Abstract: A device and method for controlling a voltage applied to processor cores of a processor are disclosed. The method includes processing a plurality of tasks on the processor with a plurality of processor cores and applying a rail voltage to the plurality of processor cores. The number of the plurality of processor cores that are active is adjusted, and the rail voltage that is applied to the plurality of processor cores is adjusted based upon the number of the plurality of processor cores that are active.

Abstract: Methods and devices for processing web content are disclosed. The method may include receiving a webpage with a browser and parsing the webpage with the browser to obtain subcomponents from the webpage. The browser identifies whether there is an indication that one or more subcomponents of the webpage are potentially malicious, and when there is an indication that the one or more subcomponents of the webpage are malicious, the browser loads the one or more of the subcomponents of the webpage in an auto-sandbox instance for isolated execution by the browser.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for obtaining web content are disclosed. The method may include storing a history of webpages requested via a browser of the communication device and generating a bookmark for a webpage in response to the at least one webpage being requested more than a threshold number of times at a particular time. The bookmark is then stored in association with the particular time, and when the particular time occurs, the webpage is requested and rendered on the communication device so the webpage is rendered in advance of a user launching the browser.

Abstract: A method for compiling software code comprises scanning call sites within the code to identify a function that is called with at least one constant argument and creating a list of each call site associated with the function and sets of constant arguments passed to the function. If any common subsets of the constant arguments are shared across a plurality of call sites, a size of the function is estimated. selecting any sets of constant arguments that are used only in one call site. The sizes of specialized functions covering sets of constant arguments that are used in only one call site is estimated. The method comprises creating a first set of specialized versions of the function covering one or more sets of constant arguments that are used in only one call site, and if any common subsets of the constant arguments exist, creating a second set of specialized versions of the function.

Abstract: Unlike the GPU's FlexRender, a browser engine can intercept rendering at a higher level in the software stack, and because of the simpler nature of the browser tiles that need to be rendered, a browser engine can instruct the GPU to perform composition via traditional tiled-rendering or via direct rendering, where an output of the GPU is written to slower system memory, rather than the faster GPU memory.

Abstract: A computing device and method for managing file access control policies on a computing device are disclosed. The method includes maintaining file-access policies in user space, receiving, at a kernel level, from a user in user space, a request to access a file, and directing the request from the kernel level to a file-policy manager in user space. At least one of the of the file-access policies is enforced in user space with the file-policy manager to grant or deny access to the file, and file operations are performed on the file using only kernel-level calls when access to the to the file is granted.

Abstract: A method for optimizing source code comprises optimizing the source code of files from a computer program at link-time, and receiving, at a linker, a customized linker script defining output sections for files of an executable version of the files of the computer program. The method comprises adding, to intermediate representation files having global or local symbols, metadata comprising default section assignment information for the symbols and recording, for symbols in machine code files, an origin path and an output section. The method further comprises parsing, by the compiler, the intermediate representation files, recording the symbols and related symbol information comprising default section assignment and dependency information of the intermediate representation files, assigning output sections to the symbols based on the default section assignments and instructions from the customized linker script, and linking optimized code of the files of the computer program based on the assigned output sections.

Abstract: Herein disclosed are systems, methods, and apparatus for controlling data usage statistics in network-connected devices. The ‘stats’ collection can be suppressed during minimum window periods, thereby reducing CPU and resources usage needed to processes the stats collection. Further, the minimum window can be a function of a link speed of the communication channel as well as a data usage proximity to a data usage warning limit. Further, stats collection can be triggered by expiration of a timer or data usage that meets a buffer threshold, where both the timer and threshold are selected based on the communication channel link speed, and buffer threshold is further a function of the data usage proximity to the warning limit.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus are herein disclosed for performing load balancing of work queues via a dispatcher that shifts work items between worker threads. The dispatcher can be added to the kernel and can monitor work item workload histories to estimate the workload that each work item will add to a thread that it is scheduled for. Where a workload for a given processor is predicted to trigger performance scaling of that processor, the dispatcher can reschedule one or more work items from the scheduled or default work thread to another work thread. The another work thread can be selected such that the addition of the work item will not trigger performance scaling of the another work thread.

Abstract: Methods and devices for controlling frequency of a bus are disclosed. A method may include determining a total-pending load value indicative of a number of a bytes that will pass through the bus in the future and calculating an expected load value based upon i) the total-pending load value, ii) a number of bytes that passed through the bus during a prior time window, and iii) a time duration the bus was active during the prior time window. The frequency of the bus is decreased if the expected load value is less than a lower threshold and increased if the expected load value is greater than an upper threshold. A frequency of the bus is maintained if the expected load value is greater than the lower threshold and less than the upper threshold.

Abstract: A method for link time optimization comprises parsing, by a compiler, an intermediate representation file to determine what symbols are present in the intermediate representation file. The method comprises providing the symbols to a linker and creating, by the linker, a symbol use tree of all the symbols that are present in the intermediate representation file and other symbols in binary code received by the linker. The method further comprises discarding, by the linker, any received objects for which no use can be identified and all dependencies of the objects. The method includes providing, from the linker to the compiler, a preserve list of symbols, the preserve list comprising a list of symbols proven used by the objects and the intermediate representation files. The method comprises compiling the intermediate representation files and the objects based on the preserve list of symbols, and deleting, by the linker, any remaining unused objects.

