Abstract: The invention relates to a system for grouping content items. A consumer equipment or computer (100) comprises a grouping principle processor (109) that determines a content item grouping principle used by a user to group content items such as music files, video files or email. The content item grouping principle is determined in response to a grouping category scheme, such as a folder structure used to store content items. The apparatus (100) further comprises a classification characteristic processor (113) for determining a classification characteristic of a new content item. For example the classification characteristic may relate to an artist of a music file and the content item grouping principle may comprise a list of folders which comprise music files associated with specific artists.

Abstract: A system (100, 300) like a video on demand server has a storage medium (106) with a number of files (200) from which data can be fetched or in which data can be stored. A file contains a number of clusters (202, 204, 206) and each cluster contains a number of storage sectors (208) that are physically successively organized on the storage medium. When a new stream is requested, either for reading or writing, a block size (210) is determined for the new stream. The block size is large enough to support the rate of the stream and is chosen such that a cluster can be read with an integer number of blocks by evenly partitioning the size of the cluster into the size of the blocks reading the cluster.

Abstract: Data, stored in MRAM-cells (12) should be protected against misuse or read-out by unauthorised persons. The present invention provides an array (10) of MRAM-cells (12) provided with a security device (14) for destroying data stored in the MRAM-cells (12) when they are tampered with. This is achieved by placing a permanent magnet (16) adjacent the MRAM-array (10) in combination with a soft-magnetic flux-closing layer (18). As long as the soft-magnetic layer (18) is present, the magnetic field lines (20) from the permanent magnet (16) are deviated and flow through this soft-magnetic layer (18). When somebody is tampering with the MRAM-array (10), e.g. by means of reverse engineering, and the flux-closing layer (18) is removed, the flux is no longer deviated and affects the nearby MRAM-array (10), thus destroying the data stored in the MRAM-cells (12).

Abstract: A PVR device (10) having a varying size time-shift buffer (22) that provides a guaranteed minimum replay time for a more consistent consumer experience. The PVR device includes a video data storage means (24), a video input means (12), a video output means (32), a user input means (28), an input module (30) for receiving the video input data and writing the video input in the time-shift buffer (22), an output module (32) for reading the written video data from the time-shift buffer (22) and displaying it via the video output means (32) and a trimming module (42) for reducing the size of the time-shift buffer (22).

Abstract: A universal memory device is presented that provides adaptability to existing hardware and software environments. The memory can “mimic” existing memory technology combining the advantages of integration all memory capacity in to one single technology and still providing the implicit protections and access characteristics known from the different existing memory technologies.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for distributing information content. The content is encoded into a plurality of layers comprising a base layer and an enhancement layer, such that the base layer is needed for reconstructing said information content. The enhancement layer is transmitted by means of superdistribution. Optionally, an accessible sample of the base layer can also be provided. When receiving the layer(s) users will become interested in purchasing the content Thus, according to the method a request for purchase is received from a user, and upon such a request the base layer is transmitted to the user. Not until the user holds both the base layer and the enhancement layer the content can be satisfactorily used. A system, a server, and a computer program product, providing corresponding distribution capabilities are also disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a write controller (10) for a memory with a plurality of non-volatile storage cells, a read controller for a memory with a plurality of nonvolatile storage cells, to a combined write/read controller, to a solid state device comprising a memory with a plurality of non-volatile storage cells, a programmer device for writing a binary code to a non-volatile memory, to a method for writing data comprising at least one input bit to a memory having non-volatile storage cells, and to a method for controlling the integrity of data comprising at least one input bit stored in non-volatile storage cells of a memory. The invention provides a reliable detection of changes that have occurred to the content of a non-volatile memory. The basic concept of the present invention is to extend information stored in a non-volatile memory by at least one checking bit. The checking bit is allocated to one code bit, or to each of a plurality of code bits.

