MEDIA PROCESSING SYSTEM HAVING RESOURCE PARTITIONING

• US 20090235044A1
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: QNX Software Systems Limited (Canada) (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Jenkins, Tim, Cardamore, Dan, Roy, Giles, van der Veen, Peter, Kisel, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,209,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/173
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/504 Resource capping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system comprises memory, process code, and resource partitioning code, where the code is executable by a processor. The process code may spawn multiple processes that request for access to the memory. The resource partitioning code generates resource partition objects and assigns processes to the resource partition objects. The processes may generate media store objects for storage in the memory. The media store objects may correspond to media storage devices and/or the media files accessed by the media storage devices. Access to the memory for storage of the media store objects of a process is based on parametric rules of the corresponding resource partition object.

Claims

1. A processing system comprising:

a processor;

memory;

one or more media storage devices accessible to the processor, where the one or more media storage devices access media files;

process code executable by the processor to spawn a process, where execution of the process includes a request for access to the memory;

resource partitioning code executable by the processor to generate at least resource partition object and to assign at least one process to the resource partition object, where the process generates one or more media store objects for storage in the memory, where the media store objects correspond to the one or more media storage devices, and where access by a process to the memory for storage of its media store objects is based on parametric rules of the corresponding resource partition object.

2. The system of claim 1, where the one or more media storage devices comprise multiple media storage devices, where the one or more media store objects comprise multiple media store objects, and where each of the multiple media store objects is respectively associated with one of the multiple media storage devices.

3. The system of claim 1, where the one or more media store objects comprise multiple media store objects, and where the multiple media store objects are organized in the memory in a database table.

4. The system of claim 1, where the process code is executable to spawn multiple processes, where execution of the processes includes competing resource requests for access to the memory.

5. The system of claim 4, where the parametric rules of a given resource partition object associated with one or more of the processes comprises configurable parameters that define a level of accessibility to the memory by the one or more processes associated with the given resource partition object, where the level of accessibility is used to grant access to the memory with respect to other processes that are not associated with the given resource partition object.

6. The system of claim 5, where the parametric rules of the given resource partition object comprise:

a minimum size parameter specifying an amount of the memory that may be reserved for exclusive use by one or more of the multiple processes associated with the given resource partition object; and

a maximum size parameter specifying a maximum amount of the memory that may be allocated for use by the one or more processes associated with the given resource partition object.

7. The system of claim 1, where the media store objects comprise metadata for media files accessed by the one or more media storage devices.

8. The system of claim 1, where the one or more media storage devices comprise media files of different types.

9. The system of claim 8, where a given resource partition object associated with a given media storage device comprises parameters for allocating an amount of the memory to media store objects of the given media storage device, where the given resource partition object divides the allocated memory into proportions based on the type of media file represented by the media store objects.

10. A system comprising:

memory;

process code that is executable by a processor to spawn multiple processes, where execution of the multiple processes includes requests for access the memory;

resource partitioning code executable by the processor to generate resource partition objects and to assign at least one process to a resource partition object, where the processes generate one or more media store objects for storage in the memory, where the media store objects correspond to one or more media storage devices that are used to access media files, and where access by a process to the memory for storage of its media store objects is based on parametric rules of the corresponding resource partition object.

11. The system of claim 10, where the media store objects are organized in the memory in a database table.

12. The system of claim 10, where the parametric rules of a given resource partition object associated with one or more of the processes comprises configurable parameters that define a level of accessibility to the memory by the one or more processes associated with the given resource partition object, where the level of accessibility is used to grant access to the memory with respect to other processes that are not associated with the given resource partition object.

13. The system of claim 12, where the parametric rules of the given resource partition object comprise:

a minimum size parameter specifying an amount of the memory that may be reserved for exclusive use by one or more of the processes associated with the given resource partition object; and

a maximum size parameter specifying a maximum amount of the memory that may be allocated for use by the one or more processes associated with the given resource partition object.

14. The system of claim 10, where the media store objects comprise metadata for the media files.

15. The system of claim 10, where the one or more media storage devices comprise media files of different types.

16. The system of claim 13, where a given resource partition object associated with a given media storage device comprises parameters for allocating an amount of the memory to media store objects for the given media storage device, where the given resource partition object divides the allocated memory into proportions based on the type of media file represented by the media store objects.

17. A process for managing memory in a media system comprising:

spawning multiple processes;

executing the multiple processes to provide requests for access a memory;

generating resource partition objects;

assigning at least one process to a resource partition object;

generating, using at least one of the multiple processes, one or more media store objects for storage in the memory, where the media store objects correspond to one or more media storage devices that are used to access media files; and

controlling access by a process to the memory for storage of its media store objects based on parametric rules of the corresponding resource partition object.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising organizing the media store objects in the memory in a database table.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising assigning parametric rules to the resource partition object, where the parametric rules comprise:

a minimum size parameter specifying an amount of the memory that may be reserved for exclusive use by one or more of the processes associated with the resource partition object; and

a maximum size parameter specifying a maximum amount of the memory that may be allocated for use by the one or more processes associated with the resource partition object.

20. The method of claim 17, further comprising configuring the resource partition object associated with the one or more of the processes to define a level of accessibility to the memory by the one or more processes associated with the resource partition object, where the level of accessibility is used to grant access to the memory with respect to other processes that are not associated with the resource partition object.