JPH09128165A - Solid-state recording / reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: To provide a recording / reproducing apparatus which does not need to be erased by a user before recording. SOLUTION: Writing from a buffer memory 11 to a flash memory 12 is performed for each predetermined unit. Writing to the flash memory 12 is performed during the waiting time of the input data to the buffer memory 11, and this record information is recorded in the management table as a management number. While there is an unrecorded part, it will be recorded in order and the number of records will be recorded as the management number. When there is no unrecorded portion, the data in the recording area with the smallest management number, that is, the data in the oldest recording area is erased and overwritten.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus using a recording medium such as a flash memory in which data cannot be overwritten.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, to record and reproduce sound, a magnetic recording and reproducing apparatus such as a tape recorder using a magnetic tape as a recording medium has been used.

In addition to the recording / reproducing apparatus using such a magnetic tape, a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus using a semiconductor memory such as a flash memory as a recording medium has been developed.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main part of a conventional solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus. As shown in FIG. 4, in the solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus, a main part of the solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus includes a buffer memory 41 for temporarily storing data, a flash memory 42 capable of recording data and reproducing the data as necessary, and A control means 43 for controlling reading and writing of data from and to the memories 41 and 42 is provided.

The control means 43 includes a buffer memory 4
1 writing and reading unit and flash memory 41
A writing unit for writing data, a reading unit for reading data from the flash memory 41, and a unit for issuing an erasing instruction for erasing data are included.

After the digitized voice data is once written in the buffer memory 41, the buffer memory 41
Is transferred from the flash memory 42 to the flash memory 42 in a unit corresponding to a predetermined amount of data (referred to as an erase unit) and recorded.

Here, when data is already recorded in the flash memory 42, the data in the erase area of the flash memory 42 (the area in which the data of the erase unit is recorded) is first erased, and then the buffer memory. 41
Against the newly written data in the erase unit,
Writing to the erase area of the flash memory 42 is performed. The buffer memory 41 normally has a capacity equal to or larger than the erase unit of the flash memory 42 as a measure against the erase error of the flash memory 42.
After erasing the erasure area of No. 2, when the input data for the erasure unit is accumulated in the buffer memory 41, the buffer memory 4
It is controlled to transfer data from 1 to the erase area of the flash memory 42.

The control operation at this time will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Each step is labeled with a symbol S and a number. For example, if it is step 1, it is described as S1.

First, in S1, it is determined whether or not there is an empty area in the fresh memory 42. As a result of the determination, when it is confirmed that there is an empty area, the operation proceeds to the recording operation (S3), and if not, the erase area is erased before the start of recording (S2). Therefore, when there is no free area, the data is erased and then written.

In any case, the writing is performed to the flash memory 42 after confirming in S4 that the data for the writing unit has accumulated in the buffer memory 11 (S5). After that, flash memory 4
The above operation is repeated while there is an empty area in 2 for recording, and ends when there is no empty area (S6).

However, if the flash memory 42 is to be further recorded from the state where there is no empty area, it is necessary to erase the data before recording as described with reference to FIG. Since this erasing is performed in accordance with an instruction from, for example, the operation button, the user has to purposely press the erasing button before recording. In addition, since the data cannot be overwritten, there is a problem that the data can be recorded only in the erased area.

[0012]

As described above, when the flash memory is full and further recording is attempted, the user needs to erase the data before recording, which causes a problem of complicated operations. . Further, since the data cannot be overwritten, the data can be recorded only in the erased range, and when there is a large amount of data to be recorded, there is a problem that the erase instruction must be given each time.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus which does not require the user to erase before recording.

[0014]

A solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention uses a time when data to be input to a buffer is not input to perform erase, and erase and write processing time. Is greatly shortened. Moreover, since the recorded data can be automatically erased before the recording, the rewriting can be easily performed without the user's purpose.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus having a recording medium capable of erasing recorded data and writing input data in an erasing unit corresponding to a predetermined data amount, and at least an erasing unit of the recording medium. A buffer memory having a corresponding capacity for storing data supplied as an input, and a recorded area of the recording medium in a predetermined erasing unit in a waiting period until the input data is input to the buffer memory. It comprises an erasing means for erasing and a writing means for writing in the recording area of the recording medium erased by the erasing means after all the input data is written in the buffer memory. .

