Scalable 3D graphics processing in consumer terminals

In this paper, we present how scalable 3D graphics fits into a quality-of-service resource management approach for high volume electronics consumer terminals. Resource management is based on guaranteed and enforced resource budgets, which are allocated by a global quality manager. A specific 3D QoS manager makes sure that a 3D graphics service performs acceptably within the limitations of its budget. Based on models that estimate the quality and workload of functional tasks, such as rendering and decoding, for 3D objects, the scaling parameters of these tasks are adapted to guarantee real-time operation, possibly at a slightly degraded perceived quality. The validity of the approach is demonstrated with a 3D graphics application running in conjunction with video decoding on a Philips set-top box containing a TriMedia™ processor.