Purpose domain for low overhead virtual machines

• US 8,612,970 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2005
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Red Hat, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Drepper, Ulrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Puente, Emerson
• Assistant Examiner(s): SWIFT, CHARLES M
• Application Number:
  US11/289,402
• Publication Number:
  US 20070169005A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,939 Days
• Field of Search: 718/1, 718/107, 719/319, 719/310, 717/118, 717/148, 717/154, 717/136, 717/140
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide an architecture for securely and efficiently executing byte code generated from a general programming language. In particular, a computer system is divided into a hierarchy comprising multiple types of virtual machines. A thin layer of software, known as a virtual machine monitor, virtualizes the hardware of the computer system and emulates the hardware of the computer system to form a first type of virtual machine. This first type of virtual machine implements a virtual operating domain that allows running its own operating system. Within a virtual operating domain, a byte code interpreter may further implement a second type of virtual machine that executes byte code generated from a program written in a general purpose programming language. The byte code interpreter is incorporated into the operating system running in the virtual operating domain. In addition, an operating system running in a virtual operating domain may be configured as a special purpose operating system that is optimized for the functions of a particular byte code interpreter.

Claims

1. A computer comprising:

a memory;

a processor communicably coupled to the memory; and

a virtual machine monitor communicably coupled to the memory and the processor, the virtual machine monitor to;

virtualize the memory and the processor for a set of virtual domains provided by the virtual machine monitor;

receive a request to start an applet from a first virtual domain of the set of virtual domains;

create a second virtual domain to start and execute the applet in response to the received request; and

incorporate a byte code interpreter in address space of a kernel of an operating system of the second virtual domain, the operating system of the second virtual domain to run byte code interpreted applications comprising at least the applet using the byte code interpreter, wherein the kernel to access hardware of the computer through a platform independent interface provided by the virtual machine monitor.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the operating system of the second virtual domain comprises a Java Virtual Machine that is to interpret Java byte code.

3. The computer of claim 1, wherein the operating system of the second virtual domain comprises a virtual machine that is to interpret C# byte code.

4. The computer of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine monitor is to concurrently support a third virtual domain of the set of virtual domains to execute a second applet.

5. The computer of claim 1, wherein the operating system of the second virtual domain is to provide only functions requested for supporting the applet.

6. A method comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine monitor of a computing device, a request from an applet that is executing in a first virtual domain of a set of virtual domains provided by the virtual machine monitor, wherein execution of the applet was requested by a second virtual domain of the set of virtual domains but directed by the virtual machine monitor to be executed by the first virtual domain;

servicing, by the virtual machine monitor, the request from the applet; and

sending, by the virtual machine monitor, a result of the request to the applet;

wherein the first virtual domain comprises a byte code interpreter in address space of a kernel of a special-purpose operating system of the first virtual domain, the special-purpose operating system of the first virtual domain to run byte code interpreted applications comprising at least the applet using the byte code interpreter, wherein the kernel to access hardware of the computer through a platform independent interface provided by the virtual machine monitor.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the request further comprises receiving a request to start a Java applet.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein receiving the request further comprises receiving a request to start a C# applet.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the request is serviced by directly accessing hardware of the computing device.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the request is serviced by using a virtual device driver of the virtual machine monitor to communicate with the second virtual domain on the computer.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the first virtual domain is a special purpose virtual domain having access to hardware of the computing device through the virtual machine monitor.

12. A method comprising:

receiving, by a virtual machine monitor of a computing device, a request to start an applet from a first virtual domain of a set of virtual domains provided by the virtual machine monitor;

creating, by the virtual machine monitor, a second virtual domain for running the applet;

incorporate a byte code interpreter in address space of a kernel of an operating system of the second virtual domain, the operating system of the second virtual domain, to run byte code interpreted applications comprising at least the applet using the byte code interpreter, wherein the kernel to access hardware of the computer through a platform independent interface provided by the virtual machine monitor; and

starting, by the virtual machine monitor, the applet in the second virtual domain, wherein the applet runs in the operating system of the second virtual domain.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the request to start the applet comprises receiving a request to start a Java applet.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein receiving the request to start the applet comprises receiving a request to start a C# applet.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the operating system is a special purpose operating system that is to provide only functions requested for executing the applet.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the byte code interpreter is a Java byte code interpreter.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the byte code interpreter is a C# byte code interpreter.