Systems and methods for virtualizing graphics subsystems

• US 20060146057A1
• Filed: 12/30/2004
• Published: 07/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Blythe, David R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,274,518 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/506
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 15/005 General purpose rendering architectures

Abstract

Systems and methods for applying virtual machines to graphics hardware are provided. In various embodiments of the invention, while supervisory code runs on the CPU, the actual graphics work items are run directly on the graphics hardware and the supervisory code is structured as a graphics virtual machine monitor. Application compatibility is retained using virtual machine monitor (VMM) technology to run a first operating system (OS), such as an original OS version, simultaneously with a second OS, such as a new version OS, in separate virtual machines (VMs). VMM technology applied to host processors is extended to graphics processing units (GPUs) to allow hardware access to graphics accelerators, ensuring that legacy applications operate at full performance. The invention also provides methods to make the user experience cosmetically seamless while running multiple applications in different VMs. In other aspects of the invention, by employing VMM technology, the virtualized graphics architecture of the invention is extended to provide trusted services and content protection.

Claims

1. A method for processing graphics data in a computing system having a first operating system hosted in a first virtual machine and a second operating system hosted in a second virtual machine, comprising:

receiving one or more work items to be performed by a graphics processing unit (GPU) of a graphics subsystem of the computing system wherein the one or more work items are originated by said first virtual machine or said second virtual machine; and

processing the one or more work items with the GPU irrespective of whether the one or more work items are based on an interface from said first operating system or based on an interface from said second operating system.

2. A method according to claim 1, further including:

processing said one or more work items by a graphics virtual machine monitor component of a virtual machine monitor component that enables said first and second virtual machines.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein said processing includes:

allocating at least one physical resource including at least one of system memory or video memory for said one or more work items.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said allocating the at least one physical resource includes allocating separate at least one of video memory space or system memory space for work items originated by separate applications executing on either said first virtual machine or said second virtual machine.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein said processing includes determining whether the one or more work items are privileged or non-privileged, and applying different sets of rules for processing privileged versus non-privileged work items.

6. A method according to claim 1, further including:

compositing the display of the output of the one or more work items from a trusted code base created by a virtual machine monitor component that enables said first and second virtual machines.

7. A method according to claim 1, further including:

processing the output of an untrusted application executing in the first machine including utilizing at least one trusted service executing in the second machine to protect said output.

8. An application programming interface comprising computer executable instructions for performing communications according to the method of claim 1.

9. A graphics processing unit comprising functional components tailored to perform the method of claim 1.

10. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 1.

11. A method for processing graphics data in a computing system having a first version of an operating system hosted in a first virtual machine by a virtual machine monitor component and a second version of the operating system hosted in a second virtual machine by the virtual machine monitor component, comprising:

receiving one or more work items from the first virtual machine or second virtual machine to be performed by a graphics processing unit (GPU) of a graphics subsystem of the computing system, wherein at least one of the work items includes a privileged command;

discovering the privileged command by the virtual machine monitor component; and

emulating the privileged command of the at least one of the work items based on at least one pre-defined policy.

12. A method according to claim 11, further including communicating with a graphics virtual machine monitor component of the virtual machine monitor component, wherein the graphics virtual machine monitor component handles work items with privileged GPU commands on behalf of both said first virtual machine and said second virtual machine.

13. An application programming interface comprising computer executable instructions for performing communications according to the method of claim 11.

14. A graphics processing unit comprising functional components tailored to perform the method of claim 11.

15. A computing device comprising means for performing the method of claim 11.

16. A computing device comprising:

a first application and a second application executing on one or more virtual machines of the computing device;

a virtual machine monitor component that, unless authorized, does not allow graphics interface calls from the first application to interact with any physical resource that are not authorized for the first application.

17. A computing device according to claim 16, wherein the virtual machine monitor component does not allow graphics interface calls from the first application to change or read system memory or local memory associated with the second application.

18. A computing device according to claim 16, wherein said virtual machine monitor component includes a trusted code base for presenting windows of display based on outputs from the first application and second application, respectively.

19. A computing device according to claim 18, wherein said first application executes on a first operating system platform having a first desktop associated therewith and said second application executes on a second operating system platform having a second desktop associated therewith, and said presenting by the trusted code base includes presenting said first desktop in a first window on display and said second desktop in a second window on display.

20. A computing device according to claim 18, wherein said first application executes on a first operating system platform having a first desktop associated therewith and said second application executes on a second operating system platform having a first desktop associated therewith, and said presenting by the trusted code base includes presenting either said first desktop or said second desktop on display.