The Design and Implementation of an Operating System to Support Distributed Multimedia Applications

Ian Leslie, Derek McAuley, Richard Black, Timothy Roscoe,
Paul Barham, David Evers, Robin Fairbairns, and Eoin Hyden

Abstract:

Support for multimedia applications by general purpose computing platforms has been the subject of considerable research. Much of this work is based on an evolutionary strategy in which small changes to existing systems are made. The approach adopted here is to start ab initio with no backward compatibility constraints. This leads to a novel structure for an operating system. The structure aims to decouple applications from one another and to provide multiplexing of all resources, not just the CPU, at a low level. The motivation for this structure, a design based on the structure, and its implementation on a number of hardware platforms is described.

• Introduction
• The Model of Management
  • Feedback for QoS Control
  • Crosstalk
  • Requirements on the Operating System
• Structural Overview
  • The Virtual Processor Interface
    • Activations
    • Events
    • Time
  • Kernel Structure
• Scheduling
  • Scheduling Architecture and Service Model
  • The Atropos Scheduler
    • Interrupts and Latency hint
    • Use of Slack Time
  • Other Schedulers
  • Intra-domain scheduling
    • Event counts and sequencers
    • Concurrency primitives using events
• Interfaces and Invocation
• Inter-Domain Communication
  • Binding
    • Implicit v. Explicit binding
  • Remote Invocation
    • Standard mechanism
  • Rbufs
    • Device Hardware Considerations
    • Protocol Software Considerations
    • Operation
    • Longer channels
    • Complex channels
• Conclusions
  • Current State
  • Future Plans
  • Conclusions
• References
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