Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, relating to managing resources. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving configuration information, the configuration information specifying a plurality of parameter values including values for a size and input/output performance parameters, where the size and performance parameters are independently specified by a user; determining one or more physical resources that satisfy the received configuration information; and generating one or more virtual disk instances having the specified size and performance parameters.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for service bridges. In one aspect, a method includes a host operating system performs operations comprising: receiving, using one or more service bridges that execute in the host operating system, a plurality of requests from the one or more virtual machines, wherein each service bridge is associated with a different virtual machine of the one or more virtual machines, and wherein each request is a request to interface with one or more external services; modifying, using a respective service bridge, each request to be processed by the one or more external services; and providing each modified request from the respective service bridge to the one or more external services, where the respective service bridge communicates with the one or more external services over a network.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for accessing services from a virtual machine. One of the methods includes receiving requests for long-term security tokens from a host machine, each request comprising authentication information for a respective service account. The method include providing long-term security tokens to the host machine, wherein the long-term security tokens can be used to generate short-term security tokens for a virtual machine executing on the host machine. The method also includes generating by a process executing in a host operating system of the host machines a short-term security token based on a long-term security token of the long-term security tokens for use by a virtual machine executing on the host machine to access one of the respective service accounts, wherein the short-term security token is useable for a pre-determined amount of time.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for exposing metadata to a virtual machine. In one aspect, a method includes executing a virtual machine on a host operating system. A synthetic file system is mounted on the virtual machine to expose the synthetic file system to a plurality of guest applications executing on the virtual machine. The synthetic file system is configured to provide a plurality of system calls to the guest applications including at least a read operation or a write operation for reading from or writing to external metadata stored outside the virtual machine.

Abstract: A new form of DHTML behaviors, called ˜Element Behaviors,” wherein a behavior component is bound to an HTML element, and not just attached to the element as with attached behaviors. A special processing instruction is used to import the Element Behavior into a Web page. Upon parsing the Web page, the Element Behavior is initialized as soon as it has been downloaded and parsed. This immediate initialization makes the Element Behavior declaratively available to bind synchronously to the element(s) it is modifying. A viewLink is a feature of Element Behaviors that permits encapsulation of a behavior component file (e.g., an HTC file) so that the structure of the HTC file is transparent to a Web page (˜primary document”) to which the HTC file is linked, but the content of the HTC file may be displayed in the primary document.

Abstract: A method and system for validating access to a group of related elements are described. The elements within the group access a security context associated with a markup domain when a call is made to an element. An authorized call to an element is enabled such that the markup domain is navigated to a new web page. However, an unauthorized call is prevented so that the navigation to the new web page is not permitted. After the markup domain has been navigated, the security context associated with the markup domain is invalidated. A new security context is generated and associated with the markup domain. The elements associated with the web page navigated from are inaccessible after navigation of the markup domain to the new page. The association of the new security context with the markup domain prevents an unauthorized user from accessing any element that references the previous security context.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for implementing a global computing interface. One of the methods includes maintaining a global database of virtual machine configuration information, the database including information on cloud computing resources in each of a plurality of regions, wherein each region of the plurality of regions includes one or more datacenters. A virtual machine image is received in a first region. The global database is updated with configuration information about the received virtual machine image that is stored in the first region. A request is received to start one or more virtual machines from the virtual machine image in a second different region, and the virtual machine image is transmitted from the first region to the second region and one or more virtual machines are started from the virtual machine image in a datacenter of the second different region.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for implementing virtual network pairs between virtual machines and other devices. In one aspect, a method includes receiving a plurality of outgoing packets from one or more source virtual machines executing on the data processing apparatus, each source virtual machine being a hardware virtualization of the data processing apparatus and each packet destined for a destination virtual machine; establishing a plurality of virtual network pairs, one for each unique pair of source and destination virtual machines, wherein establishing the plurality of virtual network pairs comprises obtaining, from an external data processing apparatus, a different network address for each destination virtual machine; encapsulating each outgoing packet in a message; and sending each message to the destination virtual machine for the respective packet by sending the message to the respective network destination address.

Abstract: A method and system for validating access to a group of related elements are described. The elements within the group access a security context associated with a markup domain when a call is made to an element. An authorized call to an element is enabled such that the markup domain is navigated to a new web page. However, an unauthorized call is prevented so that the navigation to the new web page is not permitted. After the markup domain has been navigated, the security context associated with the markup domain is invalidated. A new security context is generated and associated with the markup domain. The elements associated with the web page navigated from are inaccessible after navigation of the markup domain to the new page. The association of the new security context with the markup domain prevents an unauthorized user from accessing any element that references the previous security context.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, relating to managing resources. In one aspect, a method includes the actions of receiving configuration information, the configuration information specifying a plurality of parameter values including values for a size and input/output performance parameters, where the size and performance parameters are independently specified by a user; determining one or more physical resources that satisfy the received configuration information; and generating one or more virtual disk instances having the specified size and performance parameters.

Abstract: A method and system for validating access to a group of related elements are described. The elements within the group access a security context associated with a markup domain when a call is made to an element. An authorized call to an element is enabled such that the markup domain is navigated to a new web page. However, an unauthorized call is prevented so that the navigation to the new web page is not permitted. After the markup domain has been navigated, the security context associated with the markup domain is invalidated. A new security context is generated and associated with the markup domain. The elements associated with the web page navigated from are inaccessible after navigation of the markup domain to the new page. The association of the new security context with the markup domain prevents an unauthorized user from accessing any element that references the previous security context.

