GB2296797A - Interface system for data transfer - Google Patents

Abstract

An interface system 38 controls the transfer and storage of data within a computer system. The interface comprises a queue processor which is arranged to receive data files from a plurality of sources and to output data files to a plurality of destinations. The queue processor arranges the data files into respective queues depending upon the source or destination of each file and supervises the outputting of data files depending on the order of the data files in the queues. The sources and destinations have interfaces to a bus and include PC's 32-34 and voice and fax telecommunications devices 41, 42. <IMAGE>

Description

AN INTERFACE SYSTEM The invention relates to an interface system for controlling the transfer and storing of data within a computer system, and particularly, but not exclusively for interfacing a computer network to at least one memory device and at least one telecommunications line.

A wide range of technology is now available to enable a personal computer (PC) to be connected to multiple different sources which can be divided broadly into two categories, namely memory and communications. Apparatus which may be categorised as memory include solid state devices, floppy discs, hard discs, magneto-optical discs and CD ROM. Apparatus which may be categorised as communications devices include data paths (SCSI, RS232, etc) and telephone (voice and fax).

One way of connecting a PC to multiple different sources is to have an interface card for each source to which the PC is connected. An example of such an arrangement is shown in Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings. A PC 1 has two memory interface cards 2, 3 each of which connect to one or more respective memory devices (not shown), a voice interface card 4 which connects to a first telecommunications line 5 to enable incoming audio signals to be converted into digital form, and a fax interface card 6 which connects to a second telecommunications line 7 to enable incoming fax signals to be converted into digital form. The voice and fax interface cards may be connected to a common telecommunications line.

Whilst this arrangement enables the PC 1 to transmit and receive data from multiple different memory and communications sources, it is expensive. The PC has its own set of interface cards for its own media and there is no ability to share these resources with other PCs in a multi-PC environment.

Another way of connecting to multiple different sources, which also enables the sharing of resource between several PCs, is to use a local area network with multiple interface nodes, such as shown in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings. Generally, a local area network LAN 8 is controlled by a controller 9 to transfer data between devices at respective nodes or addresses 10 to 17. In this way, several PCs 18 to 20 can share common resources such as memories 21, 22 and voice and fax transmission interfaces 23, 24. Local area networks are well known, but a problem with them is that so-called data bottlenecks can occur, for example during the transfer of incoming data say from the fax interface 24 to a memory 21. Under these circumstances the LAN 8 will be utilised extensively by the fax interface and the memory to the exclusion of other devices on the LAN.Bottlenecks can be overcome by way of a priority system, but if such a system is employed then the transfer of data from the fax to the memory may well be slowed down considerably.

The present invention aims to overcome or at least reduce the above-discussed problems.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a control unit for interfacing a computer network to at least one memory device and at least one telecommunications line, the control unit comprising: a network interface; a memory interface; a telecommuni-cations interface; and a controller, all connected to each other by an internal data bus, the controller being arranged to control the operation of the telecommunications interface and the memory interface via the internal data bus such that data can be transferred between the telecommunications interface and the memory interface via the internal data bus.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of managing the transfer and storage of data within a computer system, in which method input data files from a plurality of sources and output data files for a plurality of destinations are formed into respective queues depending upon the source or destination of each file, and files are transferred within the system depending on the order of the files in the queues.

According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided an interface system for controlling the transfer and storage of data within a computer system, in which data interface a queue processor is arranged to organise data files input thereto from a plurality of sources and data files to be output therefrom to a plurality of destinations into respective queues depending upon the source or destination of each file and to supervise the outputting of data files depending on the order of the data files in the queues.

The above and further features of the invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims and together with advantages thereof will become clearer from consideration of the following description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention which is given with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is functional block diagram of a personal computer with multiple interface cards as already discussed hereinabove; Figure 2 is a functional block diagram of a local area network with multiple interface nodes as already discussed hereinabove; Figure 3 is a functional block diagram of a local area network based system incorporating a control unit embodying the invention; Figure 4 is a functional block diagram of a media control unit for use with the system shown in Figure 3; Figure 5 is a functional block diagram of a system unit for use with the unit shown in Figure 4; Figure 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the functional architecture of the system shown in Figure 3.

