Workgroup Management

Overview

Real-time audio rendering often requires coordination between the threads of an app, the system, and the threads of any active Audio Unit plug-ins. Workgroups provide the mechanism to coordinate the efforts of these different processes, and ensure that they execute on the same schedule. In an Audio Unit, use a render context observer to retrieve the workgroup that the host app uses for real-time audio rendering. In an app, fetch the workgroup for a Core Audio device directly from the device or from your AUAudioUnit object.

If your app has real-time rendering threads that operate on their own deadlines, create your own workgroup using the AudioWorkIntervalCreate function. Use your custom workgroup to set and update the rendering schedule for your threads.

Topics

Essentials

• Understanding Audio Workgroups
• Adding Parallel Real-Time Threads to Audio Workgroups
• Adding Asynchronous Real-Time Threads to Audio Workgroups
• Adding Audio Unit Auxiliary Real-Time Threads to Audio Workgroups

Device Workgroup

• kAudioDevicePropertyIOThreadOSWorkgroup

See Also

Utilities

• Analyzing audio performance with Instruments
• Audio Converter Services
• Audio Session Support
• Audio Toolbox Debugging
• Audio Codec
• Clock Utilities