Operating-System Support for Distributed Multimedia

Sape J. Mullender - Ian M. Leslie - Derek McAuley

Abstract:

Multimedia applications place new demands upon processors, networks and operating systems. While some network designers, through ATM for example, hae considered revolutionary approaches to supporting multimedia, the same cannot be said for operating systems designers. Most work is evolutionary in nature attempting to identify additional features that can be added to existing systems to support multimedia. Here we describe the Pegasus project's attempt to buil an operating system from the ground up with multimedia support as a prime objective.

• Introduction
• Systems Architecture
  • Some ATM Devices
  • Control Protocol
  • Systems Components
• Kernel Support
  • Memory Model
  • Virtual-Processor Model
  • Domain Scheduling
  • Events
  • Kernel Privileged Sections
  • Nemesis State
• Naming and Invocation
• Storage
• Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References
• About this document ...