SignalForge

Planned

SignalForge is the Nexus multimedia and signal processing subsystem. It provides unified handling of audio, video, and radio signals through a common pipeline architecture.

Components

• Audio — Audio capture, processing, and playback
• Video — Video capture, encoding, and display integration
• Radio — Software-defined radio and RF signal processing

Architecture

SignalForge runs as a set of userland fibers, each handling a specific signal domain. All signal data flows through ION Rings — the same zero-copy IPC used by every other Nexus subsystem.

┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│  Application (media player,     │
│  VoIP, SDR client)              │
├──────────┬──────────┬───────────┤
│  Audio   │  Video   │  Radio    │  SignalForge fibers
│  Pipeline│  Pipeline│  Pipeline │
├──────────┴──────────┴───────────┤
│  ION Rings (signal channels)    │
├─────────────────────────────────┤
│  Hardware Drivers (NPL)         │
│  Sound card, camera, SDR dongle │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

Design Principles

Pipeline Architecture

Each signal domain is a pipeline: source → processing stages → sink. Stages can be added, removed, or reordered at runtime without stopping the pipeline.

Deterministic Latency

SignalForge pipelines run in the Matter spectrum (10ms deadline), ensuring consistent latency for real-time audio and video processing.

Capability-Controlled Access

Access to hardware signal sources (microphone, camera, SDR) requires explicit capabilities. An application cannot silently activate a microphone — it must hold the appropriate capability, which is visible in the system's capability audit trail.