Using system services for real time embedded multimedia applications

As embedded processing solutions gain in complexity and popularity, software engineers find the need to port multimedia algorithms from proof-of-concept PC-based systems with ample memory to embedded systems where resource management is essential to meet performance requirements.

Ideally, they want to achieve the highest possible performance without increasing the complexity of their “comfortable” programming model in terms of power consumption, memory allocation and performance.

What’s more, as applications blur the line between the realms of signal processing and control, into the realm of “convergent processing,” the software programming models from the two different worlds often collide. The challenges for the programmer dovetail with the challenges that silicon providers face - how can customers take advantage of features that enhance performance without overcomplicating their programming model?

Processor vendors take a multi-tiered approach to resolving this dilemma: adding hardware “hooks” on the silicon itself, providing a low-level software infrastructure that facilitates task scheduling and resource management, and offering a variety of operating systems that hide this complexity, to a great extent, from developers.

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