Oceanport, New Jersey-based Concurrent Computer Corp has implemented Microware Systems Corp’s David Digital Audio/Video Interactive Decoder UpLink server communications protocol software on its Maxion/IMS interactive multimedia server. The David UpLink provides an isochronous file service interface for audio and video data to be transmitted to television set-top boxes running the David derivative of the OS/9 real-time embedded operating system so that multimedia applications can be written independently of the server on which they are stored, or from which they retrieve their data. Concurrent reckons that the Maxion/IMS system, based on the Maxion multiprocessor Unix system, is superior to other server systems by virtue of being an open system based on recognised standards (wonder what the likes of Hewlett-Packard Co and Digital Equipment Corp for two would have to say about that?) and enables services providers to deliver interactive multimedia services at the lowest possible cost. The multi-stream multimedia challenge is to guarantee support at any moment for high levels of throughput while providing instantaneous interactive control, it judges. The Maxion multiprocessor family features a crosspoint switch that provides multiple and independent high-speed point-to-point connections between independent ports of the switch. Via the crosspoint, multiple processors can be connected in a compact system that eliminates performance bottlenecks associated with traditional bus architecture, says the firm.
