Executing Native-Code Applications in a Browser

• US 20100287618A1
• Filed: 05/11/2009
• Published: 11/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Douceur, John R., Lorch, Jacob R., Elson, Jeremy E., Howell, Jonathan R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,588,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/60 Software deployment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]

Abstract

Techniques for leveraging legacy code to deploy native-code desktop applications over a network (e.g., the Web) are described herein. These techniques include executing an application written in native code within a memory region that hardware of a computing device enforces. For instance, page-protection hardware (e.g., a memory management unit) or segmentation hardware may protect this region of memory in which the application executes. The techniques may also provide a narrow system call interface out of this memory region by dynamically enforcing system calls made by the application. Furthermore, these techniques may enable a browser of the computing device to function as an operating system for the native-code application. These techniques thus allow for execution of native-code applications on a browser of a computing device and, hence, over the Web in a resource-efficient manner and without sacrificing security of the computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

executing an application written in native code within a portion of memory of a computing device that is enforced by page-protection hardware of the computing device; and

enabling a browser of the computing device to function as an operating system for the application written in the native code.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the page-protection hardware of the computing device comprises a memory management unit of the computing device.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising dynamically enforcing system calls made by the application from the portion of the memory and for services provided outside of the portion of the memory.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising executing a block image transfer (BLIT) of a representation of an image from the portion of the memory to the browser through an interface provided by the browser.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising transferring a piece of audio from the portion of the memory to the browser through an interface provided by the browser.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the enabling of the browser of the computing device to function as an operating system comprises enabling the browser to provide network input/output (I/O) to the native code of the application.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the enabling of the browser of the computing device to function as an operating system comprises enabling the browser to provide storage input/output (I/O) to the native code of the application.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the enabling of the browser of the computing device to function as an operating system comprises enabling the browser to provide object caching to the native code of the application.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

before the executing of the application written in the native code;

sending a request for the application written in the native code from the browser of the computing device and to a web server that hosts the application;

at least partly in response to the sending of the request, receiving at least a portion of the application written in the native code; and

assigning the portion of the memory of the computing device to the at least a portion of the application written in the native code.

10. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing the computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform a method as recited in claim 1.

11. A method comprising:

executing an application written in native code within a portion of memory of a computing device that is enforced by hardware of the computing device; and

enabling a browser of the computing device to function as an operating system for the application written in the native code.

12. A method as recited in claim 11, further comprising dynamically enforcing system calls made by the application from the portion of the memory and for services provided outside of the portion of the memory.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the hardware of the computing device comprises page-protection hardware or segmentation hardware of the computing device.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the hardware of the computing device comprises page-protection hardware of the computing device.

15. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the computing device comprises an operating system stored on the memory of the computing device, and wherein the enabling of the browser to function as an operating system comprises providing a platform abstraction layer (PAL) to translate system calls made by the application in a manner appropriate for the operating system of the computing device.

16. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform a method as recited in claim 11.

17. A method comprising:

sending a request to execute an application comprising native code from a browser of a computing device;

responsive at least in part to the sending of the request, receiving the native code of the application at the computing device;

assigning a portion of memory of the computing device to the application comprising the native code, the portion of the memory being enforced by hardware of the computing device;

executing the native code of the application within the portion of the memory being enforced by the hardware;

dynamically enforcing interface calls made by the application for system services outside of the portion of the memory; and

enabling the browser of the computing device to provide the system services outside of the portion of memory.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the hardware of the computing device comprises page-protection hardware of the computing device.

19. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the sending of the request comprises sending a request over a network to a server that stores the application comprising the native code.

20. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein the native code comprises binary code in an instruction set of a processor of the computing device or code in an intermediate language.