Computing device and virtual device control method for controlling virtual device by computing system

• US 9,317,440 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2013
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Park, Young-Jin, Jung, Ilguy, Sohn, Donghyun
• Primary Examiner(s): Gu, Shawn X
• Application Number:
  US13/951,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20140032874A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0238 Memory management in non-volatile memory, e.g. resistive RAM or ferroelectric memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0246 in block erasable memory, e.g. flash memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0638 Combination of memories, e.g. ROM and RAM such as to permit replacement or supplementing of words in one module by words in another module address formation of the next microinstruction G06F9/26; masking faults in memories by using spares or by reconfiguring G11C29/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1009 using page tables, e.g. page table structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors

Abstract

A virtual device control method of a computing device which includes a nonvolatile memory is provided. The virtual device control method includes receiving a virtualization request; assigning a first part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual memory; assigning a second part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual storage; and generating a virtual device including the assigned virtual memory and virtual storage.

Claims

1. A method of implementing a virtual device, the method including:

generating a first virtual device comprising;

assigning a first portion of a nonvolatile memory to a virtual memory of the first virtual device; and

assigning a second portion of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual storage of the first virtual device;

generating a second virtual device comprising;

assigning a third portion of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual memory of the second virtual device; and

assigning a fourth portion of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual storage of the second virtual device,

wherein the nonvolatile memory is a nonvolatile Random Access Memory (RAM), and wherein the method further comprises;

executing a first operating system using the first virtual device; and

executing a second operating system different from the first operating system using the second virtual device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile RAM is one of a magnetic RAM (MRAM) or a phase-change RAM (PRAM).

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a virtual memory address table including information on a mapping relationship between a first set of addresses of the nonvolatile memory and a set of addresses of the virtual memories of the first and second virtual devices; and

generating a virtual storage address table including information on a mapping relationship between a second set of addresses of the nonvolatile memory and a set of addresses of the virtual storages of the first and second virtual devices.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a fail of one of the first and second virtual devices; and

generating a new virtual device including a corresponding one of the virtual memories of the first and second virtual devices and a corresponding one of the virtual storages of the first and second virtual devices to recover the failed one.

5. A virtual device control method of a computing device which includes a nonvolatile memory, the method comprising:

receiving a virtualization request;

assigning a first part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual memory;

assigning a second part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual storage;

generating a virtual device including the assigned virtual memory and the virtual storage;

receiving a second virtualization request;

assigning a third part of the nonvolatile memory to a second virtual memory;

assigning a fourth part of the nonvolatile memory to a second virtual storage; and

generating a second virtual device including the assigned second virtual memory and the second virtual storage.

6. The virtual device control method of claim 5, wherein the nonvolatile memory is a magnetic RAM or a phase-change RAM.

7. The virtual device control method of claim 5, further comprising:

assigning a fifth part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual main memory of the computing device;

assigning a sixth part of the nonvolatile memory to a virtual main storage of the computing device; and

generating a virtual main device including the assigned virtual main memory and the virtual main storage.

8. The virtual device control method of claim 5,

wherein the virtual device can be changed and deleted, and wherein the generating, changing, and deleting of the virtual device is executed by a basic input/output system (BIOS) of the computing device.

9. The virtual device control method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating a virtual memory address table including information on a mapping relationship between a set of addresses of the nonvolatile memory and a set of addresses of the virtual memory; and

generating a virtual storage address table including information on a mapping relationship between a set of addresses of the nonvolatile memory and a set of addresses of the virtual storage.

10. The virtual device control method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving an access request and an address;

when the received access request and the received address correspond to the virtual memory, converting the address into an address of the nonvolatile memory based on the virtual memory address table and, when the received access request and the received address correspond to the virtual storage, converting the address into an address of the nonvolatile memory based on the virtual storage address table; and

accessing the nonvolatile memory using the converted address.

11. The virtual device control method of claim 5, further comprising:

detecting a fail of the virtual device; and

generating a new virtual device including the virtual memory and the virtual storage to recover the failed virtual device.

12. The virtual device control method of claim 5, further comprising:

accessing a virtual memory and a virtual storage of a nonvolatile memory in an external computing device, which is external to the nonvolatile memory and external to the computing device; and

generating a virtual device including the virtual memory and the virtual storage of the nonvolatile memory in the external computing device.

13. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a nonvolatile memory, and

a controller configured to control the nonvolatile memory according to a control of the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to assign a virtual memory and a virtual storage on the nonvolatile memory via the controller and to generate and control a virtual device including the assigned virtual memory and virtual storage,

wherein the controller is further configured to assign a second virtual memory and a second virtual storage on the nonvolatile memory via the controller and to generate and control a second virtual device including the assigned second virtual memory and the second virtual storage.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the controller comprises:

a virtual memory controller configured to convert an address of the assigned virtual memory generated by the processor into an address of the nonvolatile memory;

a virtual storage controller configured to convert an address of the assigned virtual storage generated by the processor into an address of the nonvolatile memory; and

a generic memory controller configured to access the nonvolatile memory using an address converted by the virtual memory controller or the virtual storage controller.

15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the controller is included in a North Bridge of the computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 13, further comprising:

a random access memory configured to communicate with the processor via a North Bridge, the controller being included in a South Bridge of the computing device.

17. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the controller comprises a communication interface to communicate with an external computing device and the processor is configured to access a virtual memory and a virtual storage of the external computing device via the communication interface of the controller and to generate a virtual device including the virtual memory and the virtual storage of the external computing device, the external computing device being external to the computing device.

18. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the nonvolatile memory is a magnetic RAM or a phase-change RAM.

19. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to generate a new virtual device including the virtual memory and the virtual storage if a failure of the virtual device is detected.