CPU Utilization of Multimedia Processes: HeiPOET - The Heidelberg Predictor of Execution Times Measurement Tool

Due to the time characteristics of audio and video data, the processing of multimedia applications has to be done using real-time mechanisms. Scheduling algorithms used within such systems require information about the processing time requirements, the CPU utilization of the applications, to perform schedulability tests. Since multimedia applications are often constructed by combining processing modules (often called stream handlers), processing time determination for these modules is required. The multitude of these modules and the large variety of computer systems calls for a measurement tool. In this paper we define the term CPU utilization for multimedia processing and describe the CPU utilization measurement tool HeiPOET. The presented measurements show that the tool provides measurement results with good accuracy.