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:
May. 04, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 14, 2000
Richard E. Anderson, Jericho, VT (US);
Eric M. Foster, Owego, NY (US);
Bryan J. Lloyd, Vestal, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides an improved receiver that can receive and process many different data types in addition to decoding MPEG-2 transport streams. The preferred embodiment minimizes hardware complexity by using the same loaders for both MPEG-2 and alternative stream data. The preferred embodiment utilizes a bypassable synchronizer and a bypassable packet parser to allow alternative data streams to be sent to system memory for decoding by a the host processor. When receiving MPEG-2 transport streams, the bypassable synchronizer and bypassable packet parser are used to synchronize and filter the MPEG-2 transport stream. The parsed MPEG-2 streams are then loaded into a packet buffer and passed to the video and audio decoders. When non-MPEG-2 stream data is provided, the bypassable synchronizer and bypassable packet parser instead forward the data to the packet buffer without performing synchronization or filtering. There, the non-MPEG-2 stream data is loaded into system memory. In memory, the non-MPEG-2 data can be decoded by the CPU and then passed onto the video and audio decoders. Thus, by selectively bypassing synchronizer and packet parser, the preferred embodiment allows the receiver to decode non-MPEG-2 data streams while maintaining the ability to perform real time decoding of MPEG-2 streams. Additionally, the preferred embodiment facilitates this dual purpose while minimizing device complexity.