The present invention relates generally to the field of optical data-storage media and apparatuses, and more particularly to an optical data-storage medium having a three-dimensional data pattern for providing digital information and to an optical data-storage apparatus employing the optical data-storage medium for processing information in multitasking and in parallel. 
It is well known that a conventional computer system is nowadays generally equipped with a hard-disk drive, a removable-disk drive, a CD (compact-disc) drive, a floppy-disk drive, and/or a tape-backup drive for storing information.  These drives basically utilize storage media such as magnetic disks, Bernoulli disks, optical/magneto-optical discs, and magnetic tapes, respectively.  Among these media, magnetic tapes and even newly developed optical tapes are for use only in tertiary storage because information is stored thereon by a sequential access method and thus cannot be accessed at a speed acceptable by current computer practice. 
The coexistence of hard-disk, CD, floppy-disk, backup, and other removable drives in computer signifies the fact that no single drive can simultaneously serve as secondary and tertiary storage.  However, their combinations do not yield satisfactory overall performance because these conventional drives use different platforms and storage media in construction.  Nor, can their combinations result in a user-friendly feature, because the conventional practice requires a purchased software program to go through a tedious software installation process through which all program files are decompressedly copied from an original software CD or floppy disks to a hard-disk drive wherefrom the software program is then executed. 
In an attempt to resolve the disadvantages mentioned above and to allow software programs to be launched directly from their original discs just as the plug-and-plan feature of a SEGA- or Nintendo-type game system, Applicant has disclosed an information processing apparatus (called master drive hereinafter) to replace all of these conventional hard-disk, CD, floppy-disk, backup, and other removable drive, as detailed in U.S. Pat.  No.  5,748,575.  The master drive is in a single-platform construction utilizing optical discs as storage media so as to most-efficiently obtain all necessary functions and features of secondary and tertiary storage. 
Among the conventional storage media between magnetic disks and optical discs, Applicant has suggested only the optical-disc media suitable for achieving the plug-and-play feature of software programs in conjunction with the master drive.  Magnetic disks, due to lack of durability and storage density, are by no means suitable media for achieving the plug-and-play feature of software, that is one of the basic characteristics needed to form the master drive of my prior invention. 
Conventional optical storage basically utilizes either optical discs or optical tapes as storage media.  Comparably inferior to magnetic tapes, optical tapes are only suitable for applications in tertiary storage and will not be applicable for use in the master drive of my prior patent.  Thus, among the conventional optical storage, only optical-disc media can be utilized in conjunction with secondary and tertiary storage.  The optical disc medium is essentially a relative xe2x80x9cflatxe2x80x9d or two-dimensional plate having circular tracks made in a continuous spiral or many spirals from the inside to the outside of an optical disc.  With respect to the so-called DVDs (digital video or versatile discs), information is stored on two layers (U.S. Pat.  No.  4,682,321) or multiple surfaces (U.S. Pat.  No.  5,487,060) at different depths so as to greatly increase data density.  Even though, these types of discs and their data surfaces are still generally in flat or two-dimension form. 
Relatively recently, Applicant has discovered that the master drive utilizing the conventional optical-disc media may have an oversized plane that would prevent it from being integrated with a space-limited host for some particular applications.  There appears no immediate solution for the concern if several turntables have to be generally aligned horizontally with each other.  Furthermore, in such a master drive, each turntable is designed for mounting a disc thereon and the total number of discs will be fixed in accordance with the total number of the turntables.  Thus, it is impossible to increase the total number of mountable discs.  In other words, the optical-disc-based master drive may lack of flexibility in accommodating original software discs more than the turntables provided therein, even though some software discs contain much less data than others and each of them has to equally occupy a turntable. 
