PERSONAL COMPUTER WITH GENERALIZED DATA STREAMING APARATUS FOR MULTIMEDIA DEVICES

A multimedia data processing system includes a memory for storing multimedia application programs and a multitasking operating system. Extensions to the operating system control data streaming from source devices to target devices to provide real-time, continuous streaming. The extensions provide central buffer management with a user buffer option, bi-level priority support for data stream handlers, support for interleaved streams, and data stream event detection and notification.