Method and system for coalescing input output accesses to a virtual device

• US 20050108440A1
• Filed: 11/19/2003
• Published: 05/19/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Lord, Christopher, Baumberger, Daniel P.
• Application Number:
  US10/716,753
• Publication Number:
  US 20050108440A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A method for performing virtualization includes executing a plurality of input output (IO) instructions from an instruction stream during a single virtualization event.

Claims

1. A method for performing virtualization, comprising:

executing a plurality of input output (IO) instructions from an instruction stream during a single virtualization event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an IO instruction; and

scanning the instruction stream to determine whether additional IO instructions are present within an extent of instructions in the instruction stream.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying the plurality of IO instructions in a block of instructions within the extent.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising performing a hash function on the block of instructions.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the extent is determined by a processor running in a system.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the extent is determined by hardware in a system.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the extent is determined by software in a system.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein executing the plurality of IO instructions comprises emulating the block of instructions.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising updating an instruction pointer to move past the block of instructions.

10. A method for performing virtualization, comprising:

determining whether an address of an input output (IO) instruction is stored in a table;

determining whether a hash of a block of instructions in an instruction stream matches a hash value stored in the table if the address is stored in the table; and

emulating the block of instructions during a single virtualization event if a match exists.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying the block of instructions in the instruction stream with size information in the table.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising updating an instruction pointer to move past the block of instructions.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising scanning the instruction stream to determine whether additional IO instructions are present within an extent of instructions in the instruction stream if the address is not stored on the table.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying the plurality of IO instructions in a block of instructions within the extent; and

emulating the block of instructions during the single virtualization event.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising emulating the IO instruction during the single virtualization event if additional IO instructions are not present within the extent.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising performing a hash function on the block of instructions.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing the address of the IO instruction and a hash of the block of instructions on the table.

18. An article of manufacturer comprising a machine accessible medium including sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructions including instructions which when executed causes the machine to perform:

executing a plurality of input output (IO) instructions from an instruction stream during a single virtualization event.

19. The article of manufacturer of claim 18, further comprising instructions which when executed by the machine causes the machine to perform:

identifying an IO instruction; and

scanning the instruction stream to determine whether additional IO instructions are present within an extent of instructions in the instruction stream.

20. The article of manufacturer of claim 19, further comprising instructions which when executed by the machine causes the machine to perform identifying the plurality of IO instructions in a block of instructions within the extent.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein executing the plurality of IO instructions comprises emulating the block of instructions.

22. The article of manufacturer of claim 20, further comprising instructions which when executed by the machine causes the machine to perform updating an instruction pointer to move past the block of instructions.

23. A virtualization event dispatcher, comprising:

an instruction interpreter unit to determine whether an instruction that causes a virtualization event is an input output (IO) instruction; and

an instruction scanning unit to determine whether additional IO instructions are present within an extent from the instruction in an instruction stream and to designate the additional IO instructions in a block of instructions.

24. The virtualization event dispatcher of claim 23, further comprising an instruction pointer update unit to update an instruction pointer of a virtual machine to move past the block of instructions identified by the instruction scanning unit.

25. The virtualization event dispatcher of claim 23, further comprising a hashing unit to perform a hash function on the block of instructions identified by the instruction scanning unit.