Koninklijke Philips Corporation N.V.

Philips Electronics N.a. Corporation

Jeff E Romine

In a video server, multimedia data for a production is archived with data blocks for a video disk file and data blocks for audio disk files and data blocks for auxiliary disk files all intermixed together in a single tape file, in approximately the same order required for producing a multimedia data stream. During restoring of the production, as the disk files are being copied to disk storage systems from the tape file, the data may be retrieved from the same disk files and played as a multimedia data stream as soon as enough information is available in the files to form the stream. Disk files are striped across a multitude of disk files systems, by a commutator and a multitude of input/output units share access to all the files in all the disk file systems, for example, using a periodically switching round robin scheme or more complex scheduling. Also, during restoration, the same input/output unit of the server that is copying the data from the tape file to the disk drive may be is used to play a multimedia data stream for the production and simultaneously other input/output units of the server are able to play multimedia data streams for the same production from those portions of the disk files for the production that have already been restored.

Incremental archiving and restoring of data in a multimedia server

In the multimedia network, in order to archive or play multimedia data for a production, a multitude of disk file blocks are retrieved from a multitude of files striped across a multitude of disk storage systems through a commutator to the input of an input/output unit. The disk file blocks are copied from the input into disk file blocks in a buffer of the memory of the unit. Then the unit creates a address-size list of data portions in the buffer for archiving the disk files of the production or for playing a multimedia data stream for the production. Then the unit executes a copy command given the address of the list which uses indirection for copying the specified portions of the buffer onto an output of the unit to store the data into an archival tape storage system or to play the production in a multimedia data stream. Also, using the above method, a production may be simultaneously archived and played by the same unit. In a related process, in order to restore the archived production or to record a multimedia data stream, the unit creates an address-size list for copying data from an input of the unit into portions of disk file blocks in a buffer in the memory of the unit. Then the unit executes a copy command given the address of the list which uses indirection for copying the data from the input of the unit into the specified portions of the buffer. Then the unit copies the disk file blocks onto an output through the commutator into disk files striped across a multitude of disk storage systems. Also, these two processes may be utilized in the same unit to simultaneously both restore a production from archival tape storage and to play the production as a multimedia data stream.

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Sandy, UT, United States of America

Jeff E Romine