Low power system and method for playing compressed audio data

A method for reducing the power consumption of a portable audio player, comprising:

• storing in a temporary storage unit compressed audio data and a play list identifying a set of audio recordings and an order in which to play the identified set of audio recordings;
• transmitting the compressed audio data from the temporary storage unit to a data converter;
• converting the compressed audio data into a decompressed audio signal;
• transmitting the decompressed audio signal to an output port;
• when a predetermined amount of compressed audio data has been transmitted from the temporary storage unit, copying compressed audio data from a disk storage unit into the temporary storage unit, wherein the copied data, when converted into a decompressed audio signal, has a transmission time that is greater than the time taken to copy the data from the disk storage unit into the temporary storage unit;
• decreasing power to the disk storage unit when copying of compressed audio data from the disk storage unit into the temporary storage unit reaches a predefined stop condition;
• and
• increasing power to the disk storage unit, to enable copying of audio data from the disk storage unit into the temporary storage unit, when the amount of compressed audio data remaining to be converted reaches a threshold level unless the play list is empty.

A data storage and transmission unit, comprising:

• a non-volatile memory unit for storing compressed data comprising a multiplicity of units;
• a volatile memory unit for storing compressed data and a list identifying a subset of the units and an order in which to process the identified subset of the units;
• a converter for decompressing the compressed data so as to generate decompressed data;
• an output port, coupled to the converter, for transmitting the decompressed data from to an output device;
• and
• control logic for copying compressed data from the non-volatile memory unit into the volatile memory unit, wherein the copied compressed data, when converted into decompressed data, has an associated transmission time that is greater than the time required to copy the compressed data from the non-volatile memory unit into the volatile memory unit;
• wherein the control logic is configured to increase power to the non-volatile memory unit, to enable copying of compressed data from the non-volatile memory unit into the volatile memory unit, when the amount of compressed data remaining to be converted by the compressed data converter reaches a threshold level unless the list is empty, and is configured to decrease power to the non-volatile memory unit when copying of compressed data from the non-volatile memory unit into the volatile memory unit reaches a predefined stop condition.