The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 24, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 10, 1996
Fouad A Tobagi, Los Altos, CA (US);
Joseph M Gang, Jr, Saratoga, CA (US);
Randall B Baird, San Jose, CA (US);
Joseph W Pang, Fremont, CA (US);
Martin J McFadden, Cupertino, CA (US);
Starlight Networks, Mountain View, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for operating a disk storage system, comprising a disk and forming part of a communications network, simultaneously maintains the continuity of a plurality of data streams. Typically, each stream transfers video data to or from the disk storage system. Illustratively, each of the data streams is produced in the network at a rate of W.sub.base bits/sec and consumed by the disk storage system or produced by said disk storage system and consumed in the network at a rate of W.sub.base bits/sec. One I/O transaction is performed for each stream in each of a plurality of I/O cycles of duration S/W.sub.base, wherein in each I/O transaction a segment of S bits is retrieved from or stored in the disk. The number of streams whose continuity can be maintained in this manner is limited by the number of I/O's which can be performed in a cycle of duration S/W.sub.base. More generally, when a stream has a bit rate (A/B)W.sub.base bits/sec where A and B are integers chosen independently for each stream, then for this stream A I/O transactions are performed in B cycles of duration S/W.sub.base. If the number of disks is N.sub.d,N.sub.d .gtoreq.1, then the I/O cycles have a duration N.sub.d S/W.sub.base and then A I/O transactions are performed in each disk for each stream in B I/O cycles.