Here, a waiting time until data is input is used, and a control signal for erasing any of the recording areas of the recording medium is supplied to the recording medium during this waiting time. .

A management table for managing in which part the data recorded on the recording medium is recorded, and a means for assigning a number to each recording area of the management table are added. Is the invention of.

Which data is stored in each recording area is divided by a management number, and when rewriting, the management number of the rewritten portion is changed based on this divided number. is there. When recording, a management number is assigned to the area recorded by one recording operation, for example. This can be easily configured by providing a counter circuit. Further, when there is no unrecorded area and the recorded area is overwritten, it is detected that all the recorded areas have been used and the recorded area is rewritten so that the oldest one can be overwritten. This detection can be easily performed by, for example, an address counter. Furthermore, when rewriting is performed, there is a configuration in which after the rewriting is finished, subtraction is performed with a subtracter and the like, and the management number is updated. Therefore, when all the recording areas in the oldest recording order are rewritten, It is possible to change the numbers from the oldest to the oldest.

A third aspect of the present invention shows a case where the above invention is used as a voice recording / reproducing apparatus.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main part of a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, in which a buffer memory 11 for temporarily storing digitized input data in a predetermined data amount unit (erase unit) and the buffer memory 11 are stored in the buffer memory 11. A flash memory 12 for writing and recording the written predetermined amount of data in a write-scheduled area (erase area), writing to the buffer memory 11 and the flash memory 12,
And a control means 13 for controlling reading.

The flash memory 12 is a memory capable of erasing recorded data and writing input data in an erasing unit corresponding to a predetermined amount of data, and is generally composed of a non-volatile memory.

The buffer memory 11 is usually
As a measure against an erasing error in the flash memory 12, when the data supplied as an input has a capacity equal to or larger than the erasing unit of the flash memory 12 and only the erasing unit of the data amount is stored, the data is stored in the flash memory 12. It is a memory to be transferred, and is generally composed of a volatile memory.

The control means 13 is a means for controlling the reading and writing of data with respect to the flash memory 12 and the buffer memory 11, and with respect to the data already recorded in the flash memory 12 by the control means 13, It allows overwriting.

This control means has a writing / reading unit for writing and reading data to and from the flash memory 12, and also has a unit for issuing an erasing instruction.
Writing is performed after erasing, and 12 is overwritten in the flash memory. Furthermore, this control means 43
Is also provided with a portion for writing and reading the buffer memory 11.

Conventionally, erasing in the erasing unit was performed by an instruction from the operation unit, but in the present application, an improvement is made so that this can be done automatically. That is, in the present application,
The flash memory 12 has been improved so that it can be erased automatically during the waiting time (vacant time) of the data input to the buffer memory 11 so that it can be automatically erased.
The recorded area is erased in a predetermined erase unit and writing is performed. Therefore, even if the free area is small, the data can be erased before recording and recorded one after another.

Next, the operation of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows a timing chart of data input control of the buffer memory 11. The horizontal axis shows time. Also, the part marked with x indicates that low or high data is input. As shown in FIG. 2, there is a vacant time between the data writing time and the next writing time. Erasing is done during free time here.

The processing time will be described below with one frame as a unit. If the time for one frame is 20 ms, the writing to the buffer memory 11 is completed in 12 ms. 24 bytes of data are processed per frame, and this processing is performed within 12 ms in one frame. Therefore, there is a free time of 8 ms, and the free time can be used to erase a predetermined erase unit.

A write cycle to the flash memory is shown in FIG. 3 and will be described in detail. In FIG. 3, REC is RECORD
, And indicates a write operation. Further, in order to clearly show the amount of data to the recording area, a unit called page or block is introduced.

One page consists of 11 frames and one block consists of 16 pages. The writing unit to the flash memory 12 is 264 bytes, and one page corresponds to the writing unit. Therefore, one page of data is transferred to the flash memory 12 and written in the free time of the 11th frame.

Furthermore, the erasing is an example in which the erasing can be performed in the idle time of the first frame of one block. In the flash memory 12, the erase unit is fixed, but here one block corresponds to the erase unit. That is, the writing can be performed for each minimum unit of write data, and the erasing can be performed for each erasing unit. As a result, it is possible to automatically erase the data between recording operations without the user erasing before the start of recording.

