Server based graphics processing techniques

• US 9,311,169 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2012
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Original Assignee: NVIDIA Corporation
• Inventors: Diard, Franck
• Primary Examiner(s): McDowell, Jr., Maurice L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ricks, Donna J
• Application Number:
  US13/462,801
• Publication Number:
  US 20130293557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,441 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space

Abstract

The server based graphics processing techniques, describer herein, include passing graphics commands from a shim layer to a guest display device interface, wherein the shim layer and the guest display device interface (DDI) are executing in a given instance of a guest virtual machine (VM). The guest DDI calls back to the shim layer with corresponding function calls. The function calls are passed from the shim layer to a host DDI through a communication channel of a host-guest communication manager (HGCM), wherein the host display device interface and host-guest communication manager are executing in a host virtual machine manager (VMM).

Claims

1. A method comprising:

delivering hardware resources, software and information of a computing platform to a plurality of user devices as a utility delivered over a network, wherein rendering display frames output on a display of a given user device by the hardware resources, software and information on the computing platform includes,

receiving, by a given instance of a runtime application programming interface, a plurality of graphics commands;

passing the plurality of graphics commands from the given instance of the runtime application programming interface through a given instance of a guest shim layer to a given instance of a guest display device interface;

calling back from the given instance of the guest display device interface into the given instance of the guest shim layer with a function call in response to the plurality of graphics commands, wherein the given instance of the runtime application programming interface, the given instance of the guest shim layer and the given instance of the guest display device interface are executing under control of a given instance of a guest operating system; and

sending the function call from the given instance of the guest shim layer through a communication channel of a host guest communication manager to a host display device interface, wherein the host guest communication manager and host display device interface are executing under control of a host operating system.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by a different instance of the runtime application programming interface, a different plurality of graphics commands;

passing the different plurality of graphics commands from the different instance of the runtime application programming interface through a different instance of the guest shim layer to a different instance of the guest display device interface;

calling back from the different instance of the guest display device interface into the different instance of the guest shim layer with a different function call in response to the different plurality of graphics commands, wherein the different instance of the runtime application programming interface, the different instance of the guest shim layer and the different instance of the guest display device interface are executing under control of a different instance of a guest operating system;

sending the different function call from the different instance of the guest shim layer through a different communication channel of the host guest communication manager to the host display device interface.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising processing the given plurality of graphics commands into the given function call by the given instance of the guest display device interface including loading one or more command buffers with parameters from the given plurality of graphics commands.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the guest shim layer is not a display device interface user mode driver of a virtual machine manager including the host guest communication manager.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the guest display device interface is not a display device interface user mode driver of a virtual machine manager including the host guest communication manager.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of graphics commands, the given instance of the guest shim layer, the given instance of the guest display device interface, the function call and the communication channel are associated with a given context.

7. One or more non-transitory computing device readable media storing one or more sets of computing device executable instructions which when executed by one or more processing units perform a process comprising:

loading a given instance of a guest shim layer in response to a given instance of a runtime application programming interface receiving a first graphics command from a given application;

loading a given instance of a guest display device interface that calls back into the given instance of the guest shim layer, in response to loading the given instance of the guest shim layer, wherein the guest shim layer, the guest display device interface and the runtime application programming interface are executing under control of a virtual machine guest operating system;

requesting, by the given instance of the shim layer to a host-guest communication manager, a communication channel between the given instance of the guest shim layer and a host display device interface, in response to loading the given instance of the guest shim layer;

loading the host display device interface and create a communication channel between the given instance of the shim layer and the host display device interface, by the host-guest communication manager, in response to the request for the communication channel;

passing the graphics commands from the given instance of the runtime application programming interface through the given instance of the guest shim layer to the given instance of the guest display device interface;

calling back from the given instance of the guest display device interface into the given instance of the guest shim layer with one or more function calls based on a set of the graphics commands;

sending the one or more function calls from the given instance of the guest shim layer through the communication channel to the host display device interface.

8. The process according to claim 7, wherein loading the given instance of the guest display device interface includes returning call backs to rendering functions with pointers to corresponding data structures from the given instance of the guest display device interface to the given instance of the guest shim layer.

9. The process according to claim 7, wherein the given instance of the guest shim layer is loaded by an injected application initialization routine.

10. The process according to claim 9, wherein the injected application initialization routine changes a search path for the runtime application programming interface to point to the guest shim layer.

11. The process according to claim 7, wherein the host guest communication manager registers that the host display device interface is callable by the given instance of the shim layer.

12. The process according to claim 7, wherein the host guest communication manager comprises a software development kit (SDK) of VirtualBox.

13. The process according to claim 7, further comprising:

requesting, by the given instance of the guest shim layer from the host display device interface, at least a portion of a corresponding instance of a binary host rendering stack of a virtual machine management host;

returning, from the host display device interface to the given instance of the guest shim layer, the requested portion of the corresponding instance of the binary host rendering stack; and

parsing, by the given instance of the shim layer, the requested portion of the corresponding instance of the binary host rendering stack to determine the command buffers allocated by the given instance of a thunk layer.

14. The process according to claim 7, further comprising processing the graphics commands into the one or more function calls by the guest display device interface including loading one or more command buffers with parameters from the graphics commands.

15. A method comprising:

delivering hardware resources, software and information of a computing platform to a plurality of user devices as a with delivered over a network, wherein rendering display frames output on a display of a given user device by the hardware resources, software and information on the computing platform includes,

injecting an application initialization routine, when an application starts running in a given virtual machine guest, that includes an entry point that changes a search path for a display device interface to a search path of a guest shim layer;

loading the guest shim layer to run in the given virtual machine guest, at the changed search path;

loading a guest display device interface to run in the given virtual machine guest that calls back into the guest shim layer, in response to loading the guest shim layer;

requesting, from a host-guest communication manager running in a virtual machine management host, a communication channel between the guest shim layer and a host display device interface, in response to loading the guest shim layer; and

creating a given rendering context for the given instance of the virtual machine guest, in response to loading the host display device interface.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein loading the guest display device interface includes returning call backs for rendering functions with pointers to corresponding data structures from the guest display device interface to the guest shim layer.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein the host guest communication manager comprises a software development kit (SDK) of VirtualBox.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the shim layer comprises a user mode driver dynamic linked library.

19. The method according to claim 18, further comprising:

requesting, by the guest shim layer from the host display device interface, at least a portion of a binary host rendering stack of a virtual machine management host;

receiving, from the host display device interface to the guest shim layer, the requested portion of the binary host rendering stack; and

parsing, by the shim layer, the requested portion of the binary host rendering stack to determine allocated command buffers.

20. The method according to claim 19, further comprising:

receiving, by a runtime application programming interface, a plurality of graphics commands;

passing the plurality of graphics commands from the runtime application programming interface through the guest shim layer to the guest display device interface;

calling back from the guest display device interface into the given instance of the guest shim layer with a function call in response to the plurality of graphics commands; and

sending the function call from guest shim layer through the communication channel of the host guest communication manager to the host display device interface.