Patent ID: 7512324

Claim:
A data recording apparatus, for recording input data to a recording medium after compressing, comprising: a data compressor which compresses said input data into compressed data; a data recorder which records the compressed data to said recording medium intermittently; a single memory having both a first data region which temporarily stores first data usable in a compression process and a second data region which temporarily stores second data to be recorded to said recording medium, wherein the second data is the compressed data; a memory controller which allocates portions of the single memory for the first and second data regions, wherein the sizes of both the first and second data regions are adaptable such that when one of the first data region or the second data region decreases in size, the other data region increases in size; wherein the data recorder intermittently reads the compressed data from the second data region for recording the compressed data to said recording medium intermittently; wherein said data compressor includes a standard compression mode for performing the compression process using a plurality of intermediate data to compress input data, and a simple compression mode for performing the compression process using part of the plurality of intermediate data; and in the case where said data compressor is operating in said standard compression mode and recording of the compressed data to said recording medium is impossible, the mode of said data compressor is switched to said simple compression mode, the first data region decreases in size, and the second data region increases in size.