Audio Service Design for Operating Systems

A method comprising, by a computing device:

• allocating an audio buffer for communicating audio data from an audio driver to an audio service;
• receiving, by the audio service, one or more registration requests from one or more applications to receive audio data from the audio driver, wherein each registration request specifies a buffer size;
• allocating one or more application buffers for the one or more applications, each application buffer being of the buffer size specified in the registration request, the application buffer being configured for communicating audio data from the audio service to the application associated with the registration request;
• determining that the audio buffer is filled with incoming audio data from the audio driver;
• and
• providing the incoming audio data to the one or more applications by transferring the incoming audio data from the audio buffer to the one or more application buffers associated with the one or more applications.

One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed by a client device to:

• allocate an audio buffer for communicating audio data from an audio driver to an audio service;
• receive, by the audio service, one or more registration requests from one or more applications to receive audio data from the audio driver, wherein each registration request specifies a buffer size;
• allocate one or more application buffers for the one or more applications, each application buffer being of the buffer size specified in the registration request, the application buffer being configured for communicating audio data from the audio service to the application associated with the registration request;
• determine that the audio buffer is filled with incoming audio data from the audio driver;
• and
• provide the incoming audio data to the one or more applications by transferring the incoming audio data from the audio buffer to the one or more application buffers associated with the one or more applications.

A client device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media coupled to one or more of the one or more processors and comprising instructions operable when executed by one or more of the one or more processors to cause the client device to:
• allocate an audio buffer for communicating audio data from an audio driver to an audio service;
• receive, by the audio service, one or more registration requests from one or more applications to receive audio data from the audio driver, wherein each registration request specifies a buffer size;
• allocate one or more application buffers for the one or more applications, each application buffer being of the buffer size specified in the registration request, the application buffer being configured for communicating audio data from the audio service to the application associated with the registration request;
• determine that the audio buffer is filled with incoming audio data from the audio driver;
• and
• provide the incoming audio data to the one or more applications by transferring the incoming audio data from the audio buffer to the one or more application buffers associated with the one or more applications.