Digeo, Inc.

Manish Shah

Mark Greenberg

Eric N Lais

An apparatus and method are described for mapping a plurality of multimedia streams (e.g., received from a set of satellite transponders) across a lesser plurality of decoders. In one embodiment, arbitration logic allocates the multimedia streams to divide the decoding load equally among the group of decoders (or at least as equally as possible). Allocation may occur statically, when the system is initialized, or dynamically, as the streams are being processed. In addition, in one embodiment, the arbitration logic monitors the amount of multimedia data for each stream stored in a buffer and causes streams to be serviced by the decoders which have relatively more stored multimedia data.

Apparatus and method for decode arbitration in a multi-stream multimedia system

A system and method are described in which a decoder decodes data from a plurality of data streams. In one embodiment, the decoder is restored to the state it was in the last time it processed data from each data stream by re-decoding data stored in a replay buffer before decoding new data from each respective data stream. In one embodiment, multiple decoders are grouped together to process data from a plurality of satellite transponders.

System and method for shared decoding using a data replay scheme

An apparatus is described comprising: a decoder which decodes a plurality of data streams, the decoder having a state associated with each of the data streams; and state restoration logic to restore the decoder's state upon switching from decoding one data stream to another data stream.

System and method for shared decoding

An apparatus and method are described for normalizing a plurality of state metric values stored in a plurality of accumulators. In one embodiment, normalization logic monitors the each of the state metric values. When all of the values are above a predetermined threshold, the normalization logic subtracts a normalization amount from each of the state metric values. In one embodiment, the normalization amount is incorporated into branch metric calculations at one or more branch metric units. In addition, in one embodiment, different normalization amounts are employed based on the state metric values.

Apparatus and method for efficient decoder normalization

In one embodiment of the invention, during add-compare-select computations, the output of the adders is guaranteed to be a positive value because the only time normalization logic subtracts a normalization amount is when all accumulators are greater than the normalization amount. As such, the detection of overflow is greatly simplified. Overflow in the add-compare-select unit may be indicated simply by the value of the most significant bit ('MSB') (i.e., the sign bit) of the result. If the MSB of the result of the adder is set then, in one embodiment, the output of the adder gets forced the maximum possible value given the number of bits. For example, this value will be forced to 7h7f if the value is represented by 7-bits. That is to say, if an overflow is detected, then the accumulator is saturated to the maximum value.

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Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Manish Shah