Video Applications Development Platform

Abstract

The objective of the video applications development platform research is to develop the technical basis for Intelligent Frame Buffers useful in high definition displays. This project has three components: (1) Physical implementation of the Intelligent Frame Buffer (IFB) which includes multiple cooperating CPUs on a single display. (2) Software operating system support which forms the basis for display sharing and display cooperation. (3) Applications-level software support which forms the basis for programming the intelligent frame buffer in such applications as intelligent sensor fusion. The focus of the work is on display sharing by multiple processors and intelligent autonomous display manipulation. The IFB project operates in a domain that minimizes the need for explicit user input as opposed to domains which involve pure user manipulation, e.g. "smart controls," such as 'fly by wire' systems which have no need for display, or 'user monitoring.' This report describes the results of the first year of a multi-year project, namely: (1) architectural design and hardware prototype of regular resolution IFB; (2) survey of work in realtime operating systems for imagery and MACH, resulting in an architectural design of realtime MACH kernel for imagery; (3) prototype regular resolution workstation integrating realtime MACH kernel, IFB, and Advanced Video Display Systems (AVDS) applications building environments; and (4) designs, prototypes and systems architecture design for high resolution IFB, MACH kernel and applications building environment with networking.