JP3301869B2 - Parallel storage device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a parallel storage device,
In particular, for example, the present invention relates to a parallel storage device that writes moving image information in a distributed manner in a plurality of storage devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the progress of magneto-optical recording technology and image compression technology, digital information such as a moving image is stored on a storage medium such as a magneto-optical disk, and the stored digital information is read out and displayed on a display in real time. The development and commercialization of moving image display systems is active. However, the reading speed of a magneto-optical disk such as a CD / ROM is 0.15 MB / s as a standard due to restrictions such as the rotation speed of the disk, and the reading speed is 0.15 MB / s at a high speed (4 × speed).
6 MB / s. On the other hand, the information amount of the image is required to be about 15 MB / s for a standard image of a color television.
Therefore, it is impossible to display a moving image in real time while reading information. Therefore, an image is not deteriorated (about 0.15 in MPEG-1).
In general, a method of compressing and encoding information in MB / s) and storing the information in a storage medium, decoding the information while displaying the information while reading the information, and a method of reducing the size of the display screen are generally used. In a moving image display system using an information server, a plurality of magnetic disks are connected to the information server,
In general, a method of improving the reading speed of information by distributing and storing information on each magnetic disk and reading information in parallel is generally used.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional moving image display system 1 for displaying a 6 MB / s high-quality moving image in real time. Moving picture information (0.2 MB) every 1/30 second is 10
0.02 MB is stored in each of the disks 2a to 2j, and these data are read out from the head by the data transfer devices 3a to 3j every 1/30 second, and are stored in the buffer 4
a to 4j to the frame buffer memory 5. That is, while the next 1/30 second of image data is being read, the previous image data of 0.2 MB is supplied to the frame buffer memory 5. Then, the image data written in the frame buffer memory 5 is transferred to the display device 6.
Will be displayed. By repeating the above operation every 1/30 second, even if the reading speed of each of the disks 2a to 2j is 0.6MB / s, it is possible to perform real-time display while reading 6MB / s moving image information. . The correspondence between the image data and each of the disks 2a to 2j is represented as shown in FIG. That is, image data every 1/30 second is divided into ten screens and stored in each of the disks 2a to 2j.

[0004]

In recent years, with the opening of the communication market and the diversification of user needs, information providing services such as video-on-demand and game distribution using two-way communication have been prosperous. Media servers for storing a large amount of information, such as images and documents, and providing the information in response to user requests have been receiving attention. This media server stores a large amount of information in a large-scale storage medium, and can simultaneously process data requests from a plurality of users in parallel. However, when providing a high-quality moving image in, for example, video-on-demand, a system for distributing and storing moving image information on all the disks 2a to 2j, such as the moving image information system 1 shown in FIG. 4, is used. In this case, since all the disks 2a to 2j are occupied by information provision for one request, it is difficult to process a plurality of requests at the same time, resulting in a problem that system efficiency is significantly reduced.

[0005] Therefore, a main object of the present invention is to provide a parallel storage device capable of simultaneously processing a plurality of requests.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a parallel storage device which writes moving image information in a plurality of storage devices in a distributed manner based on the data rate R of the moving image information. based on the reading speed T comprises at least one determination means for determining a and write control means for writing video information in a storage device determined by the determining means of the plurality of storage devices for writing video information, determining
The means is divided based on the data rate R and the read speed T.
Calculating means for calculating the calculated value R / T;
Notation used by rounding up decimals
This is a parallel storage device that includes a calculation unit that calculates the number S of storage devices.

[0007]

When moving picture information is input, the data rate R is determined by, for example, a data rate determining circuit. Thereafter, for example, a data storage position determination circuit calculates a division value R / T based on the data rate R and the reading speed T of the storage device, and when this value includes a value below the decimal point, the value after the decimal point is rounded up. . The value rounded up is the number S of storage devices to be used. When the number S of storage devices to be used is determined, the head of the storage device to be used next is determined, and the storage device to be used is specified by this. The number S of storage devices and the head storage device change each time the data rate R changes. afterwards,
For example, moving image information is written to a predetermined storage device by a data writing control circuit.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the number of storage devices for writing the moving image information changes according to the data rate R of the moving image information and the reading speed T of the storage device. It is possible to process a plurality of different data requests at the same time without being occupied by the information provision for the data request.

