Methods and apparatus for generating multiple network streams from a large scale memory buffer
First Claim
1. Apparatus for generating multiple streams of video and/or audio data comprising:
- a large scale memory device;
means for storing said data in said large scale memory device; and
means for retrieving at least a portion of said data from said large scale memory device and generating multiple asynchronous streams of data, said retrieving means including;
(a) at least two stream server processors operatively connected to said large scale memory device;
(b) an interconnect allowing near simultaneous access to said data stored in said large scale memory device by said at least two stream server processors, (c) said interconnect including a hardware based arbitrator operatively connected to said at least two stream server processors for controlling access to said large scale memory device so that said multiple unique streams of data may be generated by one or more of said at least two stream server processors from said large scale memory device; and
(d) means for generating protocols necessary for the transport of each unique stream across at least one network and for decoding said unique streams of data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Multiple output streams of video and/or audio data are simultaneously generated from a large scale memory buffer array and sent to one or more customer devices for playback. The data is sent over networks, which use one or more protocols for data communication. Thus, for each network, a transport protocol stack is generated. The transport protocol stack is generated in hardware, thus greatly improving the throughput, and increasing the number of streams that can be generated. A wide data bus and wide address bus can be utilized because the protocol stack is generated in hardware, so that higher throughput can be achieved from the large scale memory buffer array. A plurality of protocol stack generators can have access to the same block of memory, allowing many output streams to be generated from a single copy of content in the large scale memory buffer array.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. Apparatus for generating multiple streams of video and/or audio
data comprising: -
a large scale memory device;
means for storing said data in said large scale memory device; and
means for retrieving at least a portion of said data from said large scale memory device and generating multiple asynchronous streams of data, said retrieving means including;
(a) at least two stream server processors operatively connected to said large scale memory device;
(b) an interconnect allowing near simultaneous access to said data stored in said large scale memory device by said at least two stream server processors, (c) said interconnect including a hardware based arbitrator operatively connected to said at least two stream server processors for controlling access to said large scale memory device so that said multiple unique streams of data may be generated by one or more of said at least two stream server processors from said large scale memory device; and
(d) means for generating protocols necessary for the transport of each unique stream across at least one network and for decoding said unique streams of data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method for generating multiple asynchronous streams of video and/or audio data, including the steps of:
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(a) generating one or more video and/or audio program streams, (b) transferring said program stream(s) to a large scale memory device, (c) storing at least a portion of said program stream(s) in said memory device, (d) establishing sessions in response to a request from one or more customer terminals to generate one or more program stream(s), said request being handled by a CPU that uses a first bus separate from a second over which program streams are transferred to said customer terminal, and (e) using a separate hardware based processor for retrieving and generating one or more program streams for said customer terminal from one or more program streams stored in said large scale memory. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification