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author | Alexander Strange <astrange@ithinksw.com> | 2011-02-07 21:15:44 -0500 |
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committer | Ronald S. Bultje <rsbultje@gmail.com> | 2011-02-09 09:17:28 -0500 |
commit | 37b00b47cbeecd66bb34c5c7c534d016d6e8da24 (patch) | |
tree | dce47f2343f8a0f0f73e09a787aa92f255f9aa0f /doc/multithreading.txt | |
parent | c2bd7578af069206831a9c25fa68c9bbd5004619 (diff) | |
download | ffmpeg-37b00b47cbeecd66bb34c5c7c534d016d6e8da24.tar.gz |
Frame-based multithreading framework using pthreads
See doc/multithreading.txt for details on use in codecs.
Signed-off-by: Ronald S. Bultje <rsbultje@gmail.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/multithreading.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | doc/multithreading.txt | 65 |
1 files changed, 65 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/multithreading.txt b/doc/multithreading.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..a1068425cd --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/multithreading.txt @@ -0,0 +1,65 @@ +FFmpeg multithreading methods +============================================== + +FFmpeg provides two methods for multithreading codecs. + +Slice threading decodes multiple parts of a frame at the same time, using +AVCodecContext execute() and execute2(). + +Frame threading decodes multiple frames at the same time. +It accepts N future frames and delays decoded pictures by N-1 frames. +The later frames are decoded in separate threads while the user is +displaying the current one. + +Restrictions on clients +============================================== + +Slice threading - +* The client's draw_horiz_band() must be thread-safe according to the comment + in avcodec.h. + +Frame threading - +* Restrictions with slice threading also apply. +* For best performance, the client should set thread_safe_callbacks if it + provides a thread-safe get_buffer() callback. +* There is one frame of delay added for every thread beyond the first one. + Clients must be able to handle this; the pkt_dts and pkt_pts fields in + AVFrame will work as usual. + +Restrictions on codec implementations +============================================== + +Slice threading - + None except that there must be something worth executing in parallel. + +Frame threading - +* Codecs can only accept entire pictures per packet. +* Codecs similar to ffv1, whose streams don't reset across frames, + will not work because their bitstreams cannot be decoded in parallel. + +* The contents of buffers must not be read before ff_thread_await_progress() + has been called on them. reget_buffer() and buffer age optimizations no longer work. +* The contents of buffers must not be written to after ff_thread_report_progress() + has been called on them. This includes draw_edges(). + +Porting codecs to frame threading +============================================== + +Find all context variables that are needed by the next frame. Move all +code changing them, as well as code calling get_buffer(), up to before +the decode process starts. Call ff_thread_finish_setup() afterwards. If +some code can't be moved, have update_thread_context() run it in the next +thread. + +If the codec allocates writable tables in its init(), add an init_thread_copy() +which re-allocates them for other threads. + +Add CODEC_CAP_FRAME_THREADS to the codec capabilities. There will be very little +speed gain at this point but it should work. + +Call ff_thread_report_progress() after some part of the current picture has decoded. +A good place to put this is where draw_horiz_band() is called - add this if it isn't +called anywhere, as it's useful too and the implementation is trivial when you're +doing this. Note that draw_edges() needs to be called before reporting progress. + +Before accessing a reference frame or its MVs, call ff_thread_await_progress(). |