Process and circuit arrangement for storing dictations in a digital dictating machine

US6275804A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Grundig AG · DE

Inventors

• Holger Carl · Ergolding, DE
• Dirk Kirchmann · Ergolding, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 21, 1998
• Grant date: Aug 14, 2001
• Expiry date: Jul 21, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G11C2207/16
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

The digital storage of speech signals in a semiconducting memory is known in the art. Large quantities of storage space are required for storing speech signals and therefore, for long recordings for example dictations, a very large semiconductor memory is needed. This is advantageously implemented using a so-called flash memory. However, the contents of such a memory can only be erased in large sections at a time so that minor changes such as partial erasures and insertions are not possible. The total available memory is subdivided into clusters and a table of contents is created in which the stored files and the state occupation of each cluster is stored, at is known in the art concerning the DOS file manager. Moreover, information which indicates which cluster is the next cluster of a file is stored for each cluster in a file allocation table. This process in accordance with the invention allows for erasures or insertions to be carried out by altering the indication in the file allocation table to the following cluster. In this manner, clusters may be both inserted into and removed from a file. In addition, information on each cluster includes the number of speech frames stored i…