Flexible multipulse generator

1. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies for use when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark is written using a first pulse which defines a starting edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first and last pulses, and

wherein when marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the one or more multipulses can have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse, the laser driver system comprising:

a plurality of multipulse location registers dedicated to storing multipulse location information;

wherein each mark-length, of a plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using at least one multipulse, is mapped to one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, such that a unique multipulse execution strategy can be defined for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths;

wherein each bit location within said multipulse location registers can contain a first type of bit or a second type of bit, and wherein said first type of bit indicates where to execute a multipulse, and said second type of bit indicates where to not execute a multipulse;

wherein the maximum number of multipulses between the first and last pulses of a mark having a mark-length greater than 3T is equal to the mark-length of the mark minus three; and

wherein N-3 bit locations of said multipulse location registers are mapped to each mark-length that is between 4T and 11T in length, inclusive, and no bit locations of said multipulse location registers are mapped to mark-lengths of 3T or less, where N specifies a mark-length.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal; and

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer accesses one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, in order to implement the multipulse execution strategy that corresponds to said mark-length.

3. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies for use when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark is written using a first pulse which defines a starting edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse of the mark, and

wherein when the marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the multipulses have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse,

the laser driver system comprising:

timing memory to store TSMP (time staff of multipulse) and TEMP (time end of multipulse) parameters;

wherein unique TSMP and TEMP parameters are stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses.

4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising:

a plurality of multipulse location registers dedicated to storing multipulse location information;

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal; and

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer

accesses one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, in order to implement a multipulse execution strategy that corresponds to said mark-length, and

accesses said timing memory in order to determine the TSMP and TEMP parameters that correspond to said mark-length.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:

timing memory to store multipulse timing parameters;

wherein at least one unique multipulse timing parameter is stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of said plurality of different mark-lengths that result in at least one multipulse.

6. The system of claim 5 , further comprising:

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal; and

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer

accesses one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, in order to implement the multipulse execution strategy that corresponds to said mark-length, and

accesses said timing memory in order to determine the at least one unique multipulse timing parameter that correspond to said mark-length.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of multipulse location registers includes eight 8-bit registers, each of which corresponds to one of a 4 T, 5 T, 6 T, 7 T, 8 T, 9 T, 10 T and 11 T mark.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of multipulse location registers includes two additional 8-bit registers that correspond to a 12+mark.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein five 8-bit multipulse location registers include all of the bit locations used to map each mark-length that is between 4 T and 11 T in length, inclusive.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein six 8-bit multipulse strategy registers include all of the bit locations used to map each mark-length that is between 4 T and 11T in length, inclusive, and a mark-length of 14 T.

11. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies that can be used when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark can be written using a first pulse which defines a starting edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first and last pulses, and

wherein when the marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the multipulses have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse,

the laser driver system comprising:

timing memory to store multipulse timing parameters;

wherein each mark-length, of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses, is mapped to at least one address within said timing memory, such that at least one unique multipulse timing parameter is definable for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses.

12. The system of claim 11 , further comprising:

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal; and

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer accesses at least one address within said timing memory, in order to determine the at least one unique multipulse timing parameter that corresponds to said mark-length.

13. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies that can be used when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark can be written using a first pulse which defines a staffing edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first and last pulses, and

wherein when the marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the multipulses have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse,

the laser driver system comprising:

timing memory to store multipulse timing parameters;

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal; and

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer accesses at least one address within said timing memory, in order to determine the at least one unique multipulse timing parameter that corresponds to said mark-length;

wherein said timing memory stores TSMP (time start of multipulse) and TEMP (time end of multipulse) parameters, wherein unique TSMP and TEMP parameters are stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer accesses said timing memory in order to determine the TSMP and TEMP parameters that correspond to said mark length.

14. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies that for use when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark is written using a first pulse which defines a starting edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first and last pulses, and

wherein when the marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the multipulses have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse,

the laser driver system comprising:

a mark/space detector to detect mark-lengths and space-lengths in an NRZ signal;

a sequencer that receives mark-length and space-length information from said mark/space detector;

a plurality of multipulse location registers dedicated to storing multipulse location information, wherein

each mark-length, of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses, is mapped to one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, such that a unique multipulse execution strategy is definable for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses; and

each bit location within said multipulse location registers can contain a first type of bit or a second type of bit, and wherein said first type of bit indicates where to execute a multipulse, and said second type of bit indicates where to not execute a multipulse; and

timing memory to store multipulse timing parameters, wherein unique multipulse timing parameters are stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer

accesses one or more bit location within said multipulse location registers, in order to implement the multipulse execution strategy that corresponds to said mark-length, and

accesses said timing memory in order to determine the unique multipulse timing parameters that correspond to said mark-length.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein said timing memory stores TSMP (time staff of multipulse) and TEMP (time end of multipulse) parameters, wherein unique TSMP and TEMP parameters are stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of the plurality of different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses;

wherein in response to receiving information indicative of a mark-length from said mark/space detector, said sequencer accesses said timing memory in order to determine the TSMP and TEMP parameters that correspond to said mark length.

16. A laser driver system that provides flexible multipulse strategies for use when writing marks on a medium,

wherein each mark has a mark-length,

wherein each mark is written using a first pulse which defines a staffing edge of the mark, a last pulse which defines an ending edge of the mark, and zero, one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse of the mark, and

wherein when the marks for a plurality of different mark-lengths are written using one or more multipulses between the first pulse and the last pulse, the multipulses have different timing parameters than the first pulse and the last pulse,

the laser driver system comprising:

timing memory to store TSMP (time staff of multipulse) and TEMP (time end of multipulse) parameters;

wherein unique TSMP and TEMP parameters are stored, within said timing memory, for each mark-length of at least three of the different mark-lengths that are written using one or more multipulses.