Importance

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Abstract

Customer Premise Devices (CPDs) and associated methods according to the invention allow subscribers to send diverse subscriber requests and to receive incoming information such as movies, videogames, educational, business and consumer information, and scientific and other reasearch-related database information. The CPD controls transmissions, carried over a communications medium, between a central information source and customer premise equipment, such as TVs and computers, housed at a remote station. The CPD has (a) a first interface linked to the communications medium; (b) a second interface linked to the customer premise equipment; and (c) an interface controller linking the first interface and the second interface. The interface controller includes (c1) an operations memory for storing a limited number of operations algorithms; (c2) an instructions memory for temporarily storing operation instructions received via at least one of the interfaces; and (c3) a processor that (i) accesses any of the operations memory, the instructions memory and the interfaces, (ii) that processes the operations algorithms and operation instructions, thereby generating prompt signals and processing results, (iii) that routes the prompt signals to at least one of the interfaces or one of the memories in accordance with the processing results, and (iv) that routes data streams, supplied from the central information source, from the first interface to the second interface, in accordance with the processing results.

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First Claim