is operated in the “normal mode” to realize high-speed reproduction.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a reproducing technique using an optical storage device connected to or incorporated in a personal computer, and more particularly to a reproducing technique for performing control for reducing power consumption.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A CD-ROM which is a peripheral device of a personal computer (hereinafter simply referred to as "personal computer").
An optical storage device such as a drive or a DVD-ROM drive (hereinafter simply referred to as “drive”) is a CD-RO.
M and DVD-ROMs, as well as music CDs, Video CDs, DVD-VI
Reproduction of DEO is also possible. In these drives, an improvement in data reproduction speed has been demanded. Therefore, conventional drives have been developed with an emphasis on improving the data reproduction speed.

[0003]

However, in recent years, with the spread of notebook personal computers using a battery as a power supply,
For drives that receive power from a PC,
Low power consumption has been required. In particular, when power is supplied to the drive from a PC card slot installed in a notebook personal computer, the current capacity of the PC card slot is limited, so that even lower power consumption is required. Further, as described above, an improvement in the reproduction speed has conventionally been required.

[0004] However, an improvement in the reproduction speed leads to an increase in power consumption, which is contrary to the above-mentioned demand for low power consumption.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems.

[0006]

[MEANS FOR SOLVING THE PROBLEMS] A high-speed reproduction,
In addition to the standard mode in which performance such as access time is emphasized, a low power consumption mode in which performance is reduced and power consumption is emphasized is provided. Music CD, Video CD, DV
When reproducing D-Video, there is no need to perform high-speed reproduction. Therefore, when reproducing these disks, low power consumption is realized by switching to a low power consumption mode in which reduction of power consumption is more important than reproduction speed. In addition, when the current capacity is limited, such as when power is supplied to the drive from the PC card slot of the personal computer, or when it is desired to minimize the current consumption, such as when the battery power of the personal computer is low, enter the low power consumption mode. Switch. As a result, it is possible to satisfy both the demand for improving the reproduction speed in the market and the demand for low power consumption.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a reproducing system composed of a personal computer, a DVD-ROM drive external to the personal computer, and an external power supply for supplying power to the DVD-ROM drive. In the present embodiment, the optical storage device is a DVD-R
The OM drive 10 will be described, and the control device will be described as a personal computer 13. Of course, the optical storage device is a DVD-RO
A disk device other than the M device may be used, and the control device may be an information processing terminal other than the personal computer.

When the external power supply 11 is connected, the DV
The power consumed by the D-ROM drive 10 is the external power 1
1, the DVD-ROM drive 10 operates in the conventional mode.

When the external power supply 11 is not connected, or when the external power supply 11 is connected,
When power is not supplied from the PC 1, the power consumed by the DVD-ROM drive 10 is supplied from the personal computer 13 via the PC card 12. In this case, DVD-ROM
Since the power supplied to the drive 10 is limited by the capacity of the PC card 12, the DVD-ROM drive 10
Operate in a low power mode.

Hereinafter, a method of switching between the conventional mode and the low power mode will be described.

The connector (not shown) is a DVD-ROM
DVD-ROM drive 10
And the external power supply 11 are connected via a connector and a plug 15. A switch 16 for detecting the presence or absence of an external power supply connection is attached to the connector. When the external power supply is not connected, the contact of the switch 16
D. At power on or reset
When the microcomputer 17 inside the DVD-ROM drive 10 detects that the switch 16 is connected to GND, the microcomputer 17 operates the DVD-ROM drive 10 in the low power mode.

When the external power supply 11 is connected, the switch 16 is pressed by the plug 15 so that the switch 16
Switch to the side. At power-on or reset, the microcomputer 17 operates the DVD-ROM drive 10 in the conventional mode by detecting that the switch 16 is connected to VCC.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship between the time of the DVD-ROM drive 10 and the rotation speed of the disk motor and the relationship between the time and the current consumption of the disk motor. FIG. 2A shows these relationships in the conventional mode, and FIG. 2B shows these relationships in the low power mode. In the low power mode, the DVD-RO
Acceleration and deceleration of the disk motor are performed slowly by limiting the gain of a control signal of a disk motor (not shown) for rotating the disk mounted on the M drive 10 to be low. As a result, the current consumption at the time of accelerating the disk motor 4
0 and the current consumption 41 when the disk motor is decelerated are smaller than the current consumption 42 when the disk motor is accelerated and the current consumption 43 when the disk motor is decelerated in the conventional mode.

