Patent ID: 6754241
Filing Date: 2004-06-22
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
A computer system adapted to (1) generate a compressed bitstream for each of a plurality of independent input data streams and (2) combine the resulting plurality of compressed bitstreams into a single multiplexed output data stream, the computer system comprising:(a) one or more encoding sub-systems, each encoding sub-system adapted to receive a different one of the independent input data streams and generate a corresponding compressed bitstream; (b) a central processing sub-system adapted to receive at least one of the independent input data streams and generate a corresponding compressed bitstream; (c) a statistical multiplexing (stat-mux) sub-system adapted to combine the compressed bitstreams from the one or more encoding sub-systems and from the central processing sub-system into the single multiplexed output data stream; and (d) a system bus connected to each encoding sub-system, to the central processing sub-system, and to the stat-mux sub-system, wherein: each encoding sub-system is further connected directly to the stat-mux sub-system such that the compressed bitstream from said each encoding sub-system is transmitted directly to the stat-mux sub-system without being transmitted over the system bus; each compressed bitstream generated by the central processing sub-system is transmitted to the stat-mux sub-system via the system bus; each input data stream has a specified desired latency level; at least two input data streams can have different specified desired latency levels; and the stat-mux sub-system is adapted to apply statistical multiplexing taking into account the corresponding specified desired latency level for each input data stream to: generate and transmit control signals back to each encoding sub-system and to the central processing sub-system to control encoding processing used to generate the corresponding compressed bitstreams from the corresponding input data streams; and control how the resulting compressed bitstreams are combined to form the single multiplexed output data stream.