Abstract: A method of recording data on an optical storage medium writes different types of data to the same area on the optical storage medium. The data to be written are successively stored in a data buffer in accordance with the sequence of the identification data of a data sector. The same area can be a lead-in area, a data area or a lead-out area. Therefore, a recording circuit can read out the data from the data buffer in accordance with the sequence of corresponding identification data and write them to corresponding tracks on the optical storage medium.

Abstract: A method utilized for detecting a physical mark in a signal read from an optical disc, including: generating a matching signal capable of being utilized to identify the physical mark according to a reference clock and a wobble clock; generating a comparison signal by comparing the matching signal and a wobble data signal; determining whether a period of which the level of the comparison signal surpass a predetermined level within a predetermined period is greater than a threshold or not; and if the period greater than the threshold, generating an indication signal corresponding to the location of the physical mark. Wherein the wobble data signal and the wobble clock is generated according to the read back signal.

Abstract: The invention provides a decoding circuit and a decoding method for a Viterbi decoder. The decoding circuit of the Viterbi decoder includes a branch metric unit, an add-compare-select unit and a path memory unit. The path memory unit includes a data string controller, a trace write-in register array, an idling register array and a decoding register array. In this invention, a run length limited code is used for effectively solving the problem of generating a complicated trellis diagram after the trellis diagram of the Viterbi decoder is subjected to a longitudinal arrangement. In addition, the register array can perform other operations at different times. Accordingly, a high decoding speed of the Viterbi decoder can be achieved without requiring a lot of registers for data processing.

Abstract: A gain calibration device and method for differential push-pull (DPP) tracking error signals in an optical storage system is provided. The gain calibration method processes the synthesized gain (SPPG) of the sub beam in the DPP tracking error signal components with respect to the main beam. The calibration theorem resides in controlling the objective lens of the pick-up head to form a lens-shift or controlling the tilt of the objective lens relative to the optical disc to make the synthesized DPP tracking error signals generate a correspondingly signal variation owing to the optical path deviation. The synthesized gain is calibrated to make the signal variation a minimum value, and the calibrated synthesized gain is the optimum value.

Abstract: A method for decoding multiword information comprises multiple steps. In step (a), a multiword information cluster, e.g., ECC, including high protective codewords, e.g., BIS, and low protective codewords, e.g., LDC, is provided. In step (b), the high and low protective codewords are stored into a first memory, e.g., DRAM. In step (c), the high protective codewords are decoded to generate high protective word erasure indicators showing whether decoding errors occur. In step (d), the high protective word erasure indicators are stored into a second memory, e.g., SRAM. In step (e), the low protective codewords are decoded. In the meanwhile, an erasure bit for a low protective codeword is marked by finding high protective codewords close to the low protective codeword in the multiword information cluster and looking up the high protective word erasure indicators of the high protective codewords close to the low protective codeword.

Abstract: The present invention discloses an optical disc drive capable of updating firmware, and firmware update method thereof. The disclosed optical disc drive includes a firmware memory, a buffer memory, and a system control chip. The system control chip includes a processor and a memory update controller. When the optical disc drive is under a normal mode, the memory update controller is in an idle state. The processor controls the optical disc drive to fetch an update firmware from an optical disc and store the update firmware into the buffer memory. When the optical disc drive is under a firmware update mode, the processor is in an idle state. The memory update controller fetches the update firmware from the buffer memory and stores the update firmware into the firmware memory without the processor executing an update routine code.

Abstract: The invention discloses a decoding apparatus and the method thereof for decoding a signal retrieved by an optical information reproducing system from an optical information recording medium. N legal codes are predetermined. According to the invention, first, the retrieved signal is converted into a data stream. Then, in a Viterbi decoding manner, the data stream is decoded into a digital code in accordance with a level of the data stream and N reference levels. Then, the binary code is decoded by a binary array into one of the N legal codes, and each of the N legal codes corresponds to one of N reference levels. In particular, the N reference levels are corrected by various detected conditions to enhance the correctness of decoded data.

Abstract: The invention provides a decoding circuit and a decoding method of a Viterbi decoder. The decoding circuit of the Viterbi decoder includes a branch metric unit, an add-compare-select unit and a path memory unit. The path memory unit includes a data string controller, a trace write-in register array, an idling register array and a decoding register array. In this invention, a run length limited code is used for effectively solving the problem of generating a complicated trellis diagram after the trellis diagram of the Viterbi decoder is subjected to a longitudinal arrangement. In addition, the register array can perform other operations at different times. Accordingly, a high decoding speed of the Viterbi decoder can be achieved without requiring a lot of registers for data processing.

Abstract: An optical storage disc stores storage information and includes track information. A method for performing a target search on the optical storage disc includes: generating a first intermediate signal according to a readout signal generated by an optical storage device reading the storage information; generating a second intermediate signal according to the track information carried within the readout signal; generating a hybrid address signal according to the first intermediate signal and the second intermediate signal; and performing the target search on the optical storage disc according to the hybrid address signal and a target address set by the optical storage device.

Abstract: An adaptive frequency detector used in a phase locked loop for detecting a frequency difference between an input signal and an output clock generated from an oscillator of the phase locked loop includes: a frequency comparator for generating an up signal or a down signal according to the frequency difference between the input signal and the output clock; and a pulse controller coupled to the frequency comparator for generating a charge signal based on the up signal or generating a discharge signal based on the down signal. The pulse controller dynamically adjusts the pulse width of the charge signal or the pulse width of the discharge signal.