The above objects, other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of embodiments with reference to the drawings.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A moving picture display system 10 of this embodiment includes a writing section shown in FIG. 1 and a reading section shown in FIG. When writing the moving image information on the ten disks 12a to 12j, the moving image information and the identifier are transmitted to the data rate discriminating circuit 16 and the data transfer devices 18a to 18a through the input device 14.
8j and the search information writing circuit 20. In addition,
The identifier and the data rate R have a one-to-one correspondence.
That is, if the data rate R of the moving image information does not change in one program, the identifier is one for one program.
When the data rate R of the moving image information changes within one program, the number of identifiers per program changes accordingly. Incidentally, if the program changes, the identifier changes even if the data rate R is the same. In this embodiment, for convenience of explanation,
It is assumed that the data rate R does not change within one program. The data rate determination circuit 16 detects the data rate R added as attribute information to the head of the input moving image information, determines the data rate R, and sends the data rate R and the identifier to the data storage position determination circuit 22. . The data storage position determination circuit 22 is constituted by a microcomputer, and performs the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 every time the identifier changes. Thus, a disk to be stored is determined from the disks 12a to 12j. When the disk to be used is determined, the disk information (information of the disk to be used) is given to the data writing control circuit 24 and the search information writing circuit 20. Therefore, data write control circuit 24 outputs a control signal to any of data transfer devices 18a to 18j based on the provided disk information. As a result, the data transfer device that has received the control signal can perform 1/3 of the predetermined disk.
The moving image information is written every 0 seconds. Further, the search information writing circuit 20 writes the disk information and the identifier in the search disk 26 in association with each other.

Next, the processing operation of the data storage position determination circuit 22 will be described with reference to FIG. Note that, as described above, this processing operation is performed every time the identifier changes. First, when a data rate R of moving image information is input in step S1, a division value R / T is calculated based on the data rate R and the reading speed T of the disks 12a to 12j in step S3. Next, in step S5, the calculated value is rounded up to the decimal point, and this numerical value S is used as the number of disks to be used. Then, in step S7, the first disk M on which information is to be written is determined, and in step S9, disk information is output. The process in step S7 will be described in more detail. Each time different moving image information is input, that is, each time the identifier changes, M is incremented, and M = 1 is returned to the end. That is, the first disk storing data is changed cyclically.

Referring to FIG. 2, when reading the stored moving image information, data request processing circuit 28 retrieves the identifier of the moving image information included in the disk request from search information reading circuit 30.
Give to. In response to this, the search information read circuit 30 reads the disk information corresponding to the identifier from the search disk 26 and stores the read disk information in the data read control circuit 3.
Give to 2. The data read control circuit 32 outputs a control signal to one of the data transfer devices 18a to 18j based on the provided disk information. In response to the control signal, the data transfer device reads the moving image information from the corresponding disk and supplies it to one of the frame buffer memories 36a and 36b via the corresponding buffer among the buffers 34a to 34j. Thereby, the moving image information given to the frame buffer memory 36a or 36b is displayed on the display device 38a or 38b.

The input device 14 has a data rate R of 2.0 M
When the moving image information of B / s is given, the data rate R of the moving image information is given to the data storage position determining circuit 22. The reading speed T of the disks 12a to 12j is 0.6M
B / s, the division value R / T becomes 3.333... Based on the data rate R and the reading speed T.
The number of disks to be used becomes “4” by rounding up the decimal part. In addition, the first disk on which information is written is determined to be, for example, 12a. by this,
Approximately 0.067 MB of moving image information every 1/30 second is written to each of the disks 12 a to 12 d by about 0.017 MB. Further, the search information writing circuit 20 writes the disk information and the input identifier on the search disk 26 so as to correspond to each other.

The reason why real-time display is possible by distributing and storing data on the four disks 12a to 12d will be described below. Data of about 1/30 second is stored in each of the disks 12a to 12d in an amount of about 0.017 MB. For this reason, if each of the disks 12a to 12d reads data at a speed of about 0.51 MB per second, this value is within the data reading speed T = 0.6 MB / s, and the data is displayed in real time after reading. Is done. When data is stored on three disks,
About 0.067 MB of data per 1/30 second is stored in each of the disks 12a to 12c by about 0.022MB. However, 0.022 MB × 30 = 0.66 MB, which is higher than the data reading speed T = 0.6 MB, so that real-time display is impossible.

