Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-14
2002-01-15
Chevalier, Robert (Department: 2712)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000, C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06339677
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a picture signal recording and reproducing apparatus which performs write-in and read-out of a plurality of hard discs used for, for example, a video server.
BACKGROUND ART
Previously, there has been a video server apparatus which supplies various types of pictures to individual users at the same time on the basis of the requirements of a large number of users. The video server apparatus is composed of a video stream server for performing transmission processing of a picture stream, and an application server for performing unreal time processing such as a navigation function or the like.
The application server on one side bears a central role in transmitting and receiving an information, and has a function of processing of a network protocol necessary for receiving and sending the information. Furthermore, the application server has an administrative data base, and controls applications, administrative information, customer information and the like in that administrative database.
The video stream server on the other side has a plurality of hard discs for storing data, a single hard disc for storing parity, an RAID (Redundant Arrays Inexpensive Discs) controller for performing the processing of write-in and read-out of the data for those hard discs, and a processor which performs conversion and rearrangement of the data and performs the data transmission. The video stream server is called an RAID apparatus.
In
FIG. 1
, an arrangement of a disc array apparatus composing a general RAID apparatus in the prior art is shown. The disc array apparatus has an input/output data control section (processor)
1
for converting an input data and a command into a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) protocol and a SCSI command, a disc array controller (RAID controller)
2
which divides or integrates the data and controls write-in and read-out of the data, and a hard disc
3
composed of a HDD (Hard Disc Drive) 1,a HDD 2,a HDD 3,a HDD 4 . . . a HDD 7 for dispersedly storing the data and a HDD P capable of storing the parity. Here, the HDD P can be used for parity record only, but it can also be used for data record.
The action of the disc array apparatus like this will be described below. When recording a picture signal data, at the input/output data control section
1
, for example, a supplied bit stream is divided into striping units of 1 word (8 bits). The reason why the bit stream is divided into 1 word like this is that the bit stream should be striped at the unit of 1 word corresponding to the picture element data since 1 picture element is composed of 8 bits and 8 bits correspond to 1 word. The divided striping units are accumulated in 7 pieces of data storing hard discs HDD 1, HDD 2, HDD 3, HDD 4 . . . HDD 7 by the disc array controller
2
. The reason is that by dispersedly accumulating the units in 7 pieces of hard discs HDD 1, HDD 2, HDD 3, HDD 4 . . . HDD 7, the number of users who use the same picture at the same time, can be made to be larger. As the way of dispersed accumulation, there are a random layout and a striping layout. The random layout is suitable for the accumulation of a picture of the multi-rate, and the striping layout is characterized in that the operation efficiency of the disc is high. The segment data dispersedly accumulated by the striping layout are called striping units. Furthermore, by calculating the exclusive-OR(EXCLUSIVE-OR) of 7 pieces of bit data composed of respective head end bits of the bit stream of 7 words dispersedly accumulated in the 7 pieces of hard discs HDD 1, HDD 2, HDD 3, HDD 4 . . . HDD 7, a first parity bit P is produced. Similarly to the action to produce the first parity bit, by calculating the exclusive-OR of 7 pieces of bit data composed of the second bit of each word, a second parity bit P is produced. After that, continuously performing the same action, an eighth parity bit P is produced by calculating the exclusive-OR of 7 pieces of bit data composed of the eighth bit of each word, so that 8 bits of parity data are produced. The parity data
8
produced like this are recorded in the HDD P.
When reproducing the picture signal data, the disc array controller
2
reads out the striping units from the hard disc
3
according to an allocation table showing the data array relating to which hard disc accumulates the striping unit. Then, the input/output data control section
1
rearranges the read out striping units in the reproducing order, and absorbs the fluctuation and transmits them to a network. Furthermore, special reproducing functions such as a slow reproduction, a fast forward, a pause, a skip or the like are achieved by controlling the speed at which the disc array controller
2
reads out the striping units.
Furthermore, when writing in the data, the disc array controller
2
disperses the striping units to a plurality of hard discs, and on the other hand, gathers the dispersed striping units to one data stream when reading out the data.
In a disc array apparatus like this, 1 picture element or some continuous elements are recorded in each hard disc in order as a unit for every horizontal scanning line, and in this case, the upper and lower picture elements of the picture signal data and the same picture elements of the preceding and succeeding frames are recorded in the same hard disc. The recording action thereof will be described below.
Here, by using
FIG. 2
, the recording action in dispersedly recording the picture signal data into hard discs in this disc array apparatus, will be described. Here, the description will be given as for the picture element, wherein as mentioned above, 1 picture element is composed of 8 bits and 8 bits correspond to 1 word.
FIG. 2
is a diagram of recording action in a case where a picture signal with A pieces of effective picture elements for every horizontal scanning line and M pieces of scanning lines for every 1 frame is dividedly recorded in 7 units of data hard discs. In
FIG. 2
, each square shows 1 picture element of each picture signal, and the numbers
1
to
7
in that show the numbers of the data hard discs (HDD 1 to HDD 7) in which the picture elements are recorded. Furthermore, the HDD P is a hard disc for recording parity. In
FIG. 2
, an effective picture element range
4
in the horizontal direction of the picture signal shown by A is composed of each of the picture elements of
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
,
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
in the scanning line
1
in the vertical direction, and similarly, it is composed of each of the picture elements of
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
,
1
,
2
,
6
,
7
in the scanning line
2
in the vertical direction, and it is composed of each of the picture elements of
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
,
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
in the scanning line
3
in the vertical direction, . . . and it is composed of each of the picture elements of
1
,
2
,
6
,
7
,
1
,
2
, . . . ,
6
,
7
in the scanning line M in the vertical direction.
At this time, since the number A of effective picture elements becomes a multiple of 7 which is, the number of the data hard discs, the adjacent picture element data in the vertical direction are recorded in the 7 pieces of data storing hard discs HDD 1, HDD 2, HDD 3, HDD 4 . . . , HDD 7. That is, in the hard disc HDD 1, M pieces of
1
,
1
,
1
, . . . ,
1
are recorded as the record picture element
5
, and in the hard disc HDD 2, M pieces of
2
,
2
,
2
, . . . ,
2
are recorded as the record picture element
6
, and in the hard disc HDD 7, M pieces of
7
, ,
7
,
7
, . . .
7
are recorded as the record picture element
7
.
In a disc array apparatus like this, apart from storing usual data in the 7 pieces of data storing hard discs HDD 1, HDD 2, HDD 3, HDD 4 . . . HDD 7, by providing a hard disc HDD P for writing in the parity, the data in which an error has occurred are arranged to be restored on the basis of the parity data
8
of the hard disc HDD P for parity when a trouble has occurred.
PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION
However, the conventional disc
Bruno Polito
Chevalier Robert
Frommer William S.
Frommer & Lawrence & Haug LLP
Sony Corporation
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