A system-on-a-chip for multimedia stream processing and communication

In this paper, an architecture for multimedia stream processing and communication is presented. The system is aimed to communicate MPEG4 multimedia applications over generic networks. Main features of the architecture are scalability in the number of multimedia streams managed, bandwidth sharing, capacity to control the offered service quality and possibility to implement mobile applications. A chip area network (CIAN) is used to interconnect the different architectural elements. Four main units are distinguished in the design: cell communication, QoS control, protocol processing and DMA (Direct Memory Access). Preliminary results of an implementation of the cell communication unit as an ATM-cell-based multiplexing one show the suitability of the architecture for STS-12/STM-4/OC-12 throughputs (622.08 Mb/s).