INTERCEPTION OF A FUNCTION CALL, SELECTING A FUNCTION FROM AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS AND REROUTING THE FUNCTION CALL

• US 20170277551A1
• Filed: 03/22/2016
• Published: 09/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo Global Technologies International Ltd. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Enterprise Solutions (Singapore) Pte., Ltd. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: NICHOLSON, JOHN W., VANOVER, MICHAEL T., ZHANG, JIANBANG
• Granted Patent: US 10,503,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3024 where the computing system component is a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3058 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring environmental properties or parameters of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring of power, currents, temperature, humidity, position, vibrations thermal management in cooling arrangements of a computing system G06F1/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4484 Executing subprograms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/547 Remote procedure calls [RPC]; Web services

Abstract

An apparatus for dynamically selecting a function includes an intercept module that intercepts a function call from an executing application. The function call specifies a target function and the target function is associated with a target processor. The apparatus includes a selection module that selects a function from a plurality of available functions to execute the function call, where each available function is associated with a separate processor. The apparatus includes an execution module that reroutes the function call to execute the selected function.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an intercept module that intercepts a function call from an executing application, the function call specifying a target function, the target function associated with a target processor;

a selection module that selects a function from a plurality of available functions to execute the function call, each available function associated with a separate processor; and

an execution module that reroutes the function call to execute the selected function.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selection module determines characteristics of the function call and uses the characteristics of the function call to select a function for execution of the function call.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selection module selects the selected function based on selection of a function of the plurality of available functions projected to have a highest performance based on characteristics of the function call.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selection module selects the selected function based on selection of a function of the plurality of available functions projected to have a highest efficiency based on characteristics of the function call.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the selection module selects the selected function based on one or more of current loading and a projected loading of each processor associated with each of the plurality of available functions.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the function call comprises a static call with an environment variable that references the target function and the intercept module halts reading of the environment variable to determine the target function and substitutes a function call comprising one or more of the selection module and the execution module to substitute the selected function for execution of the function call.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, the selected function differs from the target function.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the function call is formatted for execution of the target function on the processor associated with the target function and further comprising a reformat module that reformats the function call for execution of the selected function on the processor associated with the selected function.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processors associated with the plurality of available functions comprise one or more of a field-programmable gate array (“

FPGA”

), a graphics processing unit (“

GPU”

), an accelerated processing unit (“

APU”

), a central processing unit (“

CPU”

), a digital signal processor (“

DSP”

) and a processor of a computing device different from a computing device executing the application.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the function call comprises one or more of a mathematical function, a fast Fourier transform (“

FFT”

), linear regression, a lower level matrix operation, performing a neural network evaluation, and performing a convolutional operation.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a return module that formats results from the selected function in a format compatible with a format of results from the target function and returns the results to the application.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the execution module reroutes the function call to execute the selected function on a remote processor.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a computing device comprising at least a processor and a memory that stores said modules for execution on the processor and one or more alternate processors.

14. A method comprising:

intercepting a function call from an executing application, the function call specifying a target function, the target function associated with a target processor;

selecting a function from a plurality of available functions to execute the function call, each available function associated with a separate processor; and

rerouting the function call to execute the selected function.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting a function from a plurality of available functions further comprises determining characteristics of the function call and using the characteristics of the function call to select a function for execution of the function call.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting a function from a plurality of available functions comprises selecting the selected function based on one of:

selection of a function of the plurality of available functions projected to have a highest performance based on characteristics of the function call; and

selection of a function of the plurality of available functions projected to have a highest efficiency based on characteristics of the function call.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting a function from a plurality of available functions is based on one or more of current loading and a projected loading of each processor associated with each of the plurality of available functions.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the function call comprises a static call with an environment variable that references the target function and intercepting the function call comprises halting reading of the environment variable to determine the target function and substituting a function call comprising one or more of selecting a function from a plurality of available functions to execute the function call and rerouting the function call to execute the selected function.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the function call is formatted for execution of the target function on the processor associated with the target function and further comprising reconfiguring the function call for execution of the selected function on the processor associated with the selected function.

20. A program product comprising a computer readable storage medium storing code executable by a processor, the executable code comprising code to perform:

intercepting a function call from an executing application, the function call specifying a target function, the target function associated with a target processor;

selecting a function from a plurality of available functions to execute the function call, each available function associated with a separate processor; and

rerouting the function call to execute the selected function.