COMMON KEY FRAME CACHING FOR A REMOTE USER INTERFACE

• US 20090100483A1
• Filed: 10/13/2007
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: McDowell, Brian
• Granted Patent: US 8,106,909 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/109
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces

Abstract

Common key frames are provided to a client during initialization to provide more efficient remoting of user interface graphical information. By storing the common key frames at the client, the common key frames may be loaded quicker and more efficiently at the client without having to resend graphical information for each common key frame each time a common key frame is used to provide a new frame. Differences between a selected common key frame and the new frame are encoded as delta commands. A payload containing a common key frame command, which identifies a common key frame at the client, and delta commands which encode differences between the selected common key frame and new frame is sent to the client. The client receives the payload, sets a cached common key frame as the current frame, applies the delta commands to the selected common key frame, and renders the new frame.

Claims

1. A method for managing a cache, comprising:

providing one or more common key frames of graphical information to a client by a server;

providing current graphical frame data for a current frame to a client by a server over a network;

identifying a new frame by the server to be rendered at the client;

selecting one of the common key frames by the server;

determining a set of difference data associated with the difference between the new frame and the selected cached frame; and

transmitting an identifier for the selected common key frames and the difference data information to the client by the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting one of the common key frames by the server includes:

receiving an indication that a user interface framework has generated the new frame using a selected frame of the one or more common key frames.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of providing one or more common key frames includes:

providing one or more common key frames during initialization of the client.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the identified new frame is not associated with a full frame update or that the identified new frame is not associated with a constant color fill.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of providing one or more common key frames by the server includes:

determining the amount of memory available at the client for caching common key frames.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of selecting one of the common key frames by the server includes:

generating a common key frame command with a key frame identifier.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the key frame command is configured to set a current frame pointer to a common key frame.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the key frame command is configured to set copy current frame from a frame cache to a current frame buffer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining a set of difference data includes:

comparing pixel data values between for pixels in the selected common key frame and the new frame.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said step of determining a set of difference data includes:

generating instructions to set raster segments in the selected common key frame to a set of pixel data values associated with the new frame.

11. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

receiving a set of common key frames containing graphical information by a client from a server;

storing each common key frame at a common key frame cache slot at the client;

receiving a set of instructions by the client from the server, the set of instructions including a common key frame instruction and difference data instructions;

setting a first pointer to a selected common key frame cache slot at the client in response to executing the common key frame instruction;

modifying graphical frame data associated with the common key frame slot in response to executing the difference data instructions; and

presenting a frame associated with the modified graphical frame data through a display device by the client.

12. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the common key frame instruction identifies the common key frame slot at the client to which the first pointer is set.

13. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the first pointer may be set to an address associated with client cache memory or a client frame buffer.

14. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 13, wherein only one copy of two or more graphical frames of data is stored in a client memory, the client memory including the client cache and client frame buffer.

15. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein the set of instructions include an instruction to fill the current frame with a color.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, further comprising:

transmitting memory information by the client to the server, the memory information indicating a portion of memory allocated to store common key frames by the client, to the server, said set of common key frames received from the server configured to be contained within the portion of allocated memory at the client.

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 11, wherein said step of modifying includes:

applying updates to raster segments in the selected cache slot frame with raster segment data contained in the difference data instructions.

18. A method for managing a cache, comprising:

receiving memory size information from a client by a server;

providing two or more common key frames to a client by a server over a network;

identifying a new frame by the server to be rendered at the client;

identifying a first common key frame used to generate the new frame;

determining whether the changes between the new frame and the current frame are associated with a full frame update;

determining that a common key frame ID associated with the new frame differs from a common key frame ID associated with the current frame;

generating a common key frame instruction to select the a common key frame at the client;

encoding a set of difference data instructions associated with the difference between the new frame and the selected common key frame; and

transmitting a payload that includes the common key frame instruction and the set of difference data instructions to the client by the server.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of generating a common key frame instruction includes an instruction to set a client pointer to the selected cache frame.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

selecting a common key frame at the server which corresponds to the new frame; and

applying the difference data instructions to the common key frame at the server.