In the low power mode, the disk motor steady rotation speed 44 is made lower than the disk motor steady rotation speed 45 in the conventional mode under the control of the microcomputer 17. Therefore, the reproduction speed for reproducing data from the disc is reduced. The current consumption 46 during the steady rotation of the disk motor in the low power mode is smaller than the current consumption 47 during the steady rotation of the disk motor in the conventional mode.

FIG. 3 shows a time chart when the DVD-ROM drive is stopped.

In the conventional mode, high-speed processing is realized by performing the disk motor deceleration operation 50 and the pickup position initialization operation 51 in parallel, and performing the pickup position initialization 51 operation and the ejection operation 52 in parallel. . On the other hand, in the low power mode, the simultaneous driving is stopped, the pickup position is initialized after the disk motor is stopped, and the ejection is performed after the initialization of the pickup position is completed, thereby reducing current consumption. .

FIG. 4 shows the relationship between the sensitivity of the pickup (not shown) in the DVD-ROM drive 10 and the reproduction speed.

The sensitivity of the pickup decreases as the reproduction speed increases. Therefore, in the conventional mode, the gain of the control signal is increased in order to compensate for the decrease in pickup sensitivity during high-speed reproduction.

In the low power mode, the reproduction speed is suppressed to a low value, and the reproduction is performed at a reproduction speed with a high pickup sensitivity, so that the gain of the control signal is set to be low to reduce the current consumption.

FIG. 5 shows a drive waveform of the pickup / slider in the DVD-ROM drive 10.

In the case where the slider is moved due to cueing of the data reproduction position, the conventional mode is activated by one pulse. In the low power mode, the current at the time of startup is reduced by gradually increasing the voltage at the time of startup.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the reproduction system shown in FIG.

When the remaining amount of the battery 80 becomes low, the remaining amount detecting sensor 81 sends the device driver 82
Indicates that the battery level is low. Upon receiving an instruction from the remaining amount detection sensor, the device driver 82
The microcomputer 17 issues a command to switch to the low power mode to the D-ROM drive 10, and the microcomputer 17 transitions the DVD-ROM drive 10 to the low power mode and operates based on the command.

[0025]

The power consumption can be reduced when high-speed reproduction is unnecessary or when power consumption is required to be reduced more than high-speed reproduction.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a reproduction system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between time of the DVD-ROM drive 10 and a disk motor rotation speed and a relationship between time and a disk motor current consumption.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a time chart when the DVD-ROM drive 10 is stopped.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between the sensitivity of a pickup (not shown) in the DVD-ROM drive 10 and the reproduction speed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a drive waveform of a pickup slider inside the DVD-ROM drive 10.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the reproduction system shown in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

10 DVD-ROM drive, 11 external power supply, 12
... PC card, 13 ... PC, 15 ... Connector, 16
... Switch, 17 ... Microcomputer, 20 ... Disk.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Mitsuo Kurokawa 1410 Inada, Hitachinaka-shi, Ibaraki F-term (reference) in Digital Media Products Division, Hitachi, Ltd. 5D090 AA01 CC04 CC16 DD03 DD05 EE11 FF21 HH01 LL09

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A reproduction system comprising: an optical storage device capable of reading data from a recording medium; and a control device that uses data read from the optical storage device or controls the optical storage device. Supplies power to the optical storage device from
When data is transferred between two devices, a power mode of the optical storage device is switched from the control device according to a power supply state of the control device. 2. A reproduction system comprising: an optical storage device capable of reading data from a recording medium; and a control device that uses data read from the optical storage device or controls the optical storage device. A reproduction system characterized in that when data is transferred between devices, a power mode of the optical storage device is switched according to data read from a recording medium. 3. An optical storage device used in the reproducing system according to claim 1, wherein the optical storage device has a plurality of power modes. 4. An optical storage device used in the reproducing system according to claim 2, wherein the power mode is switched according to a recording medium or data to be reproduced.