System and method for providing data commonality in a programmable transport demultiplexer engine

• US 20060268864A1
• Filed: 01/10/2006
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avago Technologies International Sales Pte Limited (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Broadcom Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rodgers, Stephane W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,098,657 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42615 involving specific demultiplexing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/434 Disassembling of a multiplex stream, e.g. demultiplexing audio and video streams, extraction of additional data from a video stream; Remultiplexing of multiplex streams; Extraction or processing of SI; Disassembling of packetised elementary stream demultiplexing of data packets for data networks, e.g. RTP/UDP H04L65/00

Abstract

A method and system are provided for providing data commonality in a programmable transport demultiplexer engine. The method may involve utilizing a hardware assist block to process a portion of an incoming data packet, which may result in a partially processed data packet. The data packet may comprise data in any one of video formats and/or audio formats. A firmware block may then execute a plurality of instructions to process the partially processed data packet. The plurality of instructions may be independent of video and/or audio formats associated with the data packet.

Claims

1. A system for processing a plurality of data packets, said system comprising:

a first circuit for processing a portion of a packet, thereby resulting in a partially processed packet, where the packet comprises data in any one of a plurality of video or audio formats;

a second circuit for executing a plurality of instructions, wherein execution of said plurality of instructions causes processing the partially processed packet, and wherein the plurality of instructions is independent of said plurality of video or audio formats.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of first parsing units for parsing the packets, wherein the plurality of first parsing units corresponds to the plurality of at least one of video and audio formats, and outputting parsed first information associated with the packet;

a plurality of second parsing units for parsing units for parsing the outputted parsed first information associated with the packet, and outputting parsed second information associated with the packet;

a memory managing unit for organizing the outputted parsed second information associated with the packet and saving the organized information in a memory;

the memory for storing the organized parsed second information associated with the packet; and

wherein the outputted parsed second information associated with the packet is inputted into the first circuit.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein processing a portion of the packet comprises:

determining a format associated with the packet;

preprocessing the packet in a first parsing unit based on the format of the packet;

extracting information from the preprocessed packet in a second parsing unit; and

writing the extracted information regarding the packet to a memory.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein processing the partially processed packet comprises:

reading information regarding the packet from a memory;

processing the partially processed packet using the read information; and

outputting the processed packet.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the first circuit comprises mainly hardware components.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the second circuit comprises a processor.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein the first circuit is bypassed and the plurality of instructions comprises a set of instructions, each of which is associated with each of said any one of a plurality of at least one of video and audio formats.

8. A method for processing a plurality of data packets, said method comprising:

processing a portion of a packet, thereby resulting in a partially processed packet, where the packet comprises data in any one of a plurality of at least one of video and audio formats;

executing a plurality of instructions, wherein execution of said plurality of instructions causes processing the partially processed packet, and wherein the plurality of instructions is independent of said any one of a plurality of at least one of video and audio formats.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

parsing the packets, whereby resulting in parsed first information associated with the packet;

parsing the parsed first information associated with the packet, whereby resulting in parsed second information associated with the packet;

organizing the parsed second information associated with the packet; and

storing the organized parsed second information associated with the packet.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein processing a portion of the first packet comprises:

determining a format associated with the packet;

preprocessing the packet in a first parsing unit based on the format of the packet;

extracting information from the preprocessed packet in a second parsing unit; and

writing the extracted information regarding the packet to a memory.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein processing the partially processed first packet comprises:

reading information regarding the packet from a memory;

processing the partially processed packet using the read information; and

outputting the processed packet.

12. The method according to claim 8, wherein mainly hardware components achieve the processing of the portion of a packet.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein a processor achieves the executing of the plurality of instructions.

14. The method according to claim 8 wherein the processing of the portion of the packet is bypassed and the plurality of instructions comprises a set of instructions, each of which is associated with each of said any one of a plurality of at least one of video and audio formats.

15. A system for processing a plurality of data packets, said system comprising:

a first circuit for partially processing a portion of a first packet carrying data in accordance with a first standard and a portion of a second packet carrying data in accordance with a second standard; and

a second circuit for executing a thread of instructions, wherein execution of the thread of instructions causes processing the partially processed first packet carrying data in accordance with the first standard, and wherein execution of the instructions causes processing of the partially processed second packet.

16. The system according to claim 15 wherein the first circuit transcodes information from the first packet and second packet to a particular format.

17. The system according to claim 16 wherein the second circuit operates on information from the first packet and second packet to a particular format.