Abstract: An intelligent caching data structure and mechanisms for storing visual information via objects and data representing graphics information. The data structure is generally associated with mechanisms that intelligently control how the visual information therein is populated and used. The cache data structure can be traversed for direct rendering, or traversed for pre-processing the visual information into an instruction stream for another entity. Much of the data typically has no external reference to it, thereby enabling more of the information stored in the data structure to be processed to conserve resources. A transaction/batching-like model for updating the data structure enables external modifications to the data structure without interrupting reading from the data structure, and such that changes received are atomically implemented. A method and mechanism are provided to call back to an application program in order to create or re-create portions of the data structure as needed, to conserve resources.

Abstract: A multiple-level graphics processing system and method (e.g., of an operating system) for providing improved graphics output including, for example, smooth animation. One such multiple-level graphics processing system comprises two components, including a tick-on-demand or slow-tick high-level component, and a fast-tick (e.g., at the graphics hardware frame refresh rate) low-level component. In general, the high-level, less frequent component performs computationally intensive aspects of updating animation parameters and traversing scene data structures, in order to pass simplified data structures to the low-level component. The low-level component operates at a higher frequency, such as the frame refresh rate of the graphics subsystem, to process the data structures into constant output data for the graphics subsystem. The low-level processing includes interpolating any parameter intervals as necessary to obtain instantaneous values to render the scene for each frame of animation.

Abstract: An intelligent caching data structure and mechanisms for storing visual information via objects and data representing graphics information. The data structure is generally associated with mechanisms that intelligently control how the visual information therein is populated and used. The cache data structure can be traversed for direct rendering, or traversed for pre-processing the visual information into an instruction stream for another entity. Much of the data typically has no external reference to it, thereby enabling more of the information stored in the data structure to be processed to conserve resources. A transaction/batching-like model for updating the data structure enables external modifications to the data structure without interrupting reading from the data structure, and such that changes received are atomically implemented. A method and mechanism are provided to call back to an application program in order to create or re-create portions of the data structure as needed, to conserve resources.

Abstract: The management of computational resources of coprocessors to facilitate efficient execution of multiple applications in a multitasking environment is accomplished by enabling multiple threads of execution to compose command buffers in parallel, submitting those command buffers for scheduling and dispatch by the operating system, and fielding interrupts that notify of completion of command buffers, the system enables multiple applications to efficiently share the computational resources available in the system.

Abstract: An intelligent caching data structure and mechanisms for storing visual information via objects and data representing graphics information. The data structure is generally associated with mechanisms that intelligently control how the visual information therein is populated and used. The cache data structure can be traversed for direct rendering, or traversed for pre-processing the visual information into an instruction stream for another entity. Much of the data typically has no external reference to it, thereby enabling more of the information stored in the data structure to be processed to conserve resources. A transaction/batching-like model for updating the data structure enables external modifications to the data structure without interrupting reading from the data structure, and such that changes received are atomically implemented. A method and mechanism are provided to call back to an application program in order to create or re-create portions of the data structure as needed, to conserve resources.

Abstract: A media integration layer including an application programming interface (API) and an object model allows program code developers to interface in a consistent manner with a scene graph data structure in order to output graphics. Via the interfaces, program code adds child visuals to other visuals to build up a hierarchical scene graph, writes Instruction Lists such as geometry data, image data, animation data and other data for output, and may specify transform, clipping and opacity properties on visuals. The media integration layer and API enable programmers to accomplish composition effects within their applications in a straightforward manner, while leveraging the graphics processing unit in a manner that does not adversely impact normal application performance. A multiple-level system includes the ability to combine different media types (such as 2D, 3D, Video, Audio, text and imaging) and animate them smoothly and seamlessly.

Abstract: An element object model and a vector graphics markup language for using that element object model in a manner that allows program code developers to consistently interface with a scene graph data structure to produce graphics. The vector graphics element object model generally corresponds to shape elements and other elements including image and video elements that correlate with a scene graph object model of the scene graph. Markup may be parsed into data including elements in an element tree that is translated into the objects of a scene graph data structure. Other markup may be translated directly into data and calls that create the scene graph objects. The markup language provides distinct ways to describe an element, including a simple string format or complex property syntax, which may be named, enabling reuse in other locations in the markup.

Abstract: An intelligent caching data structure and mechanisms for storing visual information via objects and data representing graphics information. The data structure is generally associated with mechanisms that intelligently control how the visual information therein is populated and used. The cache data structure can be traversed for direct rendering, or traversed for pre-processing the visual information into an instruction stream for another entity. Much of the data typically has no external reference to it, thereby enabling more of the information stored in the data structure to be processed to conserve resources. A transaction/batching-like model for updating the data structure enables external modifications to the data structure without interrupting reading from the data structure, and such that changes received are atomically implemented. A method and mechanism are provided to call back to an application program in order to create or re-create portions of the data structure as needed, to conserve resources.

Abstract: A method and system implemented in an application programming interface (API) and an object model allows program code developers to interface in a consistent manner with a scene graph data structure to output graphics. Via the interfaces, program code writes drawing primitives such as geometry data, image data, animation data and other data to visuals that represent a drawing surface, including validation visual objects, drawing visual objects and surface visual objects. The code can also specify transform, clipping and opacity properties on visuals, and add child visuals to other visuals to build up a hierarchical scene graph. A visual manager traverses the scene graph to provide rich graphics data to lower-level graphics components.