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:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 15, 1996
Masaki Suzuki, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Abstract
A multimedia server capable of reducing a number of accesses to memory devices with low access speed. Whether a desired multimedia data requested by one terminal connected with one input/output unit is present in a buffer of another input/output unit is judged, and the desired multimedia data is transferred to a buffer of that one input/output unit, from the multimedia data storage device when the desired multimedia data is judged as not present, or from a buffer of that another input/output unit when the desired multimedia data is judged as present. It is also possible to predict future necessary multimedia data at each input/output unit, monitor the multimedia data transferred through the network, and pre-fetch the future necessary multimedia data from the monitored multimedia data. It is also possible to combine a plurality of requests for an identical multimedia data issued by different terminals connected with different input/output units within a prescribed period of time into a single unified request, so that the identical multimedia data can be obtained by the single access and transferred to the different input/output units simultaneously.