An interactive broadband server system including multiple processors, a
backbone switch, multiple storage devices and multiple user processes.
The backbone switch enables high speed communication between the
processors. The storage devices are distributed across the processors to
store titles, where each title is divided into data chunks that are
distributed across the storage devices. The user processes are configured
for execution on the processors for interfacing multiple subscriber
locations. Each user process is operative to retrieve a requested title
from two or more of the processors via the backbone switch and to
assemble a requested title for delivery to a requesting subscriber
location. The storage devices may be organized into RAID groups.
Distributed media readers and a library storage system may be included.
Multiple isochronous titles may be simultaneously delivered to downstream
subscribers. Titles may be preprocessed and stored in a predetermined
format to reduce loading and processing overhead.