Analysis of I/O subsystem design for multimedia workstations

Abstract

This paper argues that the CPU/memory data path is a potential throughput bottleneck in multimedia workstations, and analyzes the implications for the design of the I/O data path. It identifies known techniques for optimizing the data path, and highlights subtle interactions that occur when these techniques are used in combination. The paper concludes by proposing an abstract type for data buffers, called IOData, and argues that this abstraction provides a flexible basis for the end-to-end optimization of the I/O data path.