Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Hisae Kato

Motoshi Ito

Hiroshi Ueda

Yoshihisa Takahashi

Yoshikazu Yamamoto

A write-once type information recording medium according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes at least one recording layer. In the information recording medium, the at least one recording layer has a spiral shape in which a land track and a groove track are alternately arranged as a recording track, the recording track is divided into blocks each of which being minimum unit in which recording is performed, and the information recording medium includes a management information area where management information is recorded and a user data area where user data is recorded. Each of the management information areas of both the land track and the groove track on each recording layer of the at least one recording layer is disposed at a same distance from the center of the information recording medium.

Optical information medium having multiple layers with management information areas disposed at the same distance from center

An information recording method of recording information is provided in an information recording medium having a plurality of recording layers including a first recording layer and a second recording layer located to be closer to a surface than the first recording layer, each of the plurality of recording layers includes a user data area for recording user data, a spare area for alternatively recording data of failed recording into the user data area, and a management information area for recording management information. The first recording layer is used as a recording object layer at start of recording. When any one of the user data area, the spare area, and the management information area of the first recording layer runs short of a free space, then the recording object layer of the user data area, the spare area, and the management information area is switched over to the second recording layer.

Information recording method and information recording apparatus including switching of recording layer in shortage of free space

In an information recording medium in which storage capacity per recording layer has increased so much that the size of an SBM varies with those of spare areas, there is mutual dependence between a DDS and an SBM and it is difficult to retrieve disc management information as intended. In an information recording medium according to the present invention, if the largest space is allocated to an user data area, the number of blocks to store a space bitmap is N(where N&#x2267;2). But if the smallest space is allocated to the user data area, the number of blocks to use is smaller than Ni. In such an information recording medium, if the number of blocks to store the space bitmap of a recording layer is M(where 1&#x2266;M&#x2266;N) and if Mis equal to or greater than two, the space bitmap is divided into the 1through Mspace bitmaps, each of which has a size that is still equal to or smaller than one block even when combined with a DDS, and each space bitmap is stored in an associated one of Mblocks in a disc management area.

Write-once information recording medium, information recording method, information recording device, information reproduction method, information reproduction device and method for manufacturing information recording medium

Write-once information recording medium, information recording method, information recording apparatus, information reproducing method, information reproducing apparatus and manufacturing method of the information recording medium

A control apparatus is provided for controlling an access means for accessing a recording medium containing at least one area so that the access means accesses the at least one area. The apparatus comprises a means for determining whether or not at least one first recorded area storing data is included in the at least one area, and a means for controlling the access means. When it is determined that the at least one first recorded area is included in the at least one area, the control means controls the access means based on a result of accessing the at least one first recorded area.

Control apparatus, control method, access apparatus, access method, program and write-once recording medium

An information recording apparatus is provided with a recording controller for recording data on an information recording medium, a verification controller for verifying whether or not the recorded data can be correctly reproduced, a continuous recording controller for providing a gap region of a specified interval between a verification region and a recording region and successively performing a verify processing and a record processing with rotation waiting in between, an error region discriminator for discriminating an error region in the event of an error in the process of performing the verify processing and the record processing, and an error processor for performing an error processing according to the error region. The error processor performs an error processing different from the one performed when an error occurred in either one of the verification region and the recording region if an error is discriminated to have occurred in the gap region. By this construction, a recording time is shortened and it is prevented that data cannot be recorded on the information recording medium.

Information recording apparatus, information recording method and integrated circuit

Control apparatus, control method, access apparatus, access method, program, and write-once recording medium

An apparatus is provided for searching for a writable area of a write-once information recording medium, comprising a searching portion and a control portion. The searching portion searches for an unrecorded area using a prescribed address as a reference. The control portion provides a candidate address indicating a candidate for a writable area based on a result of the search, and performs a determination procedure for determining whether or not there is a defective area address indicating an address matching the candidate address in defect management information. When it is determined that there is not the defective area address indicating an address matching the candidate address, the control portion determines an area indicated by the candidate address as the writable area.

Apparatus and method for searching for writable area, apparatus and method for updating recording management information, integrated circuit, and write-once information recording medium

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Osaka, Japan

Hisae Kato