Configuration Files for Profile Protocol

Profile Protocol implements Named Configuration Space (NCS) as a mechanism to ease Profile configuration. Using NCS, an application can send one command, Open Port (10.01), with a parameter specifying a configuration file to use, and the Profile will handle all the resource allocation and crosspoints specified in the configuration file. This frees the application from the task of allocating resources manually, but it does require proper understanding of the configuration files. This application note explains the format of the configuration files.

Overview of Configuration Files

Configuration files are simple text files, containing three types of lines. The lines are parsed on a column basis as follows:

• if column 1 contains anything besides a number from 0-9, the line is ignored as a comment line
• if column 7 contains a 'C' or 'c', the line is treated as a crosspoint line
• all other lines are treated as resource lines

Both resource allocation lines and crosspoint lines share a similar format:

xx-yy[,][func1][func2]

NOTE: Although resource and crosspoint lines look similar, they have very different meanings. This is a frequent source of confusion and error. Make sure whether you are editing a resource line or a crosspoint line!

Resource Lines

Resource lines allocate a resource for use by a port.

Below is the column by column layout of resource lines:

column 1-2 resource type

Must be one of the following:

• 00 audio codec
• 01 video codec
• 02 video input
• 03 video output
• 04 LTC input
• 05 VITC input
• 06 timecode generator
• 07 LTC output
• 08 VITC output
• 09 timecode recorder
• 10 audio output
• 11 video combiner (mix effect)

column 3 separator (-)

column 4-5 resource number

This specifies which resource of the specified type is desired. Resources of a given type are numbered starting at 0. Thus, to select the 3^rd timecode recorder, specify '02' in columns 4-5.

For inputs and outputs spread across multiple cards, you need to know Profile's scanning convention. Devices are scanned along the Profile EISA bus starting at slot 0. Viewed from the back of the Profile, numbering will rise from right to left. Thus, in a Profile with 2 Serial Digital I/O cards, video input '00' will represent the upper BNC on the rightmost Serial Digital card, while video input '03' will represent the 2^nd BNC connector on the leftmost Serial Digital card.

In Profiles with a mix of video I/O cards, you will need to be aware of the following scanning orders. For video:

• Serial Digital Component
• Serial Digital Component with Embedded Audio
• Component Analog
• Composite Analog
• Serial Digital Composite

This means that in a Profile with 2 Serial Digital Component cards and 1 Analog Composite Input card, the Serial Digital inputs will be numbered '00'-'03' and the Composite input will be numberd '04', regardless of where the Composite card is placed.

column 6 optional separator (,)

This is mandatory if column 7 is meaningful, optional otherwise.

column 7 optional parameters

For inputs, this must be an S (for Shareable). In addition, certain resources may specify additional parameters, starting in column 7. These parameters are read and assigned in the order given below.

• For video codecs:

  • goalsize(bytes/field), minimum luminance Q, maximum luminance Q, minimum chrominance Q, and maximum chrominance Q.

• For audio codecs

  • input level, output level, window size

• For timecode generators

  • timecode format, timecode mode, time to seed, user bits to seed.
    

The last thing to note about the resource allocation lines is that each line is assigned an index number in sequential order independent of comment lines or crosspoint lines. Thus, the first resource line found in an NCS file is assigned index number 1, the second is assigned index number 2, etc. These index numbers may be used by the crosspoint lines, to which we now turn.

Crosspoint lines

Crosspoint lines assign default and scheduled crosspoints between resources. A basic understanding of these events is included below. For a more detailed discussion of default and scheduled crosspoint events, see the Profile SDK User's Manual.

Below is the column by column layout of crosspoint lines:

column 1-2 source index number

column 3 separator (-)

column 4-5 destination index number

column 6 separator (,)

column 7 crosspoint indicator ('C' or 'c')

column 8 'D' or 'S' for default or schedule crosspoints

Scheduled crosspoint connections take precedence during playback, default crosspoints take effect at all other times (or in the absence of scheduled crosspoints). Typically, scheduled and default crosspoints are used in sets of three to define playback and E-to-E modes, as follows:

• default connection of an input to an output (E-E)
• default connection of an input to a codec (for recording)
• scheduled connection of the codec to the output (to override E-E during PB)

See the sample configuration file below for examples of the above.

Also, note that under the PDR100 audio architecture, there are no audio crosspoints; typically, a configuration file will only have crosspoint lines for video and timecode.

Sample Configuration File

02-00,S // index 1 - video input 0 shared

03-00 // index 2 - video output 0

01-00 100000 // index 3 - video codec 0 at 100KB

01-02,CD // Default connect video input->video output)

01-03,CD // Default connect video input->video codec

03-02,CS // Schedule connect video codec->video output

// now do the audio connections 1-4

00-00 // index 4 - audio codecs

00-01 // index 5 - audio codecs

00-02 // index 6 - audio codecs

00-03 // index 7 - audio codecs

10-00 // index 8 - audio outputs 1- 4

10-01 // index 9

10-02 // index 10

10-03 // index 11

// now do the LTC to recorder 1

04-00,S // index 12 - LTC input

07-00 // index 13 - LTC output

09-00 // index 14 - tcRecorder

12-13,CD

12-14,CD

14-13,CS

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