Another Applicant""s concern is how to raise the data transfer rate (or data throughput) of conventional optical data storage to a level comparable to that of a hard-disk drive utilizing magnetic-disk media.  An earliest CD-ROM drive used in conjunction with a computer system has a characteristic of doublespin or the so-called 2xc3x97, equivalent to a data throughput of 0.3 MBps.  The latest CD-ROM drives have advanced to 32xc3x97 or a data throughput of 4.8 MBps.  On the other hand, the newest CD-R (rewritable or recordable) drives remain to be 8xc3x97 at best yet cost about a 10-fold higher than a typical 32xc3x97 CD-ROM.  To achieve a data throughput of 16.6 MBps that is nowadays typical in any hard-disk drives, a CD-ROM drive has to evolve into at least 110xc3x97 that will minimally rotate from 55,000 rpm at start-up to 22,000 rpm at the outside edge of an 120 mm disc.  This range of rotation speed reaches about an order of magnitude greater than a typical hard-disk drive, which will invoke technology far beyond our current knowledge and technological capability, especially, in view of the fact that the latest CD-R drives remain to be mostly in 2xc3x97. 
With respect to CD-R drives, the most serious obstacle hindering their advance in speed is that the parameter of time is often essential for a material to transform between different states of phases or for a polymeric carry medium in a magneto-optical disc to be softened enough upon being exposed to an intense laser beam to allow embedded magnetically-sensitive, metallic crystals to undergo re-aligning movements.  Thus, there is a strong need to conceive a new form of high-density optical-storage media and a new type of optical storage utilizing such a high-density optical-storage media different from the conventional optical-disc media used in current CD and/or CD-R drives so as to achieve a data throughput at a minimal level of a hard-disk drive. 
With the concerns just mentioned hereinabove, Applicant now establishes the need, the incentive, and the application for developing a new form of optical-storage media and a new type of optical storage utilizing the new form of optical-storage media to achieve a throughput speed at least comparable to any current hard-disk drives. 
A first feature of the present invention is to improve the conventional optical information reproduction system by providing an optical data-storage medium with a base structure adapted to supply a peripheral surface, preferably in cylindrical form, with a medium adhered thereon, forming a three-dimensional data surface responsive to a light beam for providing optical signals corresponding to a plurality of data.  The three-dimensional data surface having an imaginary straight center line is preferably selected from the group consisting of at least one helix, at least one ring, at least one circular track, at least one three-dimensional coil, at least one three-dimensional spiral, and their combinations.  Preferably, the medium is responsive to an intense light beam to undergo changes between different states of phases or orientations for rewritably storing data thereon.  The peripheral surface may contain at least one additional medium disposed with the medium to form a plurality of data surfaces at different depths each for storing a plurality of data thereon.  Most preferably, the plurality of data are arranged in a pattern comprising a predetermined plurality of helixes alternately disposed, so as to process information in parallel manner.  The helixes may be used for storing different formats of information, such as digital data information and digital audio information. 
A second feature of the present invention is to improve the conventional optical information reproduction system by providing an optical data-storage cartridge comprising a housing, a plurality of data-storage media rotatably mounted in the housing, each of the optical data-storage media having (1) a base structure adapted to supply a peripheral surface and an axial line of rotation and (2) a medium adhered on the peripheral surface, forming a data surface responsive to a light beam for providing optical signals corresponding to a plurality of data stored thereon, and at least one opening disposed on the housing adapted to allow the peripheral surfaces to be accessed outside the housing in a direction generally parallel to the axial lines.  The housing protects the optical data-storage media of the invention and facilitates removability. 
