Patent ID: 7580598

Claim:
An information recording/reproducing apparatus comprising: a recording/reproducing device that performs either recording or reproducing a data stream with a predetermined data format; an optical signal processing device that processes an optical signal based on the data stream, wherein the optical signal processing device includes: a first terminal that inputs and outputs the optical signal, said terminal being connected to a first channel of an associated optical communication line; a second terminal that inputs and outputs the optical signal, said terminal being connected to a second channel of the associated optical communication line; an optical signal processing portion that processes the optical signal; and a switch portion for optical communication that selects a specific connection state from different connection states according to different switch connections, said switch portion being connected to the first and second terminals and the optical signal processing portion, wherein the different connection states include: a first connection state for transmitting the optical signal via the first terminal by selecting the first terminal; a second connection state for transmitting the optical signal via the second terminal by selecting the second terminal; and a third connection state for transmitting the optical signal between the first terminal and the second terminal by selecting the first terminal and the second terminal; and a data storage device connected to the information recording/reproducing apparatus, wherein said storage device comprises: a first input and output terminal for optical communication that is connected to the first channel of the associated optical communication line which is connected to the optical signal processing device, a second input and output terminal for optical communication that is connected to the second channel of the associated optical communication line which is connected to the optical signal processing device, and a switch portion that switches between the first channel and the second channel of the associated optical communication line which is connected to the optical signal processing device.