High speed record and playback system

A method for storing data in a plurality of storage media and playing back said data, said data originating from an incoming high speed data stream, the method comprising:

• a) receiving said incoming high speed data stream;
• b) removing headers from said incoming data stream;
• c) routing said data stream to a specific one of a plurality of dedicated software data caches;
• d) at said software data cache, caching data from said data stream until said software data cache reaches a predetermined fill level;
• e) at said software data cache and simultaneous with step d), transmitting data in said software data cache to a specific one of said plurality of storage media;
• f) switching a routing of said data stream to another one of said plurality of software data caches when said specific one of said plurality of software data caches reaches a predetermined fill level;
• g) sequentially repeating steps c) to f) for each one of said plurality of software data caches such that only one software data cache is receiving data from said data stream at any one time.

A system for use in storing recording and playing back at least one high-speed data stream, the system comprising:

• a packetizer module for removing headers from data packets in an incoming data stream;
• a plurality of dedicated software caches for caching a data stream received from said packetizer module;
• a plurality of storage media for storing data blocks derived from said data stream, each software cache being associated with at least one of said plurality of storage media;
• wherein said data stream is stored using a method comprising:
• a) receiving said high speed data stream;
• b) removing data packet headers from said data stream using said packetizer module;
• c) caching said streamed data using one of said plurality of dedicated software caches;
• d) repeating step c) for each one of said plurality of dedicated software caches, said software caches being accessed in a predetermined sequential manner;
• e) simultaneous with steps c) and d), transmitting cached data from said plurality of software caches to said plurality of dedicated storage media, data from a specific software cache being stored in storage media associated with said specific software cache;
• wherein only one software cache receives data from said data stream at any one time.

Computer readable media having encoded thereon computer readable and computer executable instructions which, when executed, implements a method for routing an incoming high speed data stream for storage and playback, the method comprising:

• a) receiving said high speed data stream;
• b) removing data packet headers from said data stream to produce streamed data;
• c) caching said streamed data, said data being cached in a set of dedicated software caches, said set of dedicated software caches comprising a plurality of dedicated software caches;
• d) repeating step c) for each one of said plurality of dedicated software caches, said software caches being accessed in a predetermined sequential manner;
• e) simultaneous with steps c) and d), transmitting cached data from said plurality of software caches to a plurality of dedicated storage media, each of said software caches being associated with at least one of said dedicated storage media, data from a storage cache being stored in storage media associated with said storage cache;
• wherein only one software cache receives data from said data stream at any one time.