Abstract: When booting a personal computer, it needs to find instructions immediately to tell it what to run to start up the personal computer. These it finds within the so-called basic input/output system (BIOS) program. Usually the BIOS program is stored in a separate location, for example a ROM. It is usually shadowed into system memory (SM) to speed up its operation. The copying of the BIOS program to system memory (SM), amongst others, causes the boot process to be a relatively slow process. In the present invention, the system memory (SM) comprises a persistent system memory (PSM) and the BIOS program is stored in the persistent system memory (PSM). Furthermore, selected information used by the BIOS program is stored in persistent system memory (PSM) as well. As a result, the speed of booting the personal computer is significantly increased.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for managing memory space of a persistent-memory device and to a memory management device. The memory management method of the invention comprises a step of allocating (S14) at least one first part of said memory space to a file system (74) upon request from said file system (74) or from an application (70). The method and the device of the present invention enable a dynamical allocation of persistent-memory space to a file system. This way, the memory space of a persistent memory is effectively used also for write-caching. At the same time, write-caching and storing steps can be accelerated.

Abstract: A method for breathing of scheduling algorithms for a storage device (110). The method including: (a) computing a worst-case duration of a breathing cycle (P) for the storage device (110); (b) starting a breathing cycle; (c) determining if one of the following becomes true before the end of P: (i) a number of real-time requests is at least a predetermined threshold based on a number of data streams and performance parameters of the storage device; and (ii) a number of pending requests for any single stream becomes more than one; (d) if at least one of (i) and (ii) remain true during the duration of P, starting a subsequent breathing cycle after completion of the breathing cycle; and (e) if both of (i) and (ii) are not true during the duration of P, waiting P time units from the start of the breathing cycle before starting the subsequent breathing cycle.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of writing data to and reading data from a memory (102) by a host. By limiting processing time, time restrictions regarding the data to be processed can be met. However, this is at the expense of data integrity. By setting time limits for a group (300) of multiple processing assignments and dynamic allocation of time, reserved for error recovery and retries, data integrity can be improved, while time limits can still be met. Furthermore, by attaching priorities to the assignments, multiple types of data can be handled in one group of assignments. For example, assignments with real-time requirements can be put in a group with assignments with best effort requirements. In this way, more flexible planning of processing assignments is possible. The invention also relates to a system for writing data to and reading data from a memory.

Abstract: In a file system and in particular in a real-time file system it might not be possible to write a data to disc completely. Nevertheless the data that has been written to disc is often still useful, for example in case of an MPEG-stream. Marking parts of the file defective in the file system providing meta-data enables an application to perform application specific error correction or error concealment By using a filter driver, the file system can be extended with this error handling, thus making this functionality available to every application.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for reducing fragmentation (both file fragmentation and free-space fragmentation) in digital storage devices (10). In such a device in which a plurality of files is available for deletion the invention proposes selectively deleting the file that maximises defragmentation. The selection may optimise file and free-space defragmentation.

Abstract: A removable rewritable computer storage has a command set thereon for controlling a standard operation of a computer device. The command set includes a command having an activation field, a function field, a status field, and a results field. A command engine of the computer device reads the activation field to determine an activation condition upon which the command is to be executed. The command engine reads the function field and any associated arguments to determine the function of the command. The command engine reads the status field to determine an executable status of the command. The command engine writes the results of an execution of the command to the results field.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method of writing data to and reading data from a memory (102) by a host. By limiting processing time, time restrictions regarding the data to be processed can be met. However, this is at the expense of data integrity. By setting time limits for a group (300) of multiple processing assignments and dynamic allocation of time, reserved for error recovery and retries, data integrity can be improved, while time limits can still be met. Furthermore, by attaching priorities to the assignments, multiple types of data can be handled in one group of assignments. For example, assignments with real-time requirements can be put in a group with assignments with best effort requirements. In this way, more flexible planning of processing assignments is possible. The invention also relates to a system for writing data to and reading data from a memory.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and system for reducing fragmentation (both file fragmentation and free-space fragmentation) in digital storage devices (10). In such a device in which a plurality of files is available for deletion the invention proposes selectively deleting the file that maximises defragmentation. The selection may optimise file and free-space defragmentation.

Abstract: A system (100, 300) like a video on demand server has a storage medium (106) with a number of files (200) from which data can be fetched or in which data can be stored. A file contains a number of clusters (202, 204, 206) and each cluster contains a number of storage sectors (208) that are physically successively organized on the storage medium. When a new stream is requested, either for reading or writing, a block size (210) is determined for the new stream. The block size is large enough to support the rate of the stream and is chosen such that a cluster can be read with an integer number of blocks by evenly partitioning the size of the cluster into the size of the blocks reading the cluster.