Disk driver cluster management of time shift buffer with file allocation ...

(54) DISK DRIVER CLUSTER MANAGEMENT OF TIME SHIFT BUFFER WITH FILE ALLOCATION TABLE STRUCTURE

(75) Inventor: Harold J. Plourde, Jr., Lawrenceville, GA(US)

(73) Assignee: Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., Lawrenceville, GA(US)

( * ) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 767 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 10/005,628

(22) Filed: Dec. 5, 2001

(65) Prior Publication Data

US 2003/0105918 Al Jun. 5, 2003

(51) Int. CI.

G06F 3/00 (2006.01)
H04N 7/18 (2006.01)
H04N 7/173 (2006.01)

(52) U.S. CI 710/52; 710/53; 710/56;

386/83; 386/112; 386/125; 725/111; 725/109;

725/35

(58) Field of Classification Search 386/83,

386/112, 125; 710/52, 53, 56; 725/111 See application file for complete search history.

(56) References Cited

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(Continued)

FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS

WO WO 92/22983 12/1992

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/008,624, filed Dec. 6, 2001, Title: "Converting Time-Shift Buffering for Personal Video Recording Into Permanent Recordings," Inventors: Harold J. Plourde, Jr. and Arturo A. Rodriguez.

(Continued) Primary Examiner—Tammara Peyton

(57) ABSTRACT

A file allocation system for a hard disk drive includes a memory with driver logic and a processor configured with the driver logic to receive a request to allocate hard disk space of a defined size for a buffer file. In some embodiments, the processor is configured with the driver logic to allocate clusters for the buffer file from a plurality of clusters on the hard disk, wherein the clusters for the buffer file store media content instances. In some embodiments, the processor is configured with the driver logic to designate a portion of the clusters of the buffer file for at least one non-buffer file such that the non-buffer file is permitted to share the portion of the clusters of the buffer file with the buffer file.

45 Claims, 35 Drawing Sheets

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

6,678,463 Bl * 1/2004 Pierre et al 386/83

6,782,550 Bl* 8/2004 Cao 725/39

2001/0032293 Al 10/2001 Korst et al 711/112

2002/0019984 Al 2/2002 Rakib 725/111

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/008,439, filed Dec. 6, 2001, Title: "Dividing and Managing Time-Shift Buffering Into Program Specific Segments Based on Defined Duration," Inventors: Harold J. Plourde, Jr. and Arturo A. Rodriguez. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/010,781, filed Dec. 5, 2001, Title: "Application Managment and Interface for Cluster Control of Time Shift Buffer," Inventor: Harold J. Plourde, Jr.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/015,349, filed Dec. 11, 2001, Title: "Controlling Personal Video Recording Functions from Interactive Television," Inventors: Mark E. Schutte and Valerie G. Gutknecht.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/034,028, filed Dec. 20, 2001, Title: "Program Position User Interface for Personal Video Recording Time Shift Buffer," Inventors: Dariusz S. Kaminski and Robert O. Banker.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/102,043, filed Mar. 20, 2002, Title: "Composite Buffering," Inventors: John Eric West and Arturo A. Rodriguez.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/143,123, filed May 10, 2002, Title: "Channel Buffering and Display Managment System for Multi-Tuner Set-Top Box," Inventors: Arturo A. Rodriguez and Ramesh Nallur.

Scientific-Atlanta, Inc. Pending U.S. Appl. No. 10/143,647, filed May 10, 2002, Title: "Managing Time Shift Buffers," Inventors: Dariusz S. Kaminski, Arturo A. Rodriguez, Robert O. Banker and Valerie G. Gutknecht.

* cited by examiner