Patent Publication Number: US-2004042376-A1

Title: Information recording method

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] 1. Field of the Invention  
       [0002] The present invention relates to an information recording method. And more particularly, the present invention indicates an information recording method to record digital information file onto an information recording medium.  
       [0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art  
       [0004] A CD drive is a conventional information recording device, used to record a digital information file onto an information recording medium, such as a compact disk (CD). For example, the most inner circle of the circle shaped CD in the prior art comprises an Information Area. The Information Area comprises a Power Calibration Area (PCA), a Program Memory Area (PMA), and at least a session. The PCA is provided for the CD drive to decide correct powers when reading or recording the CD. The PMA is located between the PCA and the session, comprising the information about the start time and the stop time of all tracks in the CD. The session is located after the PMA, recording the content of the digital information file. Each session comprises a Lead-in Area and a Lead-out Area. The session further comprises a recording start unit after the Lead-in Area.  
       [0005] In the prior art, when recording digital information on a CD, a CD drive rotates the CD in a rotating speed, and starts recording the digital information file from the recording start unit, sequentially from the inner circles of the CD to the out circles before the Lead-out Area.  
       [0006] When later another CD drive wants to correctly read the digital information file, it can just read the PCA and the PMA first to correctly read the digital information file recorded in the sessions.  
       [0007] Because the rotating speed of the CD is constant, the writing speed in which the CD drive writes digital data on the outer area in the CD is faster than the writing speed in which the CD drive writes digital data on inner area in the CD.  
       [0008] For a CD, the longest radius is 3 times longer than the shortest one. The speed in which a CD drive records or reads the most outer circle of the CD is about 3 times more than the speed in which a CD drive records or reads the most inner circle of the CD.  
       [0009] Since the conventional way that CD drive records CD is to start from the start recording units, and move from the inner part to the outer part. That is, start from a slower writing speed, and waste a lot of recording time. The present invention is primarily to provide an information recording method to accelerate the speed in which CD drive record digital data on the CD.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0010] The present invention relates to an information recording method. And more particularly, the present invention indicates an information recording method to record digital information file onto an information recording medium.  
       [0011] This invention provides an information recording method to write a digital information file onto an information recording medium. The digital information file comprises a plurality of digital data. The information recording medium comprises a plurality of predetermined recording units arranged sequentially on the information recording medium from an inner area to an outer area, in order to record the plurality of digital data in the digital information file. The information recording medium further comprises an inner area and an outer area. The outer area has a recording start unit. The information recording method starts recording from the recording start unit to sequentially write the plurality of digital data in the digital information file on the information recording medium from outer to inner.  
       [0012] According to the invention, the information recording method starts recording from the recording start unit in the outer area sequentially toward the inner area. This can effectively accelerate the writing speed in which a CD drive writes digital data on a CD and further substantially accelerate the recording speed of a CD drive.  
       [0013] The advantages and spirits of the invention may be understood by the following recitations together with the appended drawings. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE APPENDED DRAWINGS  
     [0014]FIG. 1 is schematic diagram of a CD utilized in the information recording method of this invention.  
     [0015]FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a CD drive according to an embodiment of the present invention.  
     [0016]FIG. 3 shows a CD to explain the difference between the method of this invention and the prior art. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
     [0017] This invention provides an information recording method to record a digital information file onto an information recording medium. The digital information file comprises a plurality of digital data. The information recording method of this invention uses an information recording device to record the digital information file on the information recording medium. The information recording device comprises a writing/reading control software, which controls the information recording device to record or read the digital data. The information recording medium can be an optical disc, such as a CD, a DVD or a HD-DVD. The information recording device can be an optical disc drive. The following is an embodiment with CD.  
     [0018] Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is schematic diagram of a CD  10  utilized in the information recording method of this invention. The CD  10  is circle shaped, comprising a plurality of circle recording pre-grooves (not shown in FIG. 1) arranged in helical way on the CD 10 . A plurality of recording units is arranged in the circle recording pre-grooves to record the digital data. In this present invention, the recording pre-grooves of information recording medium can be also arranged concentric. The recording units are arranged in the concentric recording pre-grooves to record digital data.  
     [0019] The CD  10  comprises an inner area  12  to an outer area  14 . The CD  10  comprises a plurality of predetermined recording units (not shown in FIG. 1) arranged sequentially on the helical recording grooves from an inner area  12  to an outer area  14  in order to record the plurality of digital data in the digital information file.  
     [0020] The outer area  14  has a recording start unit  11 . There is an Information Area  16  located in the recording unit outside the recording start unit  11 . The Information Area pre-stored a Power Calibration Area (PCA) and a Program Memory Area (PMA) so that the CD drive can read the PCA and the PMA later to correctly read the digital information file.  
     [0021] The information recording method of the present invention starts recording from the recording start unit  11  to sequentially record the plurality of digital data in the digital information file onto the information recording medium from outer to inner.  
