A high resolution video workstation

Abstract

Sun Microsystems Laboratories (in conjunction with David Sarnoff Research Center and Texas Instruments) is working on a DARPA-supported research project to integrate High Resolution Video (HRV) into the distributed workstation programming environment. The HRV Workstation project involves the creationof new workstation hardware and software that permits the integration of digital video as a first class data type within the system. The hardware developed for the HRV Workstation provides the basic capabilities needed to acquire, store, process, transport and display raw (i.e., uncompressed) high resolution digital video. The HRV Workstation software provides system resource management and programming interfaces in support of applications which make use of time-critical information such as HRV. The HRV Workstation hardware has been fabricated and is nearing the completion of its testing, while an initial version of the HRV Workstation's system software is being completed. Once these initial milestones are reached, the HRV Workstation project will continue its research into the effects of integrating digital video on workstation hardware and software, in an effort to determine the costs and benefits of incorporating such features in future (mainstream, as opposed to special-function) workstations.