SYSTEM FOR ENABLING MULTIPLE EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTS TO SHARE A DEVICE

• US 20100031325A1
• Filed: 12/21/2007
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Virtuallogix SA (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Virtuallogix SA (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Grouzdev, Vladimir, Maigne, Gilles, Jacquemot, Christian, Gien, Michel
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,864 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45587 Isolation or security of virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources

Abstract

According to the present invention, there is provided a data processing system comprising: a dedicated physical device for access by a single client only; a shared physical device for shared access by multiple clients; a partition of a first type associated with the dedicated physical device, the first type partition comprising said single client and a first device driver for accessing the dedicated physical device; a partition of a second type associated with the shared physical device, the second type partition comprising a second device driver for accessing the shared physical device, and a back end driver for accessing the second device driver; and multiple partitions of the third type each comprising a respective one of said multiple clients and a front end driver for accessing the shared physical device via the second type partition. There is also provided a method of operating the data processing system comprising: executing a user application in the standard domain; and executing in the trusted domain, one or more predetermined operations, services and/or functions relating to the user application.

Claims

1. Data processing system comprising:

a dedicated physical device for access by a single client only;

a shared physical device for shared access by multiple clients;

a partition of a first type associated with the dedicated physical device, the first type partition comprising said single client and a first device driver for accessing the dedicated physical device;

a partition of a second type associated with the shared physical device, the second type partition comprising a second device driver for accessing the shared physical device, and a back end driver for accessing the second device driver; and

multiple partitions of the third type each comprising a respective one of said multiple clients and a front end driver for accessing the shared physical device via the second type partition.

2. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein any partition of a given type in respect of one physical device is adapted to be of a different type in respect of another physical device.

3. The data processing system of claim 1 or 2, further comprising a virtualizer for dispatching hardware resources of the data processing system across the different types of partitions, thereby to provide an independent execution environment in each type of partition.

4. The data processing system of any preceding claim, wherein the first type partion, the second type partion, and/or the third type partitions comprises an isolator for preventing access to hardware resources by a client that is not authorised to have such access.

5. The data processing system of any preceding claim, wherein each third type partition comprises a virtual device representing an image of the physical device intended for access by a respective one of said multiple clients.

6. The data processing system of claim 5, wherein the back end driver provides for the implementation of one said virtual device for each of said multiple clients.

7. The data processing system of claim 5 or 6, wherein each third type partition comprises an isolator for preventing communications between the third type partitions and the second type partitions except through said virtual devices.

8. The data processing system of claim 7, wherein each isolator in a third type partition comprises a bridge driver for preventing access to a back end driver by a front end driver not authorised to have such access.

9. The data processing system of claim 4, wherein the isolator in the second type partition comprises a bridge driver for preventing access by the second device driver and/or the back end driver to a front end driver to which no such access is authorised.

10. The data processing system of any preceding claim, wherein the back end driver is arranged to switch between accesses to the physical device from different ones of said multiple clients.

11. The data processing system of claim 3, 4 or 8, wherein a number of the partitions form a trusted domain to which access is restricted, and a number of the partitions form at least one standard domain in which general purpose software is operable, wherein the isolators and/or the virtualizer are operated in the trusted domain, and the device and/or front end drivers are operated in the standard domain.

12. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein in the trusted domain corresponds to a privileged execution mode, and the standard domain corresponds to non-privileged execution mode.

13. The data processing system of claim 11 or 12, comprising a plurality of protection rings, wherein the trusted domain corresponds to an execution mode in the most trusted protection ring.

14. The data processing system of any preceding claim, wherein said at least one shared and/or dedicated physical device includes an input device, an output device, a storage device, and/or a networking device.

15. The data processing system of any preceding claim, wherein at least one partition of any type is associated with a user interface, and at least one other partition of any type is associated with an application or service, wherein the user interface partition and the application/service partition are arranged to interact with one another via Internet Web Services Protocols.

16. A method of operating the data processing system of claim 11 comprising:

executing a user application in the standard domain; and

executing in the trusted domain, one or more predetermined operations, services and/or functions relating to the user application.

17. The method of claim 16, comprising controlling of I/O interfaces of the data processing system from within the trusted domain.

18. The method of claim 16, comprising operating a firewall in the trusted domain to protect the standard domain from unauthorised access.

19. The method of claim 16, comprising monitoring operation of a service application running in the standard domain which provides a service, and maintaining continuity of service by initiating an application in the trusted domain providing the same or a similar service in case of failure of the service application in the standard domain.

20. The method of claim 16, comprising passing control to the trusted domain to receive a password or code from the user requested by an operation running in the standard domain.

21. The method of claim 16, comprising:

executing the application in the standard domain to download data subject to Digital Rights Management (DRM), and

passing control to the trusted domain to permit access to the downloaded data.

22. The method of claim 16, comprising operating connected applications using technologies such as 3G, WiFi and/or WiMAX in the standard domain, and controlling connection access from within the trusted domain.

23. The method of claim 16, comprising operating one or more management agents in the trusted domain, wherein the management agents are adapted to interact with a management server, thereby to manage a general operating system and/or the application running in the standard domain, including providing, configuring, updating, monitoring, restarting the general operating system and/or the application running in the standard domain, secure user authentication, and/or incident handling and reporting to the management server.

24. The method of any of claims 16 to 23, wherein the data processing system is a mobile communications device, in particular a mobile telephone.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

passing control to the trusted domain to request confirmation by a user of the mobile communications device of the sending of a text message or the initiation of a telephone call triggered by an application running in the standard domain.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising displaying to the user the costs associated with the sending of a text message or the initiation of a telephone call before requesting confirmation by the user.