Turning now to Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings there is shown a local area network (LAN) 31 comprising multiple personal computers (PCs) 32 to 34 at respective addresses 35 to 37 on the LAN. The number of PCs which the LAN is able is to be connected to depends upon the specific LAN chosen. An Ethernet or HUB LAN suitably enables up to 30 users PC to be connected in the system. This number can be increased by use of such proprietary operating systems as Microsoft Windows for Workgroup. The LAN also has connected to it a media control unit 38 which interfaces memory devices 39, 40 and voice and fax interfaces 41, 42 to a single address 43 on the LAN 31, and a system unit 44 at another address 45 on the LAN 31. The system unit generally controls the transfer of data over the LAN 31. The LAN 31 may for example be an Ethernet network.A system console 46 is provided for the system unit 44 to enable user configurable parameters to be set during installation of the system.

The control unit 38 is shown in greater detail in Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings as comprising a memory unit in the form of a hard disc device 39, 40 which may be a 340 MB IDE device having an access time of approximately 12mS and a 128 KB cache store (not shown), a voice processing card 41 and two fax cards 42a and 42b. The control unit 38 further comprises a network interface card 48, a central processing unit (CPU) card 49 and a display card 50. The disc device 39, 40 and the cards 41, 42a, 42b, 48, 49 and 50 communicate with each other over an internal bus 51.

The voice processing card 41 enables incoming audio signals to be converted into digital data for transfer within the system 31 and may be a proprietary product such as an R2132 card which provides two voice ports for handling voice message recording, etc. The two fax cards 42a and 42b each enables incoming fax signals to be converted into digital data suitable for transfer within the system and enables digital data to be converted into outgoing fax signals. The two cards 42a and 42b may be proprietary products such as the fax cards presently made by Intel and together provide two fax ports for handling incoming fax calls and outgoing fax messages. The network interface card 48 serves as the interface between the control unit 38 and the LAN 43 and a suitable card for this task is the NE 2100 compatible Ethernet network interface.

Suitable connections, e.g. BNC or UTP connectors, may be provided to connect the media control unit 38 to the LAN node 43.

The CPU card 49 controls overall operation of the media controller 38 and conveniently comprises an ISAbus 486 SX processor card with AT attachment for IDE hard disc connection. Thus, the card 49 comprises a central processing unit CPU 52 with an associated main memory 53 (16 MB with an access time of around 60nS) and cache memory (not shown), and an I/O sub-system 54 which interfaces between the CPU 52 and the hard disc device 39, 40. Preferably, operation of the CPU card is Windows-based, but alternatively DOS-based operation may be used. In a DOS-based system an ISAbus 386SX processor card with 4MB of main memory may be used as the CPU card 49.

As will become clearer from the description that follows hereinafter, the CPU card 49 controls the transfer of data between the memory unit 39, 40 and the voice processing card 41, the fax cards 42a and 42b and the network interface card 48. Thus, for example data defining an incoming fax arriving at fax card 42a is transferred via the internal bus 51 to the CPU module 49, and from there via the I/O sub-system 54 to the hard disc 39, 40. Subsequently, one of the PCs 32, 33, 34 (see Figure 3) may send a request via the LAN 31 which is received by the network interface card 48 and transferred to the CPU module 49. The module 49 responds to the request by transferring the fax data from the hard disc 39, 40 via the I/O sub system 54 and the internal bus 51 to the network interface card 48 where it is output onto the LAN for receipt by the requesting PC 32, 33, 34.

The display card 50, which may be an SVGA display card with 1 MB of memory, is provided for installation and maintenance purposes and enables data relating to the operation of the control unit 38 to be displayed on a monitor (not shown). A keyboard or other suitable input device (now shown) connected to the I/O sub-system 34 enables an installer to vary parameters in the programs executed by the CPU 52, thereby enabling the operation of the control unit to be adjusted to the requirements of users of the system.

