PVR Buffer Management Shared Memory Recording Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional set-top box (STB) systems require separate memories for recording and playback of encoded passage streams, which reduces processing efficiency and increases implementation costs due to the need for duplicating data before playback.
Innovation Solution
A personal video recorder (PVR) software buffer management system that utilizes a single shared memory for both recording and playback of encoded passage streams, eliminating the need for separate recording and playback memories by allocating half of the shared memory for recording and utilizing a software driver to manage buffer descriptors for efficient data processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate memories are used for recording and playback of encoded passage streams, then data can be stored and retrieved independently, but processing efficiency is reduced and implementation cost increases due to the need for duplicating data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the recording memory and playback memory into a single shared memory resource. The software driver manages buffer descriptors that point to the same physical memory, allowing both recording and playback operations to access the same memory space without requiring separate memory copies. This eliminates the data duplication step while maintaining independent recording and playback functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The software driver acts as an intermediary between the recording and playback hardware modules. It manages buffer descriptors that serve as virtual memory handles, allowing the hardware modules to access the shared physical memory through these descriptors. This intermediary layer coordinates access to the shared memory, ensuring that recording and playback operations can proceed simultaneously without conflict.
2Reliability
If separate memories are used for recording and playback, then data can be stored and retrieved independently, but implementation cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines separate recording and playback memory resources into a single shared memory implementation. By using one physical memory resource that both recording and playback operations can access, the system reduces the total memory capacity required and eliminates the hardware complexity of managing separate memory channels, thereby reducing implementation cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The shared memory is designed to serve multiple functions: it can be used for recording, for playback, or for both simultaneously through the buffer descriptor mechanism. This multi-functional approach allows a single memory resource to replace what would traditionally require two separate memory resources, reducing overall system cost.
3Ease of operation
If data is duplicated before playback, then playback can proceed independently from recording, but processing efficiency is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The software driver serves as an intermediary that manages buffer descriptors as virtual handles to the shared physical memory. Recording hardware writes data to the shared memory through recording buffer descriptors, while playback hardware reads data through playback buffer descriptors. This intermediary mechanism allows independent recording and playback operations to proceed simultaneously without requiring data duplication, as both operations access the same underlying memory through different virtual handles.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the buffer management into separate buffer descriptors for recording and playback, while these descriptors both reference the same physical memory. This segmentation of the software layer (buffer descriptors) while sharing the physical layer (memory) allows independent operation of recording and playback functions without duplicating the actual data in memory.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for a personal video recorder (PVR) software buffer management to support the software passage are disclosed. A first plurality of receive buffer descriptors may be allocated for recording at least one received packet in at least a portion of a shared memory. The received packet may be recorded in the shared memory utilizing at least one of the allocated first plurality of receive buffer descriptors. A plurality of playback buffer descriptors may be allocated for playback of the recorded received packet from the shared memory. A first portion of the received packet may be simultaneously played back from the shared memory while recording a second portion of the received packet in the shared memory. If at least one of the recorded received packet is consumed, the playback buffer descriptors corresponding to a number of the consumed received packet may be de-allocated.