A Lightweight Linux Architecture for Resource-Limited Media Systems

Overview

Integrating multimedia processing into resource-limited computer systems (either stand-alone or part of a network environment) is more challenging than integrating it into traditional systems. With regards to multimedia applications, conventional systems have essentially limitless memory, non-volatile storage and computing power. Embedded devices are usually limited by at least one of those resources, if not all. This paper describes how the authors approached multimedia processing on limited platforms by introducing a Linux-based approach that focuses specially on the interaction of an enhanced kernel scheduling behavior and a down-scaled operating system. The experimental results clearly show the benefit of the prototype for MPEG processing, as compared to a full-version Linux system.