Moving beyond the framebuffer

Abstract

This paper explores a new abstraction to replace the framebuffer as the metaphor for a new display interface. Our novel approach aims to provide backward compatibility with applications that require a simple framebuffer, while also providing tremendous channel capacity savings to applications that exploit application level semantics to use the display interface in a more sophisticated way. The goal is to develop a versatile interface that scales from very large displays to small, low-power displays connected over wireless links.