FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to computer memory hardware and systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Artificial methods of data storage have existed for millennia, dating at least from the time of cave paintings and tallying by marking sticks approximately 40,000 years ago. Systematic data storage using standardized symbols—for example, writing on clay tablets—dates at least from Ancient Sumer in the third millennium B.C.E. More recently, data storage using computers has arisen, now predominantly in a digital format involving the serial storage and retrieval of bits of data.

Data storage hardware currently varies depending on whether it is used for short-term or long-term functions, and a more or less volatile, fast or dense storage type may be used for those functions. Many seek a universal memory device, fulfilling both long- and short-term functions needed for computing, to eliminate the cost of manufacturing multiple devices using different technology.

It should be understood that the disclosures in this application related to the background of the invention in, but not limited to, this section titled “Background,” are to aid readers in comprehending the invention, and do not set forth prior art or other publicly known aspects affecting the application; instead the disclosures in this application related to the background of the invention comprise details of the inventor's own discoveries, work and work results, including aspects of the present invention. Nothing in the disclosures related to the background of the invention is or should be construed as an admission related to prior art or the work of others prior to the conception or reduction to practice of the present invention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

New, more efficient and robust data storage devices and techniques are provided. In some aspects of the invention, a new form of data storage device is provided, incorporating storage units with simple writeable domains, and a readable conditioning structure positioned around the units. The readable structure elaborates the simpler data written in the domains to generate more complex and complete data sets. In some embodiments, the physical arrangement, or other attributes, of structural storage device elements may serve as the patterned reference device for data enhancement and supplementation.

In other aspects of the invention, a new supplementation based media and system are provided. A local file and control system with general and specific identification attributes and management-related programming comprises a data density distribution that varies depending on media depth (immediacy, probability of access, and other factors). A remote supplementation source and control system are also provided in a common network (such as the internet) with the local control system. The local control system reports local file attributes, authorization and factors impacting media depth in real time, and the supplementation source and/or control system deliver both permanent and streaming data corrections, supplementation and format updates to the local control system and/or a Consumption Feed.

In other aspects of the invention, specialized patterns in a reference media or file are used in a new technique for data storage. By defining and recording pattern matches and other comparisons with the reference media or file, new data can be stored more efficiently in some contexts than with literal, bit-by-bit storage alone. In some embodiments, a control system comprising computer hardware builds a relational context and comparison library between the reference media or file and newly input data, and stores new data at least in part based on its relationship to the reference media or file. These aspects may be used in conjunction with the supplementation based methods discussed above, to build a very storage-space-efficient data distribution, by prioritizing the storage of data by matches and other relationships to the separate reference media or file. Devices implementing this design to store data require very little space, albeit with some incompleteness and inaccuracies absent supplementation, but which incompleteness and inaccuracies can be quickly completed and otherwise improved by the remote supplementation source and control system, and/or a conventional digital media data storage device.

The storage methods of the present invention may be used in a wide variety of data storage platforms, while generating short-, medium- and long-term speed improvements and space efficiencies, but several specialized devices, optimizing the use of the methods, are also provided. For example, in some aspects, the relative 3-dimensional arrangement and orientation of storage elements itself provides a data pattern serving as a reference pattern or direct data storage technique.

Canons of Construction and Definitions

Where any term is set forth in a sentence, clause or statement (“statement”), each possible meaning, significance and/or sense of any term used in this application should be read as if separately, conjunctively and/or alternatively set forth in additional statements, as necessary to exhaust the possible meanings of each such term and each such statement.

It should also be understood that, for convenience and readability, this application may set forth particular pronouns and other linguistic qualifiers of various specific gender and number, but, where this occurs, all other logically possible gender and number alternatives should also be read in as both conjunctive and alternative statements, as if equally, separately set forth therein.

“Media Depth,” in addition to its ordinary meaning and special meaning in the art to which it pertains, means, with respect to a data storage media or file aspect or a represented manifestation of such an aspect, the probability that the aspect or manifestation will be accessed or required for use, or the imminence of the aspect or manifestation being accessed or required for use, or both the probability and imminence of the aspect or manifestation being accessed or required, each of which may be weighted or otherwise included in a function along with other factors, including but not limited to the proximity and status of other related media, file(s), manifestations, or other computing aspects, and an assessed cost of failed or incomplete access or availability of the media aspect.

“Consumption Feed,” in addition to its ordinary meaning and special meaning in the art to which it pertains, means content or a stream of content, including but not limited to video, audio, documentary or other content from media, delivered or otherwise manifested in a form for use by a user.

“Manifestation Unit,” in addition to its ordinary meaning and special meaning in the art to which it pertains, means a unit of content or other data being used, including but not limited to video, audio, documentary or other content from media, requiring a given content delivery system resource unit, such as a unit of time or processor power, to deliver for consumption or other use.

