Introduction

As more applications transition from PC-centric designs to embedded solutions, software engineers need to port media-based algorithms from prototype systems where memory is an "unlimited" resource (such as a PC or a workstation) to embedded systems where resource management is essential to meet performance requirements. Ideally, they want to achieve the highest performance for a given application without increasing the complexity of their "comfortable" programming model. Figure 7.1 shows a summary of the challenges they face in terms of power consumption, memory allocation and performance.

Figure 7.1: Moving an application to an embedded processor

A small set of programming frameworks are indispensable in navigating through key challenges of multimedia processing, like organizing input and output data buffer flows, partitioning memory intelligently, and using semaphores to control data movement. While reading this chapter, you should see how the concepts discussed in the previous chapters fit together into a cohesive structure. Knowing how audio and video work within the memory and DMA architecture of the processor you select will help you build your own framework for your specific application.