Next, the control of the management table at the time of overwriting recording will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3A shows a management table, which is provided inside the control means 13 and is used when controlling the flash memory 12. Note that FIG. 3A shows a table that can correspond to blocks of 512 (2 to the 9th power). Further, FIG. 3B shows the correspondence between the write operation and the recording area from the start to the end of recording. Furthermore, FIG. 3C shows the correspondence between the recording areas and the management numbers when the management numbers are updated.

Erase unit (block) of flash memory
The number of areas corresponding to is provided (0 to 51 in the example of FIG. 3).
The total number of 1 is 512 bytes), and the number from the start to the end of recording is written as a management number in the area corresponding to the block used. In this example, the recording area of 0 to 3 blocks has a management number of 1, and the recording areas of 4 to 507 blocks have a management number of 2, and 508 to 511 blocks are unrecorded, and therefore FF is set. Since the management table has a data structure of 1 byte, that is, 8 bits, the unrecorded portion is all 1 and is written as FF in hex. The other parts are described as 1 and 2, but the internal data is binary, for example, 1 is 0
If 0000001 and 2, it will be 00000010.

When a new recording is started when there is an unrecorded area as shown in FIG. 3A, recording is started from the unrecorded portion as shown in FIG. 3B. As can be seen from FIG. 3A, since the latest management number is 2, the management number is recorded as 3. Then, the data is recorded in the unrecorded portion (FF) of the flash memory 12, and at the same time the unrecorded portion (FF) disappears,
Switching to the recorded area.

Since erasing of a block must be performed before writing, the data of one block in the next block is erased before the data is recorded in the vacant time of the leading frame of one block. I am doing it. Here, 0 blocks of data are erased in the free time of the first frame of the 511 block. Hereinafter, this operation is repeated.

When the recording is further advanced and the recording area of the management number 1 is completely overwritten, 1 is subtracted from each management number to obtain a new management number. This part can be easily constructed by providing a subtractor. That is, it is detected that there is no unrecorded area, the table data is read at the time when the recording is finished, and the subtracted value is subtracted and the new data is written in the table. Therefore, it is possible to automatically perform erasing and record without erasing an erasing instruction from the operation unit or the like, and it is possible to manage the recorded contents according to the recording order.

As a result, even if data is overwritten,
Since the oldest recording content is always managed as the management number 1, it becomes possible to easily manage the recording order. That is, not only the old data is erased and rewritten with new data, but also the management number according to the recording order can be re-assigned each time, so that the oldest data area can be overwritten.

[0038]

According to the present invention described in claim 1, when new data is overwritten on the recorded area of the recording medium, the recording of the recording medium is performed by using the empty time when no data is input to the buffer memory. Since the control is performed so that the erased area is erased in a predetermined erase unit, the user does not have to erase the recorded area before each recording operation.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the management number assigned to each area recorded by one recording operation can be updated when overwriting, the oldest recorded contents are always erased in order. Can be overwritten.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the recording and reproducing apparatus can be applied to a solid-state recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing an audio signal.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a control operation of a flash memory and a buffer memory in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining operations of the buffer memory and the flash memory when further recording is performed in a state where the recording capacity of the flash memory is full.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a conventional solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a control operation of a flash memory and a buffer memory in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 ... Buffer memory 12 ... Flash memory 13 ... Control means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording medium capable of erasing recorded data and writing input data in an erasing unit corresponding to a predetermined amount of data, and a capacity corresponding to at least the erasing unit of the recording medium, as an input. A buffer memory for storing the supplied data, an erasing means for erasing a recorded area of the recording medium in a predetermined erasing unit during a waiting period until input data is input to the buffer memory, and a buffer A solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: a writing unit for writing in the recording area of the recording medium erased by the erasing unit after the input data is written in the memory. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a management table for managing each recording area of the recording medium, and means for giving a management number to each recording area of the management table. A solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus, characterized in that: means for rewriting the management number of the management table of the portion rewritten by the erasing means and the writing means according to the management number given by the means. . 3. The solid-state recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data to be handled is audio data.