After the above-mentioned moving image information is written to the disks 12a to 12d, the writing process of moving image information having different data rates R is performed three times, and the data rate R is input to the input device 14 for the fourth time. When the moving image information of / s is given, the data rate R of the moving image information is given to the data storage position determining circuit 22. Disks 12a to 12j
Is 0.6 MB / s, the number of disks used in the data storage position determination circuit 22 is "3".
Is determined. Further, since the leading disk on which the previous rotation image information is written is 12d, the leading disk this time is determined to be 12e. Thus, 0.06 MB of moving image information every 1/30 second is stored in the disks 12e to 12g.
Is written in 0.02 MB each. Further, the search information writing circuit 20 writes the information on the search disk 26 so that the disc information and the inputted identifier correspond to each other.

When a data request is given to the data request processing circuit 28, the data request processing circuit 28 gives an identifier included in the data request to the search information reading circuit 30.
As a result, the search information reading circuit 30
From the disk information corresponding to the identifier, and supplies the disk information to the data read control circuit 32. Therefore, when the given disk information is disks 12e to 12g, data read control circuit 32 transmits data to data transfer devices 18e to 18g.
A control signal is given to 18g. As a result, the data transfer devices 18e to 18g are connected to the disks 12e to 12g.
, The moving image information is read out by 0.02 MB every 1/30 second and supplied to the frame buffer memory 36a via the buffers 34e to 34g. Therefore, the moving image information written on the disks 12e to 12g is displayed on the display device 38a in real time. When the moving image information is displayed on the display device 38a, the data request processing circuit 2
When a data request for moving image information written on the disks 12a to 12d is given to the data transfer device 8, the data transfer devices 18a to 18d read the moving image information in response to a control signal from the data read control circuit 32a. This is given to the frame buffer memory 36b. Thus, the moving image information written on the disks 12a to 12d is displayed on the display device 38b in real time. Thereby, even when the moving image information is displayed on the display device 38a, different moving image information is displayed on the display device 38b.

According to this embodiment, the moving image information is dispersedly stored in any of the plurality of disks 12a to 12j, and is read out in parallel at the time of reading, so that a high-quality moving image can be read out in real time. Can be displayed. Further, since the number of disks to be written and the disk to be written are changed according to the data rate of the moving image information, a large number of data requests can be received and processed to the maximum.

In this embodiment, the data rate discriminating circuit 16 detects and discriminates the data rate R added as attribute information to the head of the moving picture information. However, the present invention is not limited to this case. Of course, the present invention can be applied to the case where the data rate determination circuit 16 determines the data rate R based on the 14 information compression conditions. In this embodiment, the data rate discriminating circuit 16 automatically discriminates the data rate R. However, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the data rate is manually designated when storing moving image information. Of course. Furthermore, in this embodiment, the head disc to be used is cyclically changed every time different moving image information is input. However, the present invention is not limited to this case, and different moving image information is input. Needless to say, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the first disk used for each is changed at random. The moving image information provided to the input device 14 may be transferred from another storage device via an information network or the like, or may be directly input from a video camera or the like. Further, as disks applicable to this embodiment, there are optical disks and magnetic disks.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a part of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing another part of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a part of the operation of the embodiment in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a conventional technique.

FIG. 5 is an illustrative view showing operation of a conventional technique;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Moving image display system 12a-12j ... Disk 16 ... Data rate discrimination circuit 20 ... Search information writing circuit 22 ... Data storage position determination circuit 24 ... Data writing control circuit 30 ... Search information reading circuit 32 ... Data reading control circuit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/76-5/956 G06F 5 / 06,15 / 80

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A parallel storage device that writes moving image information in a plurality of storage devices in a distributed manner based on a data rate R of the moving image information, wherein the parallel storage device writes the moving image information based on the data rate R and a reading speed T of the storage device. Determining means for determining at least one of the plurality of storage devices to which the moving image information is written, and writing control means for writing the moving image information to the storage device determined by the determining means , wherein the determining means , The data rate R and the read speed
Calculating means for calculating a division value R / T based on the degree T;
And round up the number after the decimal point of the divided value R / T.
Means for calculating the number S of storage devices to be used
And a parallel storage device. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determining means further comprises :
Each time information is input, the top of the
2. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising specifying means for changing and specifying the storage device.
A parallel storage device according to claim 1.