Turning now to Figure 5 of the accompanying drawings, the system unit 44 shown therein comprises a CPU card 56, a network interface card 57, a SCSI controller 58 and a display card 59, all of which are connected to an internal databus 60. The CPU card 56 is conveniently an ISA/VC-bus 486 DX2 processor card comprising a CPU 62, a 16 MB main memory 63, and an I/O subsystem 64 with connections for a 3.5" disc drive 65, and an AT attachment (not shown) for IDE hard disc connection. The I/O sub-system 64 also serves as an interface to input devices such as a console keyboard 66 and a mouse 67 and to a serial port 68 and a parallel port 69. The CPU card 56 is programmed to control the transfer of data over the LAN 31 and it is by way of the console keyboard 65 and mouse 66 that the system unit is configured to control the network as a whole.The network interface card 57 preferably comprises an NE2100 compatible Ethernet network interface for RJ45 and/or BNC connectors, and provides an interface to the node 45 on the LAN 31 (see Figure 3) in much the same way as the network interface card 48 in the media control unit 38. Data relating to the configuration of the system unit can be displayed on a console monitor (not shown) connected to the display card 59, which is preferably an SVGA display card with 1 MB of memory.

When the system unit 44 is not being used to program operation of the network as a whole, it can be configured to behave as another PC with certain privileges not available to other PCs on the network.

To this end, the SCSI controller 58 is provided to interface at speeds up to 10 MBps to various input and storage devices such as an external scanner 70, a 1 GB hard disc store 71 with a 512 KB cache store (not shown), a magneto-optical disc store 72 providing 128 MB or more of storage, and a CD ROM store 73.

Together these units 70 to 73 enables the user to input other data, for example representing a scanned image, to the system ultimately for storage in the memory 39, 40 of the media control unit 38, and from there for transfer either to and from PCs on the network or externally via the fax interface cards 42.

The units also enable data files to be archived off line when no longer required. It will, or course, be appreciated that the SCSI controller 58 is placed in the system unit 44 merely as a matter of convenience to enable the privileged user easily to input new data to the system. Alternatively, the SCSI controller 58 may be placed in the media control unit 38 where it will be treated as another source/store of data for the system 31.

The system shown in Figures 3 to 5 of the accompanying drawings is, of course, controlled by software. Some of the software is specific to individual cards, such as the voice card 41 and fax cards 41a and 42b and as such is well known and requires no further description herein. Other software is general to the system and together with the illustrated hardware provides a powerful and flexible functional architecture which facilitates manipulation and transfer of data by users of the system. Figure 6 of the accompanying drawings illustrates the functional architecture of the system.

It will be appreciated that the functional architecture is formed from a combination of hardware and software and that the exact boundary between hardware and software is a matter of design choice dependent on the hardware devices actually used within the system. In order to clarify the following explanation, the architecture will simply be described in terms of the functions executed thereby, it being well within the abilities of those possessed of the appropriate skills to determine whether the functions are specific to the hardware units or general to the system.

The purpose of the system is to provide each user with an easy-to-use working environment in which he may prepare, disseminate, store, archive and retrieve information. Whilst control of the system is based on a proprietary operating system such as Microsoft Windows or Miscrosoft DOS, the system is arranged to minimise the requirement of users to understand complex operating system commands. This is achieved by removing the details of the control of the transfer of data from the users and placing it instead within a queue processor 81 and a document library manager 82. In this way the user is able to search for and retrieve stored or archived documents using key words without having to remember complex DOS/Windows paths and directions.

The queue processor 81 receives documents prepared on the PCs using PC specific software 83 such as spreadsheets, word processors, graphics generators, etc. as well as receiving scanned image files from the scanner 70, facsimile documents from the fax cards 42a and 42b and voice message files from the voice processing card 41. Incoming documents and filed are formed into queues which enables the transfer of documents around the system to progress in an ordered manner.

The queue processor 81 form queues of documents at each point of entry and at each point of exit, as appropriate, of the system. Documents are handled in queue order by the queue processor 81 which determines whether documents are to be archived in the disc store 39, 40 or are to be passed on to other users or are to be output from the system via the fax or voice telecommunications lines. If a document is to be archived, it is first indexed by the queue processor 81 and then passed to the document library manager 82 for storage in the disc store.The document library manager cooperate with disc management routines 84 provided in the disc store to store the documents in a manner in which they can easily be restored by the users when so required. Toçthis end, data is stored based on the subject-matter that the data represents rather than being based on the software application in which the data was prepared. When a document is accessed by a user it is supplied to that user's PC together with instructions to the PC to start the appropriate application software by which the data in the document was created. Thus, for example, a letter created using a word processing program is accompanied by instructions to the PC to load and run the word processing program.