A third feature of the present invention is to improve the conventional optical information reproduction system by providing an optical data-storage apparatus comprising mounting means rotatable about an axial line, for mounting thereon an optical data-storage medium of the invention, means for rotating the mounting means about the axial line, and an optical unit having an optical head means capable of providing a light beam and a driving means for moving the optical head means in a direction generally parallel to the axial line, so as to interface with the optical data-storage medium.  Specifically, the optical head means is adapted to allow the light beam to be directed to and reflected from the optical data-storage medium in directions generally perpendicular to the axial line.  Preferably, the optical head means further comprises means for sequentially focusing the light beam selectively between a predetermined plurality of distances, so as to access a respectively predetermined plurality of data surfaces on the optical data-storage medium.  The optical head means may be adapted to shape the light beam into a narrow-lined light beam with predetermined dimensions to cover a predetermined plurality of data bits adjacently aligned with each other in a direction generally parallel to the axial line.  The optical unit may further comprise additional optical head means each discretely spaced apart from and substantially aligned with the optical head means in a direction generally parallel to the axial line.  Provided therewith is means for processing a predetermined plurality of data bits each associated with a predetermined one of the optical head means and the additional optical head means in parallel manner.  Most preferably, the mounting means is adapted to removably mount thereon a plurality of optical data-storage media of the invention.  The optical data-storage apparatus may further comprise a second mounting means rotatable about a second axial line for mounting a second optical data-storage medium, wherein the second axial line is generally parallel to the axial line.  The optical unit further comprises a second driving means for moving the optical head means in a direction substantially traverse to the axial line and the second axial line, so as to allow the optical head means to selectively access the optical data-storage medium and the second optical data-storage medium.  Further provided is a second optical unit having a separate driving means and at least one separate optical head means, so as to allow the optical unit and the second optical unit to perform multitasking.  The optical data-storage apparatus may further comprise another mounting means rotatable about another axial line for mounting a conventional optical disc medium having a two-dimensional surface for storing information thereon. 
A fourth feature of the present invention is to improve the conventional optical information reproduction system by providing an optical data-storage apparatus comprising a plurality of optical data-storage media each adapted to have a data surface for storing a plurality of data arranged in a three-dimensional pattern having an imaginary straight center line, a plurality of mounting means each rotatable about an axial line for mounting thereon one of the optical data-storage media in such a manner as to allow the imaginary straight center lines each to coincide with a respective one of the axial lines, means for rotating the plurality of mounting means each about a respective one of the axial lines, and an optical unit comprising a plurality of optical head means and a driving means for simultaneously moving the plurality of optical head means in a traveling direction generally parallel to at least one of the axial lines.  Specifically, each of the plurality of optical head means is adapted to provide a light beam directed to and reflected from a respective one of the data surfaces in a direction generally perpendicular to a respective one of the axial lines.  Preferably, one of the optical head means comprises means for sequentially focusing a light beam selectively between a predetermined plurality of distances, so as to access a respectively predetermined plurality of data surfaces on one of the optical data-storage media.  One of the optical head means may be adapted to shape a light beam into a narrow-lined light beam with predetermined dimensions to cover a predetermined plurality of data bits adjacently aligned with one another in a direction generally parallel to one of the axial line.  Preferably, the plurality of optical head means are aligned with each other in a direction generally parallel to a predetermined one of the axial lines, so as to allow a selected plurality of the optical head means to access a respectively predetermined one of the optical data-storage media.  Most preferably, the optical data-storage apparatus further comprises means for processing a predetermined plurality of data bits each associated with a predetermined one of the plurality of optical head means in parallel manner.  Specifically, the means for processing is provided selectively for combining the predetermined plurality of data bits retrieved by the plurality of optical head means in a predetermined sequence, and for separating data in accordance with the predetermined sequence to a form of the predetermined plurality of data bits to be sent through respective optical head means for storing onto respective optical data-storage media.  At least one of the mounting means each is adapted to removably mount thereon at least one of the optical data-storage media of the present invention.  Preferably, the plurality of optical head means are arranged in such a manner as to allow at least one of the plurality of optical head means to be positioned at each one of the plurality of optical data-storage media.  The optical data-storage apparatus may further comprise an additional optical unit having at least one optical head means, a first driving means, and a second driving means provided for moving the at least one optical head means respectively in a first direction generally parallel to and in a second direction substantially traverse to at least two of the axial lines, so as to allow the second optical unit to selectively access at least two of the optical data-storage media.  The optical data-storage apparatus may further comprise a turntable rotatable about a turntable axial line for mounting a conventional optical disc having a two-dimension surface for storing information thereon.  Preferably, the turntable and the head unit are arranged in such a manner as to allow one of the plurality of optical head means to travel in a radial direction of a disc surface of the optical disc medium. 
An optical data-storage medium of the present invention allows information to be stored in high density, to be accessed in high speed, and to be processed in multitasking and in parallel, not achievable by any conventional optical disc drives.