System and related methods for reducing memory requirements of a media processing system

• US 7,237,244 B2
• Filed: 01/30/2006
• Issued: 06/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rudolph, Eric H., Miller, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMSON, WILLIAM D
• Application Number:
  US11/275,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20060129748A1
• Time in Patent Office: 512 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/315, 719/316, 719/321, 719/322, 718/100, 718/104, 715719-723
• US Class Current: 719/316
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes

Abstract

Various embodiments pertain to generating a development project including at least a matrix switch and one or more adjacent objects. In one or more embodiments, an initial rendering of the development project is established and buffer size and attributes are negotiated between an input/output coupling the matrix switch to an input/output of the adjacent objects. The negotiated buffer is utilized to communicate information between the input/output of the matrix switch and the input/output of the adjacent object by sharing information via the shared buffer.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a media editing project comprising:

providing a matrix switch and one or more adjacent objects;

establishing an initial rendering of the media editing project; and

negotiating buffer size and attribute characteristics between an input/output of the matrix switch and an input/output of adjacent objects, wherein negotiated buffers are utilized to communicate media content between the matrix switch and adjacent buffers by sharing a common buffer between inputs and outputs,

wherein the media editing project is established by a render engine, exposed from an operating system executing on a computing system implementing the media editing project,

wherein the matrix switch negotiates to be an allocator of buffers between the matrix switch and objects coupled to it to facilitate communication between the matrix switch and said objects, without the need for memory copy operation, and

wherein if the matrix switch is not able to be an allocator of a buffer, a memory copy operation is used to communicate media content with an associated object.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising

modifying input/output associations between objects in the initial rendering of the media editing project based at least in part on the negotiation.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein input/output associations are communicative connections through one or more buffers.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the initial rendering of the media editing project included a separate buffer for each input and output of each object within the project, some of which are replaced with a single buffer shared between select input(s) and output(s) based, at least in part, on the negotiation.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein memory copy operations are utilized to communicate information to/from input(s) and/or output(s) of the matrix switch for which the switch is not the allocator.

6. A storage medium comprising a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed, implement a method of claim 1.

7. A computing system comprising:

a storage medium having stored therein a plurality of executable instructions; and

an execution unit, coupled to the storage medium, to execute at least a subset of the plurality of executable instructions to implement a method according to claim 1.

14. The matrix switch object according to claim 1, wherein matrix switch object identifies buffer size and attribute requirements of all objects coupled to an input/output of the matrix switch object, and attempts to negotiate a common buffer size and attribute requirement for all switch input(s) and output(s).

15. The matrix switch object according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of buffers, shared between the dynamically determined inputs and the dynamically determined outputs to buffer processed media content for subsequent use by objects coupled to the matrix switch object.

8. A computer-implemented development system comprising:

computer-readable storage media;

instructions in the computer-readable storage media which, when executed, implement;

one or more processing chains; and

a matrix switch, coupled to the one or more processing chains, to recursively pass media content received from the one or more processing chains through one or more processing objects to implement a media editing project, wherein the matrix switch negotiates buffer size and attributes between the matrix switch and adjacent objects, wherein the negotiated buffers are utilized to communicate the media content between the matrix switch and adjacent buffers without requiring a buffer copy operation,

wherein the media editing project is established by a render engine, exposed from an operating system executing on a computing system implementing the development system,

wherein the matrix switch negotiates to be an allocator of buffers between the matrix switch and objects coupled to it to facilitate communication between the matrix switch and said objects, without the need for memory copy operation, and

wherein if the matrix switch is not able to be an allocator of a buffer, a memory copy operation is used to communicate media content with an associated object.

9. The development system according to claim 8, wherein each of the objects comprising the one or more processing chains attempt to negotiate buffer size and attribute characteristics in order to facilitate a shared buffer for communicating information between the objects of the processing chain.

10. The development system according to claim 9, wherein the objects establish shared buffers between an input of one object and the output of an upstream object upon negotiating mutually acceptable buffer size and attribute characteristics.

11. A matrix switch object embodied on a computer-readable media, the matrix switch object comprising:

a dynamically determined number of inputs to receive media content for a media editing project from one or more processing chains; and

a dynamically determined number of outputs, selectively coupling one or more of the dynamically determined inputs to one or more of the dynamically determined outputs, wherein a matrix switch object negotiates with objects coupled to each of the dynamically determined inputs and outputs to be an allocator for buffer size and attribute requirements to facilitate communication between objects and within the matrix switch object using a shared buffer of agreed upon size and attribute characteristics,

wherein the media editing project is established by a render engine, exposed from an operating system executing on a computing system implementing the matrix switch object, and

wherein if the matrix switch object is not able to be an allocator of a buffer, a memory copy operation is used to communicate media content with an associated object.

12. The matrix switch object according to claim 11, wherein an input/output coupling the object to the input/output of the matrix switch object each have an independent buffer, wherein communication occurs between the object and the matrix switch object by copying content from one buffer to another buffer.

13. The matrix switch object according to claim 11, wherein communication between the input/output of the matrix switch object and any other input/output, internal or external to the matrix switch object is performed using a memory copy operation.