Facsimile documents can be received by the system accompanied by information identifying the PC of the intended recipient of the document. When a facsimile document is received accompanied by this information, the queue processor 81 respond by directing the document directly to the correct PC together with instructions to alert the user to the presence of the new document.

The system is extremely flexible in the creation and subsequent transmission of facsimile documents.

An original document may be created using applications programs specific to the PC, e.g. a spreadsheet, graphics or word processing application.

Alternatively an existing document may be retrieved from the disc store for transmission either unaltered or following modification by an application program.

Once the document has been prepared for transmission it may be circulated to other PCs (using electronic mail and bulletin board facilities provided on the LAN) for approval and/or confirmation of the proposed transmission by other users of the system.

The combination of the queue processor 81 and the document library manager 82 enables complex combinations of documents to be transmitted to multiple destinations. For example a facsimile transmission might comprise a cover sheet created on a word processor, results of a spreadsheet calculation, an image such as a company logo or trade mark created on a graphics processor, and a picture scanned into the system. The document library manager 81 makes it possible to create in the memory a directory containing company names addresses and facsimile numbers and to call up individual or groups of companies to whom the document should be transmitted from the directory. Names and addresses are then applied to the top of each document or to a cover sheet and the document (or documents) is then transmitted to each company that has been called up from the directory.A cover sheet will be generated for each of the intended recipients of the transmission from the data held in the directory and indeed, one instructed by the user, the queue processor 81 will ensures that the combination of documents is sent automatically to all of the recipients. Facsimile transmissions can be made at a specified time or date and failed transmissions (engaged or incomplete) are dealt with by automatically retrying until all documents have been sent to all selected companies.

Once a document or group of documents has been transmitted to all desired recipients the documents are archived for future reference.

The system also facilitates the use of electronic mail services and bulletin boards. For example, when a document is to be circulated for approval the queue processor 81 and document library manager 82 can be instructed to copy the document to all or selected PCs. When the document is being considered by the PC users, they can instruct the queue processor 81 and the library manager 82 to return the document to the sender with messages, in voice, text or image form, appended to the document or even to specific locations within a corrected version of the document.

The integration of voice processing into the system significantly increases the flexibility of the system. In addition to converting audio signals into a form where they can be stored as digital data representing a voice message in memory, the voice processing card 41 is responsive tones generated by a tone generator, for example a telephone keypad, transmitting over the telecommunications line to which the card is connected. Received tones are interpreted as instructions to the queue processor 81 and document library manager 82 to retrieve selected documents from storage and to transmit the same in appropriate form over the telecommunications line.

Thus, a user away from his or her PC may call the system and, once he has identified himself to the system by transmitting a personal identification (PIN) number and/or password by way of the tones generated by his telephone keypad, may instruct the system to transmit facsimile or voice messages to him. The transmission may be made either immediately back over the line to the telephone that he is currently using or it may be made at a preselected time to a telephone/ facsimile number specified by the user.

Transmitted documents may be facsimiles which have been received by the system in a specified time period or documents which were previously created and stored in the system. In other words, the system can be instructed by remote telephone, in much the same way as it can be instructed via a PC, to transmit any desired document combination to any desired combination of facsimile numbers.

In order to facilitate a fuller understanding of the system examples of particular document life cycles will follow. The examples are merely illustrate and should not be construed as limiting the invention in any way.

Firstly, there will be described the preparation by a PC user of a document which is then submitted for facsimile transmission. The system enables the PC user to create a document in several different ways.

A monochrome document may be created using a PC application program and then converted into an image suitable for facsimile transmission. A document may be retrieved from the document library and, if necessary, converted into an image suitable for transmission. Either before or after conversion, the sequence of pages in a document may be rearranged and a cover sheet may be created either directly by the user or from information in the directory and be attached as the front page of the document. Several documents may be concatenated to form a single document for transmission. Once the images for transmission have been created, they are output to the facsimile card and transmitted to the or each facsimile number identified by the user.

