We give a general characterization of I/O elements and provide a framework for analyzing the potential for zero-copy transfers. Finally, we describe the design, implementation, and performance of a prototype I/O system that uses the above analysis to minimize data copying. Our prototype uses a global buffer cache to allow call-by-reference transfers of buffers between distinct subsystems.

@inProceedings{miller-rtss98,
	title = "General Data Streaming",
	author = "Frank W. Miller and Pete Keleher and Satish K. Tripathi",
	booktitle = {The 19th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS)},
	month = {December},
	year = {1998},
}