     [0022] In order to let this invention can be implement smoothly, outside the recording start unit  11  in the outer area  14  of the CD  10 , the Information area  16  has to be set up first. The Information area  16  stores a PCA, and a PMA. When recording the digital information file, the CD drive starts recording from the recording start unit  11  toward inner. After reading the PCA and the PMA, other later information recording devices can correctly read stored digital information file from outer to inner.  
     [0023] Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a CD drive  20  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The CD drive  20  comprises a pickup head  22 , a set of optical lenses  26 , an actuator  28  and a controller  30 . The pickup head  22  emits a light beam, writes the digital data onto the CD  24 , and reads the digital data from the CD  24 . The set of optical lenses  26  focuses the light beam emitted from the pickup head  22  to the CD  24 , and focuses the light beam reflected from the CD  24  to the pickup head  22 . The pickup head  22  will receive the reflected light beam so as to facilitate the reading later. The controller  30  controls the pickup head  22 , the optical lenses  26  and the actuator  28 .  
     [0024] The actuator  28  actuates the pickup head  22 , the set of optical lenses  26  and the CD  24  to write or read digital data. The actuator  28  comprises a spindle motor module  32  and a sled motor  34 . The spindle motor module  32  rotates the CD  24  in a rotating speed to let the pickup head  22  write digital data on the CD  24 . The sled motor  34  controls the pickup head  22  to write digital data from the recording start unit  11  of the outer area  14  to inner.  
     [0025] A writing/reading control software of CD drive  20  controls the sled motor  34  to let the sled motor  34  control the pickup head  22 . The sled motor  34  moves from the outer area  14  to inner and lets the pickup head  22  start from the recording start unit  11  in the outer area toward inner to write digital data or read the digital information file. The writing speed in which the pickup head  22  writes digital data on the outer area  14  in the CD  24  is faster than the writing speed in which the pickup head  22  writes digital data on the inner area  12 .  
     [0026] The controller  30  will convert the digital data into corresponding writing control commands, and transmit the writing control commands to the pickup head  22  in a data transmitting speed so as to write the writing control commands on the rotating CD  24 . The writing speed in which the pickup head  22  writes digital data on the CD  24  is affected by the data transmitting speed of the controller  30  and the rotating speed of the spindle motor module  32 . The data transmitting speed is higher than the rotating speed, and the writing speed is confined by the rotating speed.  
     [0027] The rotating speed of the spindle motor module  32  is a constant value. As the pickup head  22  rotates to the outer circle of the CD  24 , the rotating radius will increase. When the radius increase as the rotating angle remains the same, the recording unit increases with moving outer. The controller  30  can increase its data transmitting speed as the recording unit increases to make the data transmitting speed higher than the rotating speed. Therefore the writing speed is confined by the rotating speed.  
     [0028] The writing speed in which the pickup head  22  writes digital data on the outer area in the CD  24  is higher than the writing speed in which the pickup head  22  writes digital data on the inner area in the CD  24 . Considering that the radius of the most outer radius is 3 times more than the most inner radius, the speed in which the CD drive  20  records/reads the most outer circle of the CD  24  is 3 times more than the speed in which the CD drive  20  records/reads the most inner circle of CD  24 .  
     [0029] Please refer to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows a CD  50  to explain the difference between the method of this invention and the prior art. An instance using a known CD  50  to record an digital information file of 325 MB is introduced to explain how the invention accelerate the recording speed of the CD drive  20 . The capacity of the CD  50  is 650 MB and a digital information file desired is 325 MB that is a half of the capacity of CD  50 .  
     [0030] Conventionally, it is necessary to start recording from the most inner circle  52  of the CD  50  to the middle part  54  of the CD  50 . The most inner circle  52  has a radius R1 of 2 centimeter. The middle part  54  has a radius R2 of 4.472 centimeter. The difference (Δr1) between the radius R1 and the radius R2 is 2.742 centimeter.  
     [0031] This invention directly starts from the start recording unit  11  on the most outer circle  56  of the CD  50 , writing the digital information file on the CD  50  from outer circles to inner circles. In order to record the digital information file on the CD  50  intactly, it is necessary to write to the middle part  54  of the CD  50 , where with a radius R2 4.472 centimeter. The most outer circle  56  has a radius R3 of 6 centimeter. The difference (Δr2) between the radius R2 and the radius R3 is 1.528 centimeter. Compared with the prior art, the Δr1 of the prior art is 1.618 times of the Δr2 of this invention. Since the rotating speed of pickup head  22  is constant, the time that a CD drive records the information file is: correlated to the difference of the radiuses. That is, the time that the prior art records the same information file is 1.618 times more than the time that this invention needs. Therefore, using this invention can accelerate substantially the recording speed of a CD drive.  
     [0032] In contrast to the conventional method which starts recording from the most inner circle of an information recording medium, the information recording method of this invention starts from the recording start unit in the outer area of a CD, recording digital information file sequentially on the CD from outer to inner.  
     [0033] With the example and explanations above, the features and spirits of the invention will be hopefully well described. Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teaching of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.