Next, a sequence of events will be described in which a first PC user, A, instructs a second PC user, B, to prepare and send a facsimile document. User A sends user B an electronic mail message in either text or voice form advising user B on how the facsimile document should be prepared and who is to receive it.

Preferably, user A would identify the recipients by accessing the information in the directory and appending that information to the electronic mail message. User B would then generate the complete document in the above described manner for example.

Once the complete document has been generated, user B may mail it to user A together with appended comments seeking user A's approval, or may decide to output the image immediately to the or each recipient identified by user A. Once each and every facsimile document transmission has been completed a message is sent to user B notifying him of the successful completion.

A PC user can specify other users for receiving facsimile transmission completion notification with the facsimile document following transmission of the document. After the facsimile document has been passed to the facsimile document queue, all PC users can check for the transmission status from a facsimile statue queue. Normally the facsimile document is sent and the specified PC users will receive an electronic mail message with the document that was sent. The facsimile document may then be indexed and filed into the document library. The electronic mail message can then be saved by the user if required. The message will indicate the type of mail message as being a facsimile. The transmission date/time is used to identify the document to enable subsequent retrieval.

If, however, the facsimile transmission is not successful the queue processing routines will move the document to a failed-transmission queue and will automatically create and mail messages for the specified PC users requesting re-submission of the documents for transmission.

Next, a sequence of events will be described in which a PC user collects a received facsimile and distributes it to one or more other PC users. A background routine enables a user, responsible for facsimile administration say, to monitor the incoming facsimile queue, to move received facsimile documents to a working document queue and to build automatically mail messages based on the received facsimile document. Several received facsimile documents may be grouped together in a single mail message. Once completed the mail messages are distributed to the PCs of selected or all users of the system.

Voice messaging functions are supported by the voice processing card. The system is arranged to enable a supervisor or administrator to set up a voice mail box environment within the system depending on requirements of the software within the voice processing card. When a voice call is coming in, the voice card will instruct the caller to key in the callee's voice mail box number and record the voice message onto the hard disc. The voice mail box owner will receive an electronic notification when a new message has been recorded. The notification is intended to prompt the owner to dial to the voice system and enter the digital password in order to hear the voice message. The owner can erase the voice message by entering an erase code.

A user document is generally referring to a working copy of a PC application editable document.

A user document is created by a PC user. The system allows the PC users to create personal document folders and personal calendars to index and keep track of his working documents. A first PC user, X, may forward a user document to a second PC user, Y, as a mail attachment. If user Y's PC is not installed with the required PC application or if it is user Y's preference, user X will be instructed to create a facsimile image of the document and send user Y the facsimile image instead. User X may add some voice/ text annotations to the facsimile images to make it more meaningful for user Y if he so wishes.

When a PC user finishes with his user document, he may index and file it into the document library and later search for it again through the system index.

Alternatively, the user may index and retain the document locally in his PC, index and move/archive the document to a floppy disc or index and move/archive the document to a magneto-optical disc. The document can subsequently be searched and retrieved through the users' personal index.

Having thus described the present invention by reference to a preferred embodiment it is to be well understood that the embodiment in question is exemplary only and that modifications and variations such as will occur to those possessed of appropriate knowledge and skills may be made without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims and equivalents thereof.

Claims (35)

CLAIMS:

1. An interface system for controlling the transfer and storage of data within a computer system, in which data interface a queue processor is arranged to organise data files input thereto from a plurality of sources and data files to be output therefrom to a plurality of destinations into respective queues depending upon the source or destination of each file and to supervise the outputting of data files depending on the order of the data files in the queues.

2. An interface system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a telecommunications interface connectable to a telecommunications line for transmitting and/or receiving data files thereover.

3. An interface system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a facsimile interface for transmitting and/or receiving facsimile data files over the telecommunications line.

4. An interface system as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a voice interface for transmitting and/or receiving voice data files over the telecommunications line.

5. An interface system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the voice interface is arranged to convert voice data files into audio signals for transmission over the telecommunications line and to convert received audio signals into voice data files.

6. An interface system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising a document library manager, connected to receive and transfer data files from and to the queue processor, for controlling the storing of data files as a document library in a memory.

