Integrated controller to process both optical reads and optical writes of multiple optical media

Abstract

The present invention provides an integrated controller to process both optical reads and optical writes of multiple optical media. The integrated controller includes a host interface; a buffer manager coupled to the host interface; an embedded memory coupled to the buffer manager; an integrated encoding/decoding engine coupled to the buffer manager; a data channel interface coupled to the integrated encoding/decoding engine; and an integrated servo/recording processor coupled to the integrated encoding/decoding engine and the data channel interface, where the integrated servo/recording processor includes a set of write strategies. The present invention provides a controller which integrates the functionality of the conventional controllers into an integrated processor. With the controller in accordance with the present invention, a single drive may be provided which can read CD-based and DVD-based formats, read and write to Write Once Media, and read and write to Rewritable Media. The architecture of the controller is designed such that its manufacture is cost effective and a performance penalty for the host does not occur. In addition, the controller may also be used with conventional optical drives. Thus, with the present invention, the same controller may be used for all conventional optical drives as well as with an integrated drive.