This paper provides information about video synchronization and performance validation for the Microsoft® Windows® family of operating systems. It provides guidelines for graphics hardware vendors to implement new hardware features for improved synchronization and AV streaming performance validation. It also discusses graphics hardware requirements that enable improved A/V synchronization and allow software to determine when frames are rendered to the primary display buffer. It describes new display position counters that will be used to improve A/V synchronization, and it describes a graphics processing unit (GPU) time stamp that can be used to determine when hardware completes the operations that are involved in rendering a frame to the primary display buffer.

Included in this white paper:

• Display Position Counters
• Display Position Counter Functional Requirements
• Frame Counter
• Line Counter
• Pixel Counter
• Display Position Counter Implementation Requirements
• Counter Format
• Read-Only
• Zero-Based
• Consistent Frequency
• Visible Display Coordinates
• VDC Read-Only Registers
• Hardware Requirements for a GPU Time Stamp
• Call to Action and Resources