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Download fileLow-Latency Music Software Using Off-The-Shelf Operating Systems
journal contribution
posted on 01.08.2002, 00:00 authored by Eli Brandt, Roger B DannenbergOperating systems are often the limiting factor in creating low-latency interactive computer
music systems. Real-time music applications require operating system support for memory management,
process scheduling, media I/O, and general development, including debugging. We present performance
measurements for some current operating systems, including NT4, Windows95, and Irix 6.4. While Irix
was found to give rather good real-time performance, NT4 and Windows95 suffer from both process
scheduling delays and high audio output latency. The addition of WDM Streaming to NT and Windows
offers some promise of lower latency, but WDM Streaming may actually make performance worse by
circumventing priority-based scheduling.