An integrated multimedia system having a multimedia processor is disposed in an integrated circuit having a first host processor system coupled to the multimedia processor and a second local processor disposed within the multimedia processor for controlling the operation of the multimedia processor. A data transfer switch is coupled to the second processor for transferring data to various modules of the processor, at least one of which is a data cache. The data transfer switch transfers data in either direction between the cache and a module within the processor. A data streamer schedules simultaneous data transfers among the various-modules disposed within the multimedia processor in accordance with corresponding channel allocations. An interface unit is coupled to the data streamer and has a plurality of input/output (I/O) device driver units. A plurality of external I/O devices are coupled to the plurality of I/O device driver units via a multiplexer.