Abstract: Techniques are described for providing graphics functionality. In a first partition, a software interface comprising graphics capabilities that are abstracted from capabilities of the graphics accelerator device is loaded. In a second partition loading, a graphics capturing and rendering process is loaded. The software interface on the first partition receives a request to render graphics. The request is based on the abstracted graphics capabilities. The graphics capturing and rendering process renders the requested graphics on the second partition. The abstracted graphics capabilities are effectuated in accordance with the capabilities of the graphics accelerator device. The capturing process executing on the second partition provides the rendered graphics to the first partition.

Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed for virtualizing a graphics accelerator such as a GPU. In one embodiment, a GPU can be paravirtualized. Rather than modeling a complete hardware GPU, paravirtualization may provide for an abstracted software-only GPU that presents a software interface different from that of the underlying hardware. By providing a paravirtualized GPU, a virtual machine may enable a rich user experience with, for example, accelerated 3D rendering and multimedia, without the need for the virtual machine to be associated with a particular GPU product.