Virtual Device Driver (vxd) Patents (Class 719/324)
  • Patent number: 8327059
    Abstract: In a computer system supporting execution of virtualization software and at least one instance of virtual system hardware, an interface is provided into the virtualization software to allow a program to directly define the access characteristics of its program data stored in physical memory. The technique includes providing data identifying memory pages and their access characteristics to the virtualization software which then derives the memory access characteristics from the specified data. Optionally, the program may also specify a pre-defined function to be performed upon the occurrence of a fault associated with access to an identified memory page. In this manner, programs operating both internal and external to the virtualization software can protect his memory pages, without intermediation by the operating system software.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2012
    Assignee: VMware, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaoxin Chen, Pratap Subrahmanyam
  • Patent number: 8320461
    Abstract: A remote resource access interface apparatus is provided. A key input unit has keys for generating input key values. A communication unit transmits a connection establishment request message including screen resolution information to, and receives a connection establishment response message including supportable key information from, a portable device. The communication unit transmits input key information to and receives video information from the portable device after establishing the connection. A pixel information processing unit converts the video information to pixel signals for a video output unit to display as a visual image. A key advisor unit extracts supportable key information from the response message and outputs the supportable key information to the video output unit. The video information is video data adjusted in resolution based on the screen resolution information, and the input key value is mapped to one of key values indicated by the key information of the portable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2012
    Inventor: Gil Hoon Chang
  • Patent number: 8312478
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for providing driver functionality in computing system includes installing an operating system on the computing system; forming a plurality of isolated sandboxes running on the computing system under control of the operating system; during an attempt to install a driver, installing driver stub in the operating system; installing the driver in one of the isolated sandboxes, wherein the driver directly uses at least part of system resources; using a gateway between the driver stub and the installed driver to provide an interface for transmitting requests from the driver stub to driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2012
    Assignee: Parallels IP Holdings GmbH
    Inventors: Stanislav S. Protassov, Alexander G. Tormasov, Serguei M. Beloussov
  • Patent number: 8302110
    Abstract: To simplify the structure and improve the performance of virtualization software. There is provided virtualization unit for capturing a configuration access to a physical device from a virtual CPU, identifying a partition to which the physical device belongs from a device address of the physical device accessed by the virtual CPU, and if the physical device does not belong to the virtual CPU's own partition, replacing a content of a configuration register that identifies the physical device with information on a nonexistent dummy device, and notifying the resultant to the virtual CPU. The physical device not belonging to the virtual CPU's own partition is recognized as a named valid device by using a dummy device driver corresponding to the dummy device. The dummy device driver rejects execution of processing common to all physical devices that is requested by the virtual CPU and disturbs operation of a physical device belonging to another partition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2010
    Date of Patent: October 30, 2012
    Assignee: NEC Corporation
    Inventor: Takeshi Koike
  • Patent number: 8291438
    Abstract: Procedures for printing virtualized applications are discussed. In implementations, a spooler is associated with an established virtual environment including a virtualized application. The spooler may be associated by making a native spooler, installed on a computing system aware of the virtual environment. In other implementations, the spooler may be virtualized such as by including an instance of a spooler in the virtual environment. A printer driver may be virtualized for use in print virtual application output. Virtualizing printer drivers may allow virtual applications to access and use printer and/or software resources without installing the resource on the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 16, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: John M Sheehan, Cread W Mefford, Stuart H Schaefer, Jeffrey J Bromberger
  • Patent number: 8286162
    Abstract: Embodiments of apparatuses, methods, and systems for delivering an interrupt to a virtual processor are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an interface to receive an interrupt request, delivery logic, and exit logic. The delivery logic is to determine, based on an attribute of the interrupt request, whether the interrupt request is to be delivered to the virtual processor. The exit logic is to transfer control to a host if the delivery logic determines that the interrupt request is not to be delivered to the virtual processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2012
