Patent ID: 8707317

Claim:
A computer-implemented method implemented by an operating system of a multimedia console, the operating system being configured to execute a system application of a plurality of system applications and a multimedia application, the system application being configured to provide system functions to the multimedia application, the multimedia application being configured to provide multimedia functions, the computer-implemented method comprising: reserving by the operating system, a predetermined, fixed amount of hardware resources of the multimedia console for the system application, the multimedia console having a central processing unit (CPU), a graphic processing unit, and a memory, the predetermined, fixed amount of hardware resources comprising a portion of processing time of the CPU; executing, by the operating system, the system application using the predetermined fixed amount of reserved hardware resources; executing, by the operating system, the multimedia application using a remaining unreserved hardware resources, the remaining unreserved hardware resources being inaccessible to the system application; determining, by the operating system, that a sub-portion of the portion of processing time is unused by the system application; executing, by the operating system, an idle thread in the sub-portion of the portion of processing time such that the system application and the idle thread consume the portion of processing time, the idle thread being separate from the system application and the multimedia application; and executing a system application manager that prioritizes which system application of the plurality of system applications gets executed and causes scheduling each system application of the plurality of system applications to be executed at least once a predetermined number of video frames generated by the graphics processing unit.