A micro-kernel for isochronous video-data transfer

We developed a new micro-kernel (Tactix) that provides isochronous thread scheduling. Isochronous scheduling is designed to achieve cyclic executions of multiple threads with extremely low jitters (less than 1 msec). Furthermore, we made an experimental video-server application on top of Tactix and evaluated its performance and service quality. The experimental VOD (video on demand) system consists of four client PCs and a video-server, and they are connected by a 10 Mbps Ethernet on which both the MPEG1 down-streams and command up-streams are transferred. Results show that the system achieves a packet loss ratio of less than 0.02 percent, without retransmission, when packet transmissions of the down-streams are controlled by the isochronous scheduler.