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Gilbert Neiger, Rajesh Sankaran Madukkarumukumana, Richard A. Uhlig, Udo Steinberg, Sebastian Schoenberg, Sridhar Muthrasanallur, Steven M. Bennett, Andrew V. Anderson, Erik C. Cota-Robles
  • Publication number: 20120254898
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, in which an operating system (OS) is executable in such a way that a component operable based on administrator's authority can realize installation of a device driver. The information processing apparatus includes a selection unit configured to select a peripheral device that serves as an output destination of a processing request if the processing request is received from a user via an application, and a management unit configured to control setting processing for a device driver applicable to the selected peripheral device to use the peripheral device. The management unit is configured to request a first component operable on the OS based on administrator's authority to perform setting processing for a device driver applicable to the selected peripheral device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2012
    Publication date: October 4, 2012
    Applicant: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Hiroaki Nakata
  • Patent number: 8265075
    Abstract: An apparatus and method bridges frames between entities running on the same server. The server has a physical network interface that supports I/O virtualization. The physical network interface has an IOV device with a bridging function capable of bridging frames between entities running on the server. A network switch has a physical port coupled to the server by a physical link and a switching fabric in communication with the physical port for transmitting and receiving Ethernet data frames to and from the IOV device. A control processor, in communication with the IOV device, configures the bridging function of the IOV device to bridge some frames locally within the server between the entities running on the server and to pass other frames through the IOV device over the physical link to the physical port and the switching fabric, so that the switching fabric bridges these other frames between the entities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2010
    Date of Patent: September 11, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Vijoy Pandey
  • Patent number: 8250352
    Abstract: A method, system, and computer usable program product for isolating a workload partition space are provided in the illustrative embodiments. A boot process of a workload partition in a data processing system is started using a scratch file system, the scratch file system being in a global space. A portion of a storage device containing a file system for the workload partition is exported to the workload partition, the portion forming an exported disk. The partially booted up workload partition may discover the exported disk. The exporting causes an association between the global space and the exported disk to either not form, or sever. The exporting places the exported disk in a workload partition space associated with the workload partition. The boot process is transitioned to stop using the scratch file system and start using the data in the exported disk for continuing the boot process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 18, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 21, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Khalid Filali-Abid, Perinkulam I Ganesh, Paul David Mazzurana, Edward Shvartsman, Sungjin Yook
  • Patent number: 8245243
    Abstract: Efficiency is improved for device drivers. A first library is input that includes a first version of the device drivers. First metadata is input that specifies the devices of the computing arrangement and associates each device with the first version of a corresponding device driver. The first version of the corresponding device driver for each device is transformed into a second version of the corresponding device driver. The first version of the corresponding device driver indirectly accesses the device and the second version of the corresponding device driver directly accesses the device. A second library is output including the second version of the corresponding device driver for each device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: August 14, 2012
    Assignee: Xilinx, Inc.
    Inventor: Stephen A. Neuendorffer
  • Patent number: 8225336
    Abstract: A method of configuring a virtual device and a system of configuring a virtual device is provided. A plurality of virtual device drivers corresponding to a plurality of specific functions of a first device is identified along with a second device. A plurality of virtual device drivers corresponding to the plurality of specific functions of the second device is also identified. A plurality of virtual device drivers required for a service is selected from the plurality of virtual device drivers corresponding to the plurality of specific functions of the first device and the plurality of virtual device drivers corresponding to the plurality of specific functions of the second device. The virtual device is configured with the plurality of virtual device drivers required for the service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Su Myeon Kim, Hun Lim, Jin Wook Lee
  • Patent number: 8225332
    Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for protocol offload in paravirtualized systems may be disclosed. Exemplary aspects of the method may include preposting of application buffers to a front-end driver rather than to a NIC in a paravirtualized system. The NIC may be enabled to place the received offloaded data packets into a received data buffer corresponding to a particular GOS. A back-end driver may be enabled to acknowledge the placed offloaded data packets. The back-end driver may be enabled to forward the received data buffer corresponding to the particular GOS to the front-end driver. The front-end driver may be enabled to copy offloaded data packets from a received data buffer corresponding to a particular guest operating system (GOS) to the preposted application buffers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 17, 2012
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Eliezer Aloni, Rafi Shalom
  • Patent number: 8201190
    Abstract: An I/O adapter sharing mechanism in a logically partitioned computer system allows sharing a network I/O adapter between logical partitions in an efficient manner. A first logical partition owns (or controls) the I/O adapter, and a second logical partition desires to use (or share) the I/O adapter. An I/O adapter device driver that includes a hardware interface is provided in the first logical partition. A virtual device driver is provided in the second logical partition that provides a set of functions that is at least partially defined by querying the I/O adapter device driver in the first logical partition. The I/O adapter sharing mechanism includes a transfer mechanism that allows data to be transferred directly from the virtual device driver in the second logical partition to the I/O adapter without passing through the I/O adapter device driver in the first logical partition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ronald Leroy Billau, Charles Scott Graham, Harvey Gene Kiel, Chetan Mehta, Lee Anton Sendelback, Jaya Srikrishnan
  • Patent number: 8195854
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and mechanism for virtualizing the resources of multiple physical storage controller cards/HBAs available to a host computer system into a single virtual controller. An Advanced Storage Driver (ASD) may be inserted in a layer above the base device drivers of the storage controllers/HBAs and act as a single virtual controller for access to the end target devices connected to the multiple physical storage controllers/HBAs so that at any point in time the resources of each of the controllers/HBAs may be dynamically allocated to the various requested operations. The ASD may have bi-directional communication with each controller/HBA firmware directly and/or with the base device driver associated with each controller/HBA in order to permit both direct and base device driver controlled communication with each of the physical controllers/HBAs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2011
    Date of Patent: June 5, 2012
    Assignee: LSI Corporation
    Inventor: Ankit Sihare
  • Patent number: 8179550
    Abstract: A management apparatus includes a management unit configured to manage information associating each of a plurality of image processing apparatuses constituting a virtual device with a function executed by the each of the plurality of image processing apparatuses, a control unit configured to provide a display for setting a virtual device as a transmission destination of transmission data, an identification unit configured, if a virtual device is set as the transmission destination of the transmission data, to identify an image processing apparatus that executes a function corresponding to a type of the transmission data from among the plurality of image processing apparatuses constituting the set virtual device based on the information managed by the management unit, and a transmission unit configured to transmit the transmission data to the image processing apparatus identified by the identification unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Toshiaki Igarashi
  • Patent number: 8176094
    Abstract: A system and method for efficiently building virtual appliances in a hosted environment is provided. In particular, a plurality of image archives may be stored in a build database, with each image archive including a file system having a directory structure and a plurality of files installed within the directory structure. In response to a build request containing an image description, a build engine may create a file system layout defining a directory structure for an image. The build engine may then copy the file system for one of the image archives to the file system layout for the image, wherein the copied file system may provide a subset of the file system for the image. The build engine may then build the image, which may include a file system having various files installed within various directories in accordance with the directory structure defined for the image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2012
    Assignee: Novell, Inc.
    Inventor: Nathaniel Friedman
  • Patent number: 8171504
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for providing driver functionality in computing system includes installing an operating system on the computing system; forming a plurality of isolated sandboxes running on the computing system under control of the operating system; during an attempt to install a driver, installing driver stub in the operating system; installing the driver in one of the isolated sandboxes, wherein the driver directly uses at least part of system resources; using a gateway between the driver stub and the installed driver to provide an interface for transmitting requests from the driver stub to driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 1, 2012