7. An interface system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the queue processor is arranged to index data files before outputting the data files to the document library manager.

8. An interface system as claimed in claim 6 or 7, wherein the document library is stored in a bulk storage device.

9. An interface system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the bulk storage device comprises a hard disc store.

10. An interface system as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9, further comprising a multiple-computer interface for connecting to a plurality of separate computers.

11. An interface system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the multiple-computer interface comprises a network interface for connecting to a computer network.

12. An interface system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the queue processor is operable to transmit a plurality of separate data files together over the telecommunications line to one or more destinations.

13. An interface system as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 5 or 12, wherein the queue processor is responsive to commands received by the telecommunications interface from the telecommunications line.

14. An interface system as claimed in claim 10 or 11, wherein the queue processor is operable to supervise the transfer of data files between said separate computers.

15. A method of managing the transfer and storage of data within a computer system, in which method input data files from a plurality of sources and output data files for a plurality of destinations are formed into respective queues depending upon the source or destination of each file, and files are transferred within the system depending on the order of the files in the queues.

16. A method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising storing data files in a document library arranged in a memory.

17. A method as claimed in claim 15 or 16, further comprising sorting one or more selected data files into groups for transmission over a telecommunications line to at least one destination.

18. A control unit for interfacing a computer network to at least one memory device and at least one telecommunications line, the control unit comprising: a network interface; a memory interface; a telecommunications interface; and a controller, all connected to each other by an internal data bus, the controller being arranged to control the operation of the telecommunications interface and the memory interface via the internal data bus such that data can be transferred between the telecommunications interface and the memory interface via the internal data bus.

19. A control unit as claimed in claim 18, wherein the network interface is connectable to a multi-computer network, and the controller is arranged to control the transfer of data between the network and the memory and telecommunications interface.

20. A control unit as claimed in claim 18 or 19, wherein the controller is operable to supervise the transfer of data between different computers on the multi-computer network.

21. A control unit as claimed in claim 18 or 19 or 20, wherein the telecommunications interface is operable to transmit and/or receive data over the telecommunications line.

22. A control unit as claimed in any of claims 18 to 21, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a facsimile interface for transmitting and/or receiving facsimile data over the telecommunications line.

23. A control unit as claimed in any of claims 18 to 22, wherein the telecommunications interface comprises a voice interface for transmitting and/or receiving voice data over the telecommunications line.

24. A control unit as claimed in claim 23, wherein the voice interface is arranged to convert voice data into audio signals for transmission over the telecommunications line and to convert received audio signals into voice data.

25. A control unit as claimed in any of claims 18 to 24, wherein the controller is arranged to organise data transferred to and from said interfaces into respective queues and to supervise the transfer of data to said interfaces depending on the order of the data in the queues.

26. A control unit as claimed in any of claims 18 to 25, wherein the memory interface comprises a data manager for controlling the storing of data in a memory.

27. A control unit as claimed in claim 26, wherein the memory interface is connected to a bulk storage memory device.

28. A control unit as claimed in claim 27, wherein the bulk storage memory device comprises at least one of a floppy disc, a hard disc, a magneto-optical disc or a CD ROM.

29. A control unit as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 24, wherein the controller is operable to transfer a plurality of groups of data to the telecommunications interface for transmission together over a telecommunications line to one or more destinations.

30. A control unit as claimed in any one of claims 21 to 24 or 29, wherein the controller is arranged to be responsive to commands received by the telecommunications interface from a telecommunications line.

31. A control unit as claimed in claim 30, wherein the controller comprises a system unit for interfacing to the multi-computer network to effect said supervising of the transfer of data.

32. A control unit as claimed in claim 31, wherein the system unit comprises a network interface and a controlling processor connected to communicate with each other via an internal data bus.

33. A control unit as claimed in claim 32, wherein the system unit further comprises a scanner interface connected to said internal data bus and connectable to a scanner to enable data representing a scanned image to be input to the control unit.

34. A control unit as claimed in claim 33, wherein the scanner interface is connectable to one or more disc drives forming part of said at least one memory device.

35. A system or method substantially as described herein with reference to Figures 3 to 6 of the accompanying drawings.