Abstract: A method and device for rasterizing content includes partitioning a webpage into webpage tiles that are associated with a front buffer and a back buffer. A rasterized version of each of the tiles may be stored in the associated front buffer, and each may include new content. If a previous copy of the at least one tile is found in memory, the new content is rasterized onto the previous copy. If a previous copy is not found, and if the proportion of the new content of the at least one tile is less than a threshold, the new content is rasterized onto the front buffer. If the proportion of the new content is above the threshold, and if unchanged content in the at least one tile is complex, then the unchanged content is copied to the back buffer and the new content is rasterized onto the associated back buffer.

Abstract: Herein disclosed is an optimization for a compiler, the optimization configured to assign numeric values, or semantic fingerprints, to portions of code, and to combine these fingerprints to arrive at fingerprints for larger and larger portions of code. The fingerprints can be provided to various consumers such as code redundancy optimization modules and copyright violation and malware/virus identification modules. The fingerprints can also be used to cluster similar code, and then code within each cluster can be merged. Merger can include creating a single merged portion of code including the same portions of code from the original portions of code plus control flow and new arguments to account for differences between the original portions of code. The original portions of code can be replaced with wrappers that use new arguments to call to the merged portion of code.

Abstract: Provided are a method and device for audio post-processing. The method may comprise receiving, at a first processor, an audio signal, detecting, at the first processor, a plurality of post-processing modules for altering the audio signal, and creating, based on information identifying functions of the plurality of post-processing modules, an optimized acceleration module. It may further comprise sending, through the optimized acceleration module, a buffer packet of the audio signal along a single data path to a second processor and post-processing, at the second processor, the buffer packet of the audio signal through each of a plurality of associated post-processing modules that correspond to the post-processing modules on the first processor, controlling each associated post-processing module via control paths from each corresponding post-processing module, and receiving, at the first processor, a post-processed buffer packet of the audio signal via a single return data path.

Abstract: In graphics rendering, a texture tile is divided into a plurality of partitions, each partition having a plurality of vertices. A map indicates, for each partition, whether each partition comprises a constant color. Then the plurality of vertices are transferred to a vertex shader, which determines that at least one of the partitions comprises a constant color partition. A vertex shader applies a vertex transformation that associates a set of texel coordinates from the texture tile to each of the vertices of the constant color partition to generate a set of associated texel coordinates. A first coordinate of the set of associated texel coordinates is set to zero. A pixel shader interpolates the associated texel coordinates to generate an interpolated value and accesses a single texel in the constant color partition that corresponds to the interpolated value.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus are herein described for reducing stuttering or skipped frames in media rendering by switching between two sampling windows of a CPU frequency governor. In particular, a sampling window for the governor can switch between a first mode and a second mode, where the first mode involves a default sampling window having a period greater than 1/f, is out of phase with or not aligned with VSync pulses, and is clocked to an internal clock of the CPU frequency governor. The second mode involves an adjusted sampling window having a period equal to 1/f, and is in phase with or aligned with VSync pulses. Further, f, can be the refresh rate of a display device. VSync pulses can be provided to the CPU frequency governor, which can use these pulses to clock the sampling window when a CPU workload becomes or is expected to become sporadic.

Abstract: Systems and methods for profiling application code are disclosed. The method is hybrid in nature as it may include inserting instrumentation within application code and also periodic sample gathering, by employing a runtime app profile generator that provides the hybrid profiling infrastructure and is linked to the application code. An executable user application is then generated from the application code, and the executable user application is executed. The runtime app profile generator is then launched in response to the execution of the application code, and hybrid profiling results are generated by obtaining samples from the different threads of the executed application code and accumulating instrumented execution information. In some implementations, the hybrid profiling results capture even cold regions of the code and can also be used for a next round of profiling through automated targeted instrumentation.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus for power-based scheduling of tasks among processors are disclosed. A method may include executing processor executable code on one or more of the processors to prompt a plurality of executable tasks for scheduling among the processors. Processor-demand information is obtained about the plurality of executable tasks in addition to capacity information for each of the processors. Processor power information for each of the processors is also obtained, and the plurality of executable tasks are scheduled on the lowest power processors where processor-demands of the tasks are satisfied.

Abstract: A method and a computing device for reducing deoptimization in a virtual machine are provided. Source code of a dynamically-typed program is compiled. A context-free type-state recorder records a first data type of a value associated with a particular named memory location within the source code. Optimized code may be generated based on the first data type of the value being a matching data type for global values associated with the particular named memory location. One or more global values associated with the particular named memory location may be type-checked. The context-free type-state recorder may record, if one or more of the global values associated with the particular named memory location is a different data type than the first data type, one or more different data types associated with the particular named memory location. New optimized code may then be generated.

Abstract: A method and computing apparatus for controlling operation of hardware processing components are disclosed. The method may include receiving a data packet (e.g., a media frame) at the computing device, processing the data packet with a plurality of hardware components to display the data packet, and monitoring movement of the data packet among the hardware components. A time indication for each hardware component is generated that indicates when the data packet will be received, and a frequency of each of the hardware components is adjusted based upon when the frame will arrive to be processed.