    Assignee: Parallels IP Holdings GmbH
    Inventors: Stanislav S. Protassov, Alexander G. Tormasov, Serguei M. Beloussov
  • Patent number: 8141094
    Abstract: Mechanisms to address the situation where an input/output (I/O) fabric is shared by more than one logical partition (LPAR) and where each LPAR can share with the other LPARs an I/O adapter (LOA) are provided. In particular, each LPAR is assigned its own separate address space to access a virtual function (VF) assigned to it such that each LPAR's perception is that it has its own independent IOA. Each VF may be shared across multiple LPARs. Facilities are provided for management of the shared resources of the IOA via a Physical Function (PF) of the IOA by assignment of that PF to an I/O Virtualization Management Partition (IMP). The code running in the IMP acts as a virtual intermediary to the VFs for fully managing the VF error handling, VF reset, and configuration operations. The IMP also acts as an interface to the PF for accessing common VF functionality.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 20, 2012
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Aaron C. Brown, Douglas M. Freimuth, Renato J. Recio, Steven M. Thurber
  • Patent number: 8134729
    Abstract: An image transfer system has an extracting section that extracts image areas from a document image read by a reading section. A digital signature providing section provides sender's digital signatures to the image areas according to degrees of secrecy. An image file creating section creates an image file including image areas with the sender's digital signatures provided by the digital signature providing section and a sending section sends the image file to a receiving section. A digital signature acquiring section acquires receiver's digital signatures for restricting image areas to be presented to a user. An image area selecting section selects image areas to be presented to the user in accordance with the sender's digital signatures in the image file received by the receiving section and the receiver's digital signatures acquired by the digital signature acquiring section. An output section outputs image areas selected by the image area selecting section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 13, 2012
    Assignee: Kyocera Mita Corporation
    Inventor: Shinichi Kimura
  • Patent number: 8099497
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides data sharing through virtual removable volumes. A virtual volume of a SAN (storage area network) is presented to clients as a virtual removable volume. A controlling application controls access of clients connected to the SAN to the virtual removable volume. The controlling application allows only one client at a time to access the virtual removable volume. The controlling application allows a first client to mount the virtual removable volume as a removable volume. The controlling application then causes the first client to unmount the virtual removable volume and allows a second client to mount the virtual removable volume as a removable volume. In this way, the first client and second client are able to share data via the virtual removable volume without causing corruption of data and without requiring a shared file system or physical transfer of removable media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2012
    Assignee: Netapp, Inc.
    Inventor: Moshe Melnikov
  • Publication number: 20110289518
    Abstract: Described is an aggregate computer system that operates by sharing devices of networked computing machines. A consumer machine uses a real device of a producer machine as a virtual device, by coupling the real driver of the real device over the network to a virtual driver of the consumer machine. Each machine may include an aggregate device manager that manages the virtual devices, and/or an aggregate connection manager that processes communications received over at least two different types of networks. Each machine may include a virtual bus and virtual bus driver that simulates a physical connection of a remote device to that machine via a bus. Upon receiving a request to plug-in a virtual device, the consumer machines queries for information of the device, and loads a virtual driver based on the device information when received. The consumer machine may query by sending plug-and-play events to the virtual bus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2011
    Publication date: November 24, 2011
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: Yang Li, Lifeng Wang, Jian Wang, Chao Li
  • Patent number: 8041553
    Abstract: A computer-based system for testing a circuit design for implementation within an integrated circuit device can include a design application (205) providing simulation instructions for testing a circuit design and a simulation driver (225) receiving the simulation instructions and translating the simulation instructions into control protocol instructions specifying operations of an integrated circuit control protocol. The system can include a simulation environment (240). The simulation environment can include a communication module (245) communicating with the simulation driver, a simulation cable driver (250) receiving the control protocol instructions from the simulation driver via the communication module, and a control module (255). The simulation cable driver further can translate the control protocol instructions into signaling information corresponding to the integrated circuit control protocol.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2011
    Assignee: Xilinx, Inc.
