Memory back-up apparatus and method and audio and/or video data recording and reproducing apparatus

• US 5,930,816 A
• Filed: 06/11/1997
• Issued: 07/27/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Fujita, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Robertson, David L.
• Application Number:
  US08/873,278
• Time in Patent Office: 776 Days
• Field of Search: 711/104, 711/162, 711/122, 395/182.04, 365/229
• US Class Current: 711/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21 Server components or server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23 Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware

Abstract

A memory back-up apparatus and method and an audio and/or video data recording and reproducing apparatus with which the loss of significant data is prevented where an abnormality occurs in the apparatus. The significant data to be backed up is copied to a SRAM from an external RAM. Where writing occurs in the significant data before completion of the copying, the copying is tried again from the first. Further, periodically, the data is copied from the SRAM to the other SRAM via the data. At the restart processing, the power supply status signal of a voltage detection device is inspected, and where the battery is consumed, the data backed up to a nonvolatile memory is copied to an original address of an external RAM, and where it is not consumed, the data stored in the SRAM is copied to the original address of the external RAM.

Claims

1. A memory back-up apparatus for the back-up of the data to be stored by a memory of a computer with a predetermined frequency, comprising:

a RAM for buffering all or part of the data to be stored in said memory at one point of time;

a battery back-up use battery for performing the battery back-up of said RAM; and

a nonvolatile memory for storing the buffered data whenever said RAM buffers the data.

2. A memory back-up apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

said RAM does the buffering of the data of said memory over again from the first where a write access with respect to the data to be buffered occurs in the middle of the buffering of the data of said memory; and

said nonvolatile memory stores the buffered data whenever said RAM completes the buffering of the data.

3. A memory back-up apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a battery consumption detecting means for detecting whether or not said battery back-up use battery is consumed; and

a storage control means for storing the data to be stored by said nonvolatile memory at an original address of the memory of said computer where the consumption of said battery back-up use battery is not detected at the startup of said computer.

4. A memory back-up method comprising the steps of

buffering all or part of the data stored by the memory of the computer at a certain point of time in a RAM subjected to the battery back-up by using the battery with a predetermined frequency so as to hold the coherence of this data and

storing the data buffered in the nonvolatile memory whenever said RAM completes the buffering of the data.

5. A memory back-up method according to claim 4, wherein:

where a write access with respect to the data to be buffered occurs in the middle of the buffering of the data of said memory, the buffering is tried again from the first so as to hold the coherence of the buffered data.

6. A memory back-up method according to claim 4, wherein:

it is detected whether or not the battery for said battery back-up is consumed at the startup of said computer; and

where the consumption of said battery is not detected, the data to be stored by said nonvolatile memory is stored at the original address of the memory of said computer.

7. An audio and/or video data recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:

a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing audio data and video data or either of them (audio and/or video data) with respect to a predetermined recording medium;

a recording and reproduction control device for storing the recording region data indicating the recording regions of said audio and/or video data in said predetermined recording medium in the memory and controlling the recording and reproduction operation of said recording apparatus based on this recording region data; and

a memory back-up apparatus, wherein

said memory back-up apparatus is a memory back-up apparatus for performing the back-up of the data to be stored by the memory of said recording and reproduction control apparatus with a predetermined frequency and has;

a RAM for buffering all or part of the data to be stored by said memory at one point of time;

a battery back-up use battery for performing the battery back-up of said RAM; and

a nonvolatile memory for storing buffered data whenever said RAM buffers the data.

8. An audio and/or video data recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein:

said RAM does over again the buffering of the data of said memory from the first where a write access with respect to the data to be buffered occurs in the middle of the buffering of the data of said memory and

said nonvolatile memory stores the buffered data whenever said RAM completes the buffering of the data.

9. An audio and/or video data recording and reproducing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein

said memory back-up apparatus further has:

a battery consumption detecting means for detecting whether or not said battery back-up use battery is consumed and

a storage control means for storing the data to be stored by said nonvolatile memory at an original address of the memory of said recording and reproduction control means where the consumption of said battery back-up use battery is not detected at the startup of said recording and reproduction control means.