Bus Bandwidth Management in a High Resolution Video Workstation

Time-Critical Computing encompasses that set of applications to which correctness of operation is a function of time. Applications that manipulate digital audio and video frequently have timeliness requirements associated with their correct function. These applications must perform operations such as the acquisition, processing, and delivery of audio or video data within a specified set of time constraints (as defined by the user, the application, or the media itself) or the value of the computation is significantly diminished. Furthermore, a system's effectiveness may be reduced if it permits computations to consume resources when they can no longer provide value to the user (e.g., after their deadlines are missed). A technique known as Time-Driven Resource Management (TDRM) has been developed to manage system resources, and this paper describes the application of this technique to the management of i/o bus bandwidth within an experimental integrated video workstation.