1. Field
This document relates to an archive system suitable for a double sided optical disc having two data recording surfaces respectively formed on opposite surfaces thereof.
2. Related Art
An archive system is a kind of database which keeps digital information converted from collections, data, etc., and maintains and manages relationships between data. The archive system is a system which enables permanent recording, preservation, etc. by digitalizing information that may have a degraded quality or be scattered as time elapses. The archive system does not simply store information but systemizes and store information to be efficiently used.
For example, in an archive system, a rail 102 is mounted at a side of a main chassis 101 as shown in FIG. 1, and hence several disc drives can be mounted to a rack of a data center.
A cooling fan is mounted to a rear cover 103 mounted at a rear of the archive system. A disc picker robot 105 moved in a horizontal direction by a linear guide 104 is mounted at the center of the main chassis 101.
If a front door 106 of the archive system is opened, a user can extract, to the outside of the archive system, or insert, into the inside of the archive system, disc cartridges 108 respectively mounted at both sides of the disc picker robot 105. For example, 250 optical discs can be kept in the disc cartridge 108, and thus a maximum of 500 optical discs can be kept in both the disc cartridges 108.
A drive bay is mounted at a rear of the disc cartridge 108. For example, six optical disc drives (ODDs) are inserted into the drive bay. A maximum of twelve ODDs are inserted into drive bays 107 and 109 respectively mounted at left and right sides of the disc picker robot 105, so that recording or reproducing operations of data can be simultaneously performed.
The drive bays 107 and 109 may be referred to as, for example, field replacement units. As shown in FIG. 2, each drive bay may comprise three internal connectors 201, a single board computer (SBC) 202, a hard disc 203 and six ODDs 204. The six ODDs 204 are firmly fixed by a stabilizer 205.
As shown in FIG. 3, the disc picker robot 105 may comprise a main frame 1501, a motor 1502, a kicker 1503 and a picker 1504. For example, two step motors and two kickers may be mounted at both sides of the main frame 1501 having a shoulder shape, respectively.
An optical disc extracted from the disc cartridge is inserted into the picker 1504 by a rotation operation of the kicker 1503. For example, two optical discs can be simultaneously inserted into the picker 1504, and the disc picker robot 105 inserts an optical disc into an arbitrary ODD by passing through central moving paths of the left and right drive bays 107 and 109.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, first and second optical discs Disc1 and Disc2 extracted and then moved by the disc picker robot 105 may be respectively inserted into first and second optical disc drives ODD1 and ODD2 mounted in the left drive bay 107.
The SBC 202 mounted in the left drive bay 107 performs a series of data recording/reproducing operations of recording or reproducing data on first and second optical discs by controlling the first and second optical disc drives ODD1 and ODD2.
If the data recording/reproducing operations described above are finished, the disc picker robot 105 collects the first and second optical discs, moves the collected optical discs to the original disc cartridge, and then kept the optical discs in the disc cartridge.
However, as shown in FIG. 4, ODDs are mounted in the drive bay 107 so that data can be recorded/reproduced only in one direction. Hence, in case of a double sided optical disc having two data recording surfaces formed on opposite surfaces thereof, there is an inconvenience in that a user should record data on one surface of the double sided optical disc and then turn over the double sided optical disc to be inserted in the opposite direction.