Abstract: A fault tolerant, secondary storage engine (such as a RAID engine) is closely coupled with a file system to achieve greater overall throughput in storage/database applications having a mix of large, sequential access transactions and small, random access transactions. In addition, disk rebuild time may be greatly reduced using such an embodiment. A logical storage space representing a storage area in a set of non-volatile storage devices is divided into nonoverlapping storage allocation units (SAUs) such as stripes, each SAU to overlay all of the devices in the set. Different fault tolerant storage methodologies (FTSMs) are assigned to access (i.e. read/write) data in the different SAUs, respectively. An access is made to an SAU in the set responsive to an input storage request of a first or second type, respectively.

Abstract: An application programming interface for a digital disk recorder uses a port to link resources together to form a multimedia recorder that emulates a tape recorder while retaining the flexibility of the digital disk recorder. The port is a matrix of timelines for each resource, with each track in the port representing a media stream associated with a different one of the resources. A dynamic subsystem controls recording and playing back multimedia between the resources and a disk file system of the digital disk recorder using the port. A static subsystem maintains on the disk file system a database of movies recorded by the digital disk recorder from the resources according to the port, with each movie being a collection of media files for each resource that are independently accessible.

Abstract: A graphics display system (10) includes a display screen (14) on which images are formed and a data transform circuit (12) that provides transformations between model data representing the basic shape of an object and display data that are employed in the formation of an image of the object on the display screen. The model data are transformed into display data in accordance with position data and orientation data that correspond, respectively, to a translation and a rotation of the image on the display screen. The data transform circuit communicates with a central processing unit (30) that controls the operation of the graphics display system. The data transform circuit includes data storage registers (34, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46) that receive and hold the model, position, and orientation data. A multiplier circuit (68) and an adder circuit (112) calculate the transformation of the model data into display data.

Abstract: A digital-to-analog converter comprises a current source for supplying a current of predetermined magnitude to a circuit node, and a switch connected to the circuit node, and defining a first current path leading to a reference potential terminal and a second current path leading to an output terminal. The switch has an input terminal, at which it receives a first digital signal of one binary digit for conversion to analog form, and also has a reference terminal, and has a first condition, when the voltage at the reference terminal is higher than that at the input terminal, in which the current supplied to the circuit node is delivered to the output terminal, and a second condition, when the voltage at the reference terminal is lower than that at the input terminal, in which the current is delivered to the reference potential terminal.

Abstract: A high speed four quadrant multiplier is current controlled and uses a high speed differential output current digital to analog converter. Independent adjustment of the multiplying factor without changing the DC offset is accomplished. Also a true zero input signal will cause a true zero output signal and the operation of the multiplier is extremely fast. The analog throughput of the multiplier is independent of the speed of the digital to analog converter.