SYNCHRONIZATION PROPERTIES IN MULTIMEDIA SYSTEMS

“Multimedia” refers to the integrated generation, representation, processing, storage, and dissemination of independent machine processable information expressed in multiple time dependent and time independent media such as data, graphics, drawings, voice, audio, and video. The availability of the required technologies now and in the future stimulates research and development of products in this area. “Synchronization” assures a temporal order of events. Synchronization mechanisms are a well-studied topic in the area of operating systems, parallel programming languages, and database technology. This paper addresses the characteristics of synchronization mechanisms desirable for central and distributed multimedia systems. The concept of “multimedia objects” as components of an object based model for a multimedia system is introduced. The essential new synchronization requirement is restricted blocking together with synchronization features covering real-time aspects. Existing synchronization mechanisms can be altered or new ones defined to meet these requirements. © 1990 IEEE