METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING OPERATIONS OF A WEB BROWSER

• US 20120260181A1
• Filed: 04/07/2011
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm Innovation Center Incorporated (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bapst, Mark, Sule, Dineel D., De, Subrato K.
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,475 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/5019 Workload prediction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system

Abstract

A computing device and methods of operating the same are disclosed. The computing device may include a network interface that receives web content and a display that displays a displayable format of the web content. In addition, a plurality of browser processing components are included that carry out browser processing activity to generate a displayable format of the web content, and the computing device includes a browser management component that monitors at least one browser processing activity of a corresponding browser processing component and coordinates at least one browser management activity to either reduce the likelihood that the at least one browser management activity adversely affects performance of the plurality of browser processing components, or allow the at least one browser management activity to perform activities that leads to overall improvement of the browsing experience.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

a network interface that receives web content;

a display that displays a viewable format of the web content;

a plurality of browser processing components, each of the plurality of browser processing components carrying out a corresponding browser processing activity, the browser processing components collectively processing the web content to generate the viewable format of the web content; and

a browser management component that monitors at least one browser processing activity of a corresponding browser processing component and coordinates at least one browser management activity to reduce a likelihood that the at least one browser management activity adversely affects performance of the plurality of browser processing components.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the browser management component generates:

a browser component dependency graph; and

at least one browser management dependency graph that enables the browser management component to schedule the at least one browser management activity so as to reduce the likelihood that the at least one browser management activity adversely affects performance of the plurality of browser processing components.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the browser management component coordinates the at least one browser management activity by managing a time when the at least one browser management activity is carried out.

4. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the browser management component coordinates the at least one browser management activity so that a first portion of the at least one browser management activity is carried out at a first time to enable a particular browser processing activity to be carried out, and a subsequent portion of the at least one browser management activity is carried out at a later time so as to enable the particular browser processing activity to be completed faster.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the at least one browser management activity includes a garbage collection and the particular browser processing activity includes script execution.

6. The computing device of claim 3, wherein the browser management component coordinates the at least one browser management activity by initiating execution of the at least one browser management activity during an event selected from a group of events consisting of a network blocking period, an I/O blocking period, and a memory blocking period.

7. The computing device of claim 6, wherein the at least one browser management activity includes garbage collection activity executed by a JavaScript component.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the browser management component coordinates the at least one browser management activity by managing processing resources so that the at least one browser management activity and the at least one browser processing activity are processed by separate processing resources.

9. A method of improving operation of a browser, the method comprising:

monitoring activity of at least one browser processing component of the browser, wherein the at least one browser processing component of the browser is associated with processing webpage data of a webpage;

predicting, based upon the monitoring, subsequent processing activity of the browser, wherein the subsequent processing activity is associated with processing the webpage data; and

executing at least one browser management activity based upon the subsequent processing activity so as to reduce a likelihood that the at least one browser management activity will adversely affect performance of the browser when the subsequent processing activity is executed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the monitoring includes detecting when the browser requests the webpage and the executing includes preemptively executing a garbage collection management activity while page resources of the webpage are arriving so as to prevent the garbage collection management activity from adversely affecting execution of a script.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the monitoring includes storing data indicative of the activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser so as to create an activity history for the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

and

monitoring real time activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

wherein predicting subsequent processing activity of the browser includes using the real time activity and the activity history for the at least one browser processing component to predict a timing of the subsequent processing activity.

12. The method of claim 9, including:

creating a browser component dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular resources that are required to display the webpage; and

creating a browser management dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular browser management activities.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein executing includes executing the at least one browser management activity at a time that does not create a conflict with the activity of the at least one browser processing component.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein executing includes partially executing the at least one browser management activity so as to enable the activity of the at least one browser processing component to complete, and executing a remainder of the at least one browser management activity after the activity of the at least one browser processing component is complete.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein executing includes executing the at least one browser management activity using a separate thread than a thread that is utilized to execute the activity of the at least one browser processing component.

16. A computing device comprising:

means for monitoring activity of at least one browser processing component of the browser, wherein the at least one browser processing component of the browser is associated with processing webpage data of a webpage;

means for predicting, based upon the monitored activity, subsequent processing activity of the browser, wherein the subsequent processing activity is associated with processing the webpage data; and

means for executing at least one browser management activity based upon the predicted subsequent processing activity so as to reduce a likelihood that the at least one browser management activity will adversely affect performance of the browser when the subsequent processing activity is executed.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the means for monitoring activity includes means for detecting when the browser requests the webpage and the means for executing includes means for preemptively executing a garbage collection management activity while page resources of the webpage are arriving so as to prevent the garbage collection management activity from adversely affecting execution of a scripting-language-based object.

18. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the means for monitoring activity includes means for storing data indicative of the activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser so as to create an activity history for the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

and

means for monitoring real time activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

wherein the means for predicting subsequent processing activity of the browser includes means for using the real time activity and the activity history for the at least one browser processing component to predict a timing of the subsequent processing activity.

19. The computing device of claim 16, including:

means for creating a browser component dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular resources that are required to display the webpage; and

means for creating a browser management dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular browser management activities.

20. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the means for executing includes means for executing the at least one browser management activity at a time that does not create a conflict with the activity of the at least one browser processing component.

21. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the means for executing includes:

means for partially executing the at least one browser management activity so as to enable the activity of the at least one browser processing component to complete, and

means for executing a remainder of the at least one browser management activity after the activity of the at least one browser processing component is complete.

22. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the means for executing includes means for executing the at least one browser management activity using a separate thread than a thread that is utilized to execute the activity of the at least one browser processing component.

23. A non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium, encoded with processor readable instructions to perform a method for improving operation of a browser on a mobile device, the method comprising:

monitoring activity of at least one browser processing component of the browser, wherein the at least one browser processing component of the browser is associated with processing webpage data of a webpage;

predicting, based upon the monitoring, subsequent processing activity of the browser, wherein the subsequent processing activity is associated with processing the webpage data; and

executing at least one browser management activity based upon the subsequent processing activity so as to reduce a likelihood that the at least one browser management activity will adversely affect performance of the browser when the subsequent processing activity is executed.

24. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the monitoring includes detecting when the browser requests the webpage and the executing includes preemptively executing a garbage collection management activity while page resources of the webpage are arriving so as to prevent the garbage collection management activity from adversely affecting execution of a scripting-language-based object.

25. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein the monitoring includes storing data indicative of the activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser so as to create an activity history for the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

and

monitoring real time activity of the at least one browser processing component of the browser;

wherein predicting subsequent processing activity of the browser includes using the real time activity and the activity history for the at least one browser processing component to predict a timing of the subsequent processing activity.

26. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the method including:

creating a browser component dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular resources that are required to display the webpage;

creating a browser management dependency graph that includes data that is indicative of particular browser management activities.

27. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein executing includes executing the at least one browser management activity at a time that does not create a conflict with the activity of the at least one browser processing component.

28. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein executing includes partially executing the at least one browser management activity so as to enable the activity of the at least one browser processing component to complete, and executing a remainder of the at least one browser management activity after the activity of the at least one browser processing component is complete.

29. The non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein executing includes executing the at least one browser management activity using a separate thread than a thread that is utilized to execute the activity of the at least one browser processing component.