DISPLAY SIMULATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100321395A1
• Filed: 06/18/2009
• Published: 12/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Sun, Jiming, Lavelle, Carol, Maciesowicz, Maciej, Curran, David A.
• Application Number:
  US12/486,940
• Publication Number:
  US 20100321395A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/502
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers

Abstract

A display simulation system is provided having a flexible design for emulating and/or supporting any number of display types and/or display standards. The display simulation system may include one or more reference drivers that include a virtual graphics processing unit (GPU) and one or more virtual frame buffer drivers. In one embodiment, the display simulation system may implement a virtual display in response to a user selection input. For instance, the user selection input may initiate a simulated hot-plug event on the display simulation system. Based upon the user selection, an appropriate display profile corresponding to the selected display type or standard may be loaded by the display driver. In this manner, the display simulation system may provide for user interaction with the virtual display, such as for testing, verification, benchmarking, or development purposes.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

selecting a display profile based upon a user input; and

simulating a display device on a computing system based upon the selected display profile.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein simulating the display device comprises:

virtually connecting the simulated display device to a virtual display interface port;

determining one or more display characteristics of the simulated display device, including at least a display interface type, based upon the selected display profile;

configuring the virtual display interface port based upon the display interface type; and

configuring a reference frame buffer driver based upon the one or more display characteristics.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, in addition to the display interface type, the one or more display characteristics includes one or more of supported display resolutions, supported display timings, supported refresh rates, pixel mapping data, or some combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the display interface type comprises a DVI display interface, a VGA display interface, an HDMI display interface, a DisplayPort display interface, a mini-DisplayPort display interface, or a GVIF display interface, or some combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the one or more characteristics of the simulated display device comprises:

simulating a hot-plug event upon detecting a virtual connection between the simulated display device and the virtual display interface port; and

reading the one or more characteristics from a set of information defined by the selected display profile.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the set of information at least partially comprises information defining the display interface type, hot plug information, display resolution information, display timing information, audio support information, Display Data Channel (DDC) information, at least a portion of an Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) data set, or at least a portion of a Monitor Command Control Set (MCCS) data set, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein configuring the reference frame buffer comprises configuring one or more of a virtual frame buffer driver and a virtual graphics processor based upon the one or more display characteristics.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the determined display interface type comprises an interface type that supports serially connecting a plurality of display devices to a single display interface port, wherein the simulated display device comprises a simulated display hub configurable to virtually connect to additional simulated display devices, and wherein the simulated display hub is recognized as another virtual display interface port.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the simulated display device is recognized as a physical display device by an operating system running on the computing system.

10. A system comprising:

an electronic device comprising;

a storage device storing instructions defining a display simulator application, an operating system, and a plurality of selectable display profiles;

a processor configured to execute the instructions defining the display simulator application; and

at least one graphics processor;

wherein the display simulator application is configured to simulate a display device on the electronic device based upon a display profile selected from one of the plurality of selectable display profiles.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the display simulator application comprises:

a control application configured to receive inputs from a user of the electronic device, wherein the selected display profile is selected based upon the received inputs; and

a client module configured to receive the selected display profile, to communicate the selected display profile to a kernel of the operating system, to simulate a display device corresponding to the selected display profile, and to virtually connect the simulated display device to a virtual display interface port.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein, if the received inputs do not correspond to one of the plurality of selectable display profiles, the control application is configured to create a new display profile based upon the received inputs and to store the new display profile in the storage device.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein simulating the display device comprises configuring a reference frame buffer based upon one or more characteristics of the simulated display device, the one or more characteristics being determined based at least partially upon the selected display profile.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein configuring the reference frame buffer driver comprises configuring a virtual frame buffer driver and a virtual graphics processor based upon the one or more determined characteristics.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the virtual graphics processor is configurable to route function calls to at least one graphics processor.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one graphics processor comprises a first graphics processor and a second graphics processor, and wherein the control module is configured to control the virtual graphics processor to switch the routing of function calls between the first and second graphics processors.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first graphics processor is a high-power graphics processor and the second graphics power is a lower-power graphics processor, and wherein the switching the routing of function calls between the high-power and low-power graphics processors is based at least partially on graphics processing demands.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the virtual graphics processor provides an abstraction layer, such that the switching between the first graphics processor and the second graphics processor is masked from a point of view of the operating system.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the electronic device comprises a display device, and wherein the control application is configured to display a graphical window on the display device, the graphical window being configured to output image data from the virtual frame buffer corresponding to the simulated display device.

20. A method comprising:

selecting a first display profile, the first display profile defining a first display interface type;

virtually connecting a first simulated display device to a first virtual display interface port on a computing system based upon the first display profile; and

configuring the first virtual display interface port to function as the first display interface type.

21. The method of claim 20, comprising:

selecting a second display profile, the second display profile defining a second display interface type;

virtually connecting a second simulated display device to a second virtual display interface port on a computing system based upon the second display profile; and

configuring the second virtual display interface port to function as the second display interface type.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first simulated display device comprises a simulated display hub, and wherein the first display interface type is configured to support a serial connection of additional display devices.

23. The method of claim 22, comprising:

selecting a second display profile, the second display profile defining a second display interface type configurable to connect to the simulated display hub of the first simulated display device; and

virtually connecting a second simulated display device to the simulated display hub of the first simulated display device based upon the second display profile.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the virtual display interface port is configured to communicate with a reference frame buffer on a computing system, wherein the reference frame buffer comprises a virtual graphics processor configured to drive each of the first and second simulated display devices.

25. The method of claim 23, comprising:

selecting a third display profile, the third display profile defining a third display interface type configurable to connect to a simulated display hub of the second simulated display device; and

virtually connecting a third simulated display device to the simulated display hub of the second simulated display device based upon the third display profile.

26. One or more tangible computer-readable storage media having instructions encoded thereon for execution by a processor, the instructions comprising:

code to receive a user input via a control application;

code to select, based on the user input, a display profile from a plurality of stored display profiles;

code to determine one or more characteristics of a display device defined by the selected display profile; and

code to simulate the display device on a computing system.

27. The one or more tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein the code for determining one or more characteristics of the simulated display device comprises:

code to detect a virtual connection of the simulated display device to a virtual display interface port;

code to relay the detection of the virtual connection to an operating system of the computing system; and

code to query the simulated display device for the one or more characteristics.

28. The one or more tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 27, wherein the code to query the simulated display device comprises code to simulate the transmission of display identification information from the simulated display device to the computing system.

29. The one or more tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 27, wherein the code for simulating the display device on the computing system comprises code to configure a reference frame buffer driver in communication with the virtual display interface port, wherein the code to configure the reference frame buffer driver comprises code to configure a virtual graphics processor and a virtual frame buffer driver based upon the selected display profile.

30. The one or more tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 29, the code to configure the reference frame buffer driver comprises code to route function calls from the virtual graphics processor to at least one graphics processor of the computing system.

31. The one or more tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 30, wherein the code to route function calls from the virtual graphics processor to the at least one graphics processor comprises code to switch the routing of function calls between first and second graphics processors.