Monitoring multimedia systems

As part of a multimedia project research is being done in the area of monitoring and debugging. The monitor to be discussed in this paper is intended for use in distributed systems, in particular in a network of multimedia workstations. The monitor is the first phase in the development of a multimedia debugger. It taps (selected) information streams, tasks, communications, etc. The monitor then displays assorted information on a graphics display and/or stores it in a database for later display and analysis. The debugger is not concerned with 'low level' entities in the system, like values of variables, or contents of registers. This kind of information is handled by a source level debugger which is executed from within the 'high level' debugger. This approach ensures a consistent user interface for the debug system.<>