Abstract: An apparatus for identifying the address in pregroove (ADIP) of a Blu-ray disc is described. The apparatus uses a statistical scheme or distance-finding scheme to find the position of a predetermined minimum shift keying (MSK) mark or the first MSK mark, i.e. a bit sync unit, from an ADIP unit to identify data of the ADIP unit. The present invention doesn't have the error propagation effect occurring in the prior art so that the error rate for ADIP identification can be greatly reduced.

Abstract: An apparatus for accessing and transferring optical data has a memory supporting the page-mode function, an accessing device used to access an error correction block from the optical storage medium and store it into the memory to make the portion of data in the same column of the error correction block stored in a particular locality greater than the portion of data in the same row of the error correction block stored in the particular locality, and an error correction decoder used to access the data of the error correction block to perform the error correction process. The apparatus uses the feature of the DRAM, such as page-mode function, and the data arrangement of the memory to improve the access efficiency of the memory. The apparatus can thus increase the access speed of the error correction decoder and improve the accessing efficiency.

Abstract: A phase locked loop (PLL) for generating an output signal according to an input signal is disclosed. The PLL of the present invention includes a detector for generating a detection signal according to the logical difference between the input signal and a feedback signal, a signal mixer electrically connected to the detector for generating a control signal according to the detection signal and a mixing reference signal, a filtering device electrically connected to the signal mixer for generating an adjust signal according to the control signal, a controllable oscillator electrically connected to the filtering device for generating the output signal according to the adjust signal, and a frequency divider electrically connected to the controllable oscillator for generating the feedback signal and the mixing reference signal according to the output signal. The frequency of the output signal is at least twice the frequency of the input signal.

Abstract: An error correction code generator uses an additional static random access memory (SRAM) or a multi-symbol encoder to improve the encoding efficiency. During the encoding operation, the number of the data access of the dynamic random access memory (DRAM) with the row address switching can be reduced considerably via using the additional SRAM or multi-symbol encoder. Hence, the efficiency of the data access of the DRAM is improved and the encoding time of the error correction code generator is reduced.

Abstract: An apparatus for detecting position of blank areas for an optical disc in an optical disc drive according to a wobble signal and a blank signal includes an address decoder for generating a physical address value according to the wobble signal; a counting device coupled to the address decoder for generating a count value according to the wobble signal; and a decision circuit coupled to the counting device for determining whether the count value is within a predetermined range when the edge of the blank signal occurs. If the count value is within the predetermined range when the blank edge occurs, the decision circuit generates a position value corresponding to a blank area of the optical disc.

Abstract: A digital sum variation (DSV) computation method and system is proposed, which is capable of determining the DSV value of a bit stream of channel-bit symbols to thereby find the optimal merge-bit symbol for insertion between each succeeding pair of the channel-bit symbols. This DSV computation method and system is characterized in the use of a Zero Digital Sum Variation (ZDSV) principle to determine the DSV. This DSV computation method and system can find the optimal merge-bit symbol for insertion between each succeeding pair of the channel-bit symbols in a more cost-effective manner with the need for a reduced amount of memory and utilizes a lookup table requiring a reduced amount of memory space for storage so that memory space can be reduced as compared to the prior art. This DSV computation method and system is therefore more advantageous to use than the prior art.

Abstract: A digital sum variation (DSV) computation method and system is proposed, which is capable of determining the DSV value of a bit stream of channel-bit symbols to thereby find the optimal merge-bit symbol for insertion between each succeeding pair of the channel-bit symbols. This DSV computation method and system is characterized in the use of a Zero Digital Sum Variation (ZDSV) principle to determine the DSV. This DSV computation method and system can find the optimal merge-bit symbol for insertion between each succeeding pair of the channel-bit symbols in a more cost-effective manner with the need for a reduced amount of memory and utilizes a lookup table requiring a reduced amount of memory space for storage so that memory space can be reduced as compared to the prior art. This DSV computation method and system is therefore more advantageous to use than the prior art.

Abstract: An optical recording device records data on an optical storage medium. The device generates a data-interrupted address and reconnects the interrupted data from a data-reconnecting address so as to enable further correct reading of the interrupted data. The device comprises an addressing module for providing a reference address on the storage medium as a reference address; a recording-interrupted generator for detecting a recording-interrupted condition and generating a recording-interrupted signal; a data recording module for recording and suspending recording the data according to the recording-interrupted signal, and reconnecting the data according to a data-reconnecting address and the reference address; a data-interrupted address generator for generating the data-interrupted address; a data-reconnecting address generator for generating the data-reconnecting address.

Abstract: In a recordable disk recording controller circuit, a data buffer manager receives a command and sends the command to a micro-controller. The micro-controller generates a set of register batches from each command and sends the register data and index of the register batch to a batch register controller. The batch register controller receives the register data and index of the register batch from the micro-controller and stores the received register data and index of the register batch in a batch buffer. The batch register controller retrieves the register batches from the batch buffer and writes the master registers of an encoder controller based on the register index and register data of the register batches after the master registers of the encoder controller are updated into the slave registers of the encoder controller. The encoder controller generates control signals to a recording circuit depending on updated slave registers.

Abstract: An EFM/EFM+ encoding system is adapted to modulate a source symbol sequence into a modulated bit sequence that is further converted to a channel bit sequence, which is to be recorded on a recording medium and which has a cumulative Digital Sum Value (DSV), through NRZI conversion. An apparatus for performing DSV protection in the EFM/EFM+ encoding system includes a DSV calculation unit for calculating the DSV associated with the EFM/EFM+ modulated bit sequence, and a decision unit for adjusting at least a bit in the modulated bit sequence according to the result calculated by the DSV calculation unit such that the channel bit sequence from the NRZI conversion of the adjusted modulated bit sequence accumulates a relatively small DSV. A method of using the EFM/EFM+ encoding system to inhibit disc copying is also disclosed.