SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR ACCELERATED DATA STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL

• US 20070067483A1
• Filed: 10/26/2006
• Published: 03/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fallon, James
• Granted Patent: US 7,415,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1744 using compression, e.g. sparse files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/15 by monitoring actual compressed data size at the memory before deciding storage at the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/843 on film
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing accelerated data storage and retrieval utilizing lossless data compression and decompression. A data storage accelerator includes one or a plurality of high speed data compression encoders that are configured to simultaneously or sequentially losslessly compress data at a rate equivalent to or faster than the transmission rate of an input data stream. The compressed data is subsequently stored in a target memory or other storage device whose input data storage bandwidth is lower than the original input data stream bandwidth. Similarly, a data retrieval accelerator includes one or a plurality of high speed data decompression decoders that are configured to simultaneously or sequentially losslessly decompress data at a rate equivalent to or faster than the input data stream from the target memory or storage device. The decompressed data is then output at rate data that is greater than the output rate from the target memory or data storage device. The data storage and retrieval accelerator method and system may employed: in a disk storage adapter to reduce the time required to store and retrieve data from computer to disk; in conjunction with random access memory to reduce the time required to store and retrieve data from random access memory; in a display controller to reduce the time required to send display data to the display controller or processor; and/or in an input/output controller to reduce the time required to store, retrieve, or transmit data.

Claims

1-47. -47. (canceled)

48. A system comprising:

a memory device; and

a data accelerator, wherein said data accelerator is coupled to said memory device, a data stream is received by said data accelerator in received form, said data stream includes a first data block and a second data block, said data stream is compressed by said data accelerator to provide a compressed data stream by compressing said first data block with a first compression technique and said second data block with a second compression technique, said first and second compression techniques are different, said compressed data stream is stored on said memory device, said compression and storage occurs faster than said data stream is able to be stored on said memory device in said received form, a first data descriptor is stored on said memory device indicative of said first compression technique, and said first descriptor is utilized to decompress the portion of said compressed data stream associated with said first data block.

49. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator stores said first descriptor to said memory device.

50. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator retrieves said first descriptor and said compressed data stream from said memory device.

51. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator retrieves said compressed data stream from said memory device.

52. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator retrieves said compressed data stream from said memory device and said decompression of the portion of said compressed data stream associated with said first data block is performed by said data accelerator.

53. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator is coupled to said memory device via a small computer systems interface.

54. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator is coupled to said memory device via a fibre channel.

55. The system of claim 48, wherein said data accelerator is coupled to said memory device via a serial storage architecture.

56. The system of claim 48, wherein said memory device is a magnetic memory device.

57. The system of claim 48, wherein said memory device is an optical memory device.

58. The system of claim 48, wherein said memory device is a random access memory.

59. The system of claim 48, wherein said memory device is a solid-state mass storage device.

60. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique includes compressing with Huffman encoding.

61. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique includes compressing with Lempel-Ziv encoding.

62. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique includes compressing with a plurality of encoders in a serial configuration.

63. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique includes compressing with a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration.

64. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique includes compressing with a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration and each one of said plurality of encoders is an identical type of encoder.

65. The system of claim 48, wherein said first compression technique comprises compressing with a first encoder.

66. The system of claim 48, wherein said data stream comprises a collection of multiple files.

67. The system of claim 48, wherein said data stream includes a third data block and a fourth data block.

68. The system of claim 48, wherein said data stream includes a third data block and a fourth data block and said compressed data stream is provided by compressing said third data block with a third compression technique and compressing said fourth data block with a fourth compression technique.

69. The system of claim 48, wherein said data stream is an analog video data stream.

70. The system of claim 48, wherein said data stream is a digital video data stream.