Techniques to manage media files

• US 7,603,387 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2006
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Sather, Dale, Reneris, Kenneth, Gates, Matthijs A.
• Primary Examiner(s): wong; don
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen; Kim T
• Application Number:
  US11/454,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294324A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/200, 707/205
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1009 using page tables, e.g. page table structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/652 Page size control
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Techniques to manage media files may be described. An apparatus may comprise a media processing sub-system having a processor, a memory, and a communications interface. The memory may store a media file manager for execution by the processor. The communications interface may receive multiple media streams of media information. The media file manager may store the multiple media streams in a single file using a hierarchy of name-value pairs. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

receive multiple media streams of media information;

partition a virtual file into one or more long pages of a first defined length;

partition a long page into one or more short pages of a second defined length;

reference short pages by a reference value representing an offset value within a long page;

reference long pages by a reference value representing an offset value comprising said first defined length divided by said second defined length; and

store said multiple media streams in said single virtual file using a hierarchy of name-value pairs, said hierarchy formed by storing multiple name-value pairs in one or more containers within said pages, said containers comprising a root container storing one or more high-level name-value pairs for said virtual file at a high level of said hierarchy,

wherein at least one high-level name-value pair stored in said root container comprises a value representing a page table structure implemented as an array of long pages or short pages storing one or more values of said name-value pairs at a lower level of said hierarchy.

2. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to store a file header for said virtual file in a first short page of said virtual file.

3. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to bind a name representing a globally unique identifier or text string to a value representing a resident value, a short value, or a long value, to form each name-value pair.

4. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to reference a short page from a page table, reference a table page from said short page, and reference a data page from said table page.

5. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to manage free space for said virtual file using a first recycled page table and a second recycled page table for an array of short pages and long pages, respectively.

6. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to write state information to a recovery log to recover said virtual file.

7. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to partition said virtual file into one or more long pages and short pages, write a portion of said long pages and short pages to a cache, and access said cached pages with multiple threads.

8. The article of claim 1, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to partition said virtual file into multiple resources each having a lock, and read media information from said virtual file by multiple applications using said resource locks.

9. An apparatus comprising a media processing sub-system having a processor, a memory, and a communications interface, said memory storing a media file manager for execution by said processor, said communications interface to receive multiple media streams of media information, said media file manager to:

store partition a virtual file into one or more long pages of a first defined length, said multiple media streams in said virtual file using a hierarchy of name-value pairs, partition a long page into one or more short pages of a second defined length, reference short pages by a reference value representing a sequential offset value said hierarchy formed by storing multiple name-value pairs within a long page, in one or more containers within said pages, said containers comprising a root reference long pages by a reference value representing a sequential offset value container storing one or more high-level name-value pairs for said virtual file at comprising said first defined length divided by said second defined length, and a high level of said hierarchy,

wherein at least one high-level name-value pair stored in said root container comprises a value representing a page table structure implemented as an array of long pages or short pages storing one or more values of said name-value pairs at a lower level of said hierarchy.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, comprising multiple media readers to read media information for said different media streams from said virtual file.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, comprising a storage device coupled to said processor, said storage device having machine-readable media, said media file manager to store media information for said media streams to said virtual file using non-contiguous portions of said machine-readable media.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, said virtual file comprising a page table, said page table comprising an array of long pages and short pages, said short pages to reference one or more table pages, and said table pages to reference one or more data pages.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, said virtual file comprising a first recycled page for said short pages and a second recycled page for said long pages, said recycled pages to indicate free storage space for said virtual file.

14. A method, comprising:

receiving multiple media streams of media information at a computing device comprising a processor and a memory;

partitioning a virtual file into one or more long pages of a first defined length;

partitioning a long page into one or more short pages of a second defined length;

referencing short pages by a reference value representing an offset value within a long page;

referencing long pages by a reference value representing an offset value comprising said first defined length divided by said second defined length; and

storing said multiple media streams in said virtual file using a hierarchy of name-value pairs, said hierarchy formed by storing multiple name-value pairs in one or more containers within said pages, said containers comprising a root container storing one or more high-level name-value pairs for said virtual file at a high level of said hierarchy,

wherein at least high-level name-value pair stored in said root container comprises a value representing a page table structure implemented as an array of long pages or short pages storing one or more values of said name-value pairs at a lower level of said hierarchy.

15. The method of claim 14, comprising storing a file header for said virtual file in a first short page of said virtual file.

16. The method of claim 14, comprising binding a name representing a globally unique identifier or text string to a value representing a resident value, a short value, or a long value, to form each name-value pair.

17. The method of claim 14, comprising:

referencing a short page from a page table;

referencing a table page from said short page; and

referencing a data page from said table page.