System for facilitating continuous, real-time, unidirectional, and asynchronous intertask and end-device communication in a multimedia data processing system using open architecture data communication modules

摘要

A data processing system is provided for executing multimedia applications which interface with multimedia end devices that consume or produce at least one of (a) real-time and (b) asynchronous streamed data. The data processing system includes a central processing unit for data processing operations including execution of the multimedia application, a digital signal processor for processing data including the streamed data, and a plurality of modular components which cooperate to provide a substantially open architecture. The plurality of modular components include a plurality of modular multimedia software tasks which are executable by the digital signal processor and which may be called by the multimedia application for execution in the digital signal processor, as well as a plurality of data communication modules for linking selected ones of the plurality of modular multimedia software tasks with selected others of the plurality of modular multimedia software tasks, and for linking selected multimedia end devices with selected ones of the plurality of modular multimedia software tasks. Each of the plurality of data communication modules allows continuous, real-time and unidirectional communication of streamed data. The enhanced connectivity of the modular approach for the multimedia data processing system allows additional modular multimedia software tasks to be added to the plurality of modular multimedia software tasks and selectively linked to selected ones of the plurality of modular multimedia software tasks and selected ones of the multimedia end devices.