    Inventors: Adrian M. Hernandez, Michael E. Darnall
  • Patent number: 8024727
    Abstract: Techniques for enhancing or replacing host operating system functionality by leveraging guest operating system functionality are disclosed. Incoming data is received from a computing resource of a host operating system, and, before the incoming data is transmitted to a higher-level module in the host operating system, the incoming data is intercepted by a set of one or more leveraged guest modules in a guest operating system. After intercepting the incoming data, the leveraged guest modules perform one or more operations on the incoming data. The leveraged guest modules may provide more advanced support and capabilities to perform these operations than any counterpart functionality in the host operating system. In addition to performing these operations, the leveraged guest modules also determine whether or not to return the incoming data to the host operating system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Martin Taillefer, Stanley W. Adermann
  • Patent number: 8015573
    Abstract: An I/O device is provided for use in a process control system having a controller operating under a particular version of communication software. The I/O device has a storage device for storing a plurality of potential versions of I/O communication software. An I/O device processor determines the particular version of I/O communication software utilized by the controller and configures the I/O device to operate using a compatible version of I/O communication software stored in the storage device. Further, an I/O device is provided for use in a process control system including a plurality of I/O devices and a controller in communication using a bus. The I/O device has an interface for communicatively linking the I/O device with the bus, where a device processor, upon detection of a potential I/O device fault, severs the communication link provided by the interface with the bus. Additionally, a process control system is provided having a plurality of I/O devices in communication using a bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Apel, Steven L. Dienstbier
  • Patent number: 8001553
    Abstract: Described is an aggregate computer system that operates by sharing devices of networked computing machines. A consumer machine uses a real device of a producer machine as a virtual device, by coupling the real driver of the real device over the network to a virtual driver of the consumer machine. Each machine may include an aggregate device manager that manages the virtual devices, and/or an aggregate connection manager that processes communications received over at least two different types of networks. Each machine may include a virtual bus and virtual bus driver that simulates a physical connection of a remote device to that machine via a bus. Upon receiving a request to plug-in a virtual device, the consumer machines queries for information of the device, and loads a virtual driver based on the device information when received. The consumer machine may query by sending plug-and-play events to the virtual bus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Yang Li, Lifeng Wang, Jian Wang, Chao Li
  • Publication number: 20110185370
    Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for configuring a plurality of network interfaces that share a physical interface (PHY) may include a system comprising one or more physical network interface controllers (NICs) and two or more virtual NICs. One or more drivers associated with each of the virtual NICs that share one or more Ethernet ports associated with the physical NICs may be synchronized based on controlling one or more parameters associated with one or more Ethernet ports. One or more wake on LAN (WoL) patterns associated with each of the drivers may be detected at one or more Ethernet ports. A wake up signal may be communicated to one or more drivers associated with the detected WoL patterns. One of the drivers may be appointed to be a port master driver. If a failure of the appointed port master driver is detected, another driver may be appointed to be the port master driver.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2011
    Publication date: July 28, 2011
    Inventors: Eliezer Tamir, Uri Tal, Shay Mizrachi
  • Patent number: 7984454
    Abstract: Mechanisms for migration of single root stateless virtual functions are provided. A Single-Root PCI Configuration Manager (SR-PCIM) provides a system image (SI) with possible virtual function (VF) migration scenarios supported by the endpoint (EP). The SR-PCIM may be instructed that a stateless migration of a VF and its associated application(s) from one SI to another is required. Outstanding requests to the VF are completed and any applications associated with the VF are removed from the SI and the VF is detached from its associated physical function (PF). The SWI may then attach the VF to a target PF which may be in the same or a different EP. The SWI makes the VF available to the SI with which the VF is now associated and the SI configures the VF thereby making it available for use by associated applications.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 19, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas M. Freimuth, Renato J. Recio, Claudia A. Salzberg, Steven M. Thurber, Jacobo A. Vargas
  • Patent number: 7979868
    Abstract: Techniques for intercommunication amongst device drivers are described herein. In one embodiment, an application programming interface (API) is provided by a kernel of an operating system (OS) running within a data processing system. The API is accessible by device drivers associated with multiple devices installed in the system. In response to a request from a first instance of a driver via the API, information indicating whether another instance of the same driver is currently started is returned via the API. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2011
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Joshua de Cesare, Simon Douglas, Alexei Elias Kosut
  • Patent number: 7970852
    Abstract: A system and method for migrating a client partition between computer electronic complexes (CECs) while maintaining access to a Storage Area Network. An active and inactive world wide port name are generated for a client virtual channel adapter. A query is sent to a name server from the VIOS on the source CEC. The name server creates a list of small computer system interface (SCSI) targets that are available. The list is used by the VIOS on the destination CEC to verify whether any physical ports in the destination CEC have access to the same SCSI target. The client partition may be migrated between a source CEC and a destination CEC and the access to the Storage Area Network access may be maintained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: James P. Allen, Michael Paul Cyr, James A. Pafumi, Vasu Vallabhaneni
  • Patent number: 7941813
    Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for providing driver functionality in computing system includes installing an operating system on the computing system; forming a plurality of isolated sandboxes running on the computing system under control of the operating system; during an attempt to install a driver, installing driver stub in the operating system; installing the driver in one of the isolated sandboxes, wherein the driver directly uses at least part of system resources; using a gateway between the driver stub and the installed driver to provide an interface for transmitting requests from the driver stub to driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Parallels Holdings, Ltd.
