Hardware Virtualization System

• US 20110271269A1
• Filed: 08/25/2008
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Marici Holdings The Netherlands B.V.
• Original Assignee: ABB Technology AG (ABB Limited)
• Inventors: Vernia, Filippo, Tazzari, Davide
• Granted Patent: US 8,793,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/168
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45508 Runtime interpretation or emulation, e g. emulator loops, bytecode interpretation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4552 Involving translation to a different instruction set architecture, e.g. just-in-time translation in a JVM
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

An electronic device comprising at least a motherboard (102) with a digital control unit (101), a plurality of resources (105, 106, 107, 108, 109), and at least one memory support (104) containing a firmware and able to hold an executable program. The firmware is able to carry out a virtualization of the resources of the electronic device, assigning virtual addresses to these resources. The executable program exchanges information or instructions with the electronic device by using these virtual addresses.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. An electronic device comprising:

a motherboard having a digital control unit;

a plurality of hardware resources coupled to the motherboard via a bus and each comprising a real address associated with the device;

at least one memory unit containing a firmware and effective to store a source program, said firmware effective to

assign virtual addresses to the hardware resources of the electronic device,

compile an executable program based on the source program and having instructions readable by the digital control unit,

associate virtual addresses referred to in said executable program instructions with corresponding real addresses, said executable program instructions further effective to associate a conditioned object with a virtualized resource, and said conditioned object is associated with a string of flags corresponding to a respective plurality of conditioned outputs; and

update said resource virtualization and said executable program compilation in response to changes in either of the hardware resources or the digital control unit; and

a programming user interface effective to receive a plurality of user inputs, the executable program effective at the time of execution to enable and disable said conditioned object, and to set and modify said associated string of flags, in accordance with said user inputs.

27. The device of claim 26, further comprising one or more additional boards with respective hardware resources coupled to the motherboard via the bus, said firmware assigning corresponding virtual addresses to the hardware resources of said additional boards.

28. The device of claim 27, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language of the digital control unit of said device.

29. The device of claim 27, wherein said executable program is written in a different programming language from the programming language of the digital control unit of the device and wherein said firmware contains an interpreter to interpret the programming language of the executable program and to allow execution thereof by the digital control unit.

30. The device of claim 26, wherein said firmware is effective to provide a list of the virtual addresses assigned to the resources of said device.

31. The device of claim 30, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language of the digital control unit of said device.

32. The device of claim 30, wherein said executable program is written in a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit of the device and wherein said firmware contains an interpreter to interpret the language of the executable program and to allow execution thereof by the digital control unit.

33. The device of claim 26, wherein said firmware is able to provide a list of the virtual addresses assigned to the resources of said device, said executable program effective to associate conditioned objects with said virtual addresses via said list and independent of direct communication with the hardware resources.

34. The device of claim 33, wherein aliases are assigned to said virtual addresses, said aliases effective to define the nature of the resource to which said virtual addresses are assigned.

35. The device of claim 34, wherein descriptions are assigned to said virtual addresses regarding the resource to which the respective virtual address refers.

36. The device of claim 35, wherein said descriptions comprise a serial number of the board holding the resource to which the respective virtual address is assigned.

37. The device of claim 26, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language as the digital control unit of said device.

38. The device of claim 26, wherein said executable program is written in a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit of the device and wherein said firmware contains an interpreter to interpret the language of the executable program and to allow execution thereof by the digital control unit.

39. The device of claim 38, wherein said firmware provides a file containing a list of virtual addresses, each corresponding to a real resource of said device, said file constituting a virtual representation of the electronic device.

40. The device of claim 39, wherein said executable program contains instructions that use commands of a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit and virtual addresses provided by said firmware, and wherein the firmware interpreter translates each instruction of the executable program into a corresponding instruction in the programming language of the digital control unit and associates a corresponding real address of said device to each virtual address.

41. A method for the management of an electronic device via associated firmware and an executable program, said electronic device comprising at least one motherboard with a digital control unit and a plurality of resources, said method comprising:

assigning respective virtual addresses to the resources of said electronic device;

providing said virtual addresses to said executable program;

providing correspondence between the virtual addresses and real addresses of the resources of the electronic device to be obtained;

associating a conditioned object with a virtualized resource, said conditioned object associated with a string of flags further associated with respective virtual addresses of a plurality of conditioned outputs;

customizing the executable program at the time of execution, said customization comprising enabling or disabling of the conditioned object, and setting and modifying of the string of flags in accordance with information provided via a user interface.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language of said digital control unit, and wherein via firmware of said electronic device a real address of said electronic device is associated with each virtual address used by the executable program.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein said executable program is written in a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit and wherein the instructions of said executable program are interpreted into the language of said programmable unit by said firmware.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein said executable program is obtained from the compilation of a source program written in a different programming language from the programming language of said programmable digital unit of the electronic device, and wherein the source program comprises a declarative part in which an alias is associated with each virtual address used in the source program that identifies the function of the resource corresponding to said virtual address within said source program.

45. The method of claim 41, comprising the step of

generating for said electronic device a file containing the virtual addresses assigned to the resources of the device, said file constituting a virtual representation of the electronic device.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language of said digital control unit, and wherein via firmware of said electronic device a real address of said electronic device is associated with each virtual address used by the executable program.

47. The method of claim 45, wherein said executable program is written in a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit and wherein the instructions of said executable program are interpreted into the language of said programmable unit by said firmware.

48. The method of claim 45, comprising the step of

associating a label to each virtual address that is correlated to the nature of the resource to which said virtual address is assigned.

49. The method of claim 48, wherein said executable program is written in the same programming language of said digital control unit, and wherein via firmware of said electronic device a real address of said electronic device is associated with each virtual address used by the executable program.

50. The method of claim 48, wherein said executable program is written in a different language from the programming language of the digital control unit and wherein the instructions of said executable program are interpreted into the language of said programmable unit by said firmware.