    Inventors: Stanislav S. Protassov, Alexander G. Tormasov, Serguei M. Beloussov
  • Patent number: 7941814
    Abstract: In one embodiment, a computer accessible medium comprises a plurality of instructions which, when executed and if a computer system comprises at least one virtual hardware device, identify the virtual hardware device and a corresponding physical hardware device. The plurality of instructions also capture a device driver associated with the physical hardware device for use as the device driver in an install of an operating system on a second computer system having a same type of physical hardware device. Corresponding computer systems and methods are also described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2011
    Assignee: Symantec Operating Corporation
    Inventors: Okan Okcu, Nicholas R. Graf
  • Patent number: 7926067
    Abstract: Certain aspects of a method and system for protocol offload in paravirtualized systems may be disclosed. Exemplary aspects of the method may include preposting of application buffers to a front-end driver rather than to a NIC in a paravirtualized system. The NIC may be enabled to place the received offloaded data packets into a received data buffer corresponding to a particular GOS. A back-end driver may be enabled to acknowledge the placed offloaded data packets. The back-end driver may be enabled to forward the received data buffer corresponding to the particular GOS to the front-end driver. The front-end driver may be enabled to copy offloaded data packets from a received data buffer corresponding to a particular guest operating system (GOS) to the preposted application buffers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2011
    Assignee: Broadcom Corporation
    Inventors: Eliezer Aloni, Rafi Shalom
  • Publication number: 20110035758
    Abstract: A remote access system connects a server computer with one or more client computers, where devices are connected locally at the client computers. The devices are recognized by the client computers and a device driver is provided for each connected and recognized device. A virtual driver is created at the server computer from information specific to the device, such that the virtual driver acts as an actual driver to an application on the server computer. The application through the virtual driver is able to recognize and provide commands to the connected device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 19, 2010
    Publication date: February 10, 2011
    Applicant: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Vladimir K. Stoyanov, Makarand V. Patwardhan, Joy Chik, Nelly L. Porter, Zardosht Kasheff
  • Patent number: 7882329
    Abstract: Provided are techniques for cancellation of premigration of a member in a chain. A set of premigration messages are received, wherein a separate premigration message is received for each logical volume in a chain of logical volumes. While processing the premigration messages in order of receipt of each of the premigration messages, a cancel message indicating that premigration of a logical volume in the chain is to be cancelled is received. In response to determining that the logical volume whose premigration is to be cancelled has not already been transferred to physical storage media, premigration of the logical volume is cancelled by removing a premigration message for that logical volume from the set of premigration messages and premigration of each other logical volume in the chain of logical volumes is continued in order of receipt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Cheryl Marie Friauf, Norie Iwasaki, Yuuji Kibuse, Gregory Tad Kishi, Koichi Masuda
  • Patent number: 7882328
    Abstract: Provided are techniques for cancellation of premigration of a member in a chain. A set of premigration messages are received, wherein a separate premigration message is received for each logical volume in a chain of logical volumes. While processing the premigration messages in order of receipt of each of the premigration messages, a cancel message indicating that premigration of a logical volume in the chain is to be cancelled is received. In response to determining that the logical volume whose premigration is to be cancelled has not already been transferred to physical storage media, premigration of the logical volume is cancelled by removing a premigration message for that logical volume from the set of premigration messages and premigration of each other logical volume in the chain of logical volumes is continued in order of receipt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Cheryl Marie Friauf, Norie Iwasaki, Yuuji Kibuse, Gregory Tad Kishi, Koichi Masuda
  • Patent number: 7873966
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, and computer instructions for transferring data from a master to a set of applications executing on a slave. Data is received from a master at a device driver in the slave. The data is parsed for an identifier by a virtual hub in the slave, wherein the identifier is associated with the data by the master. The data is sent to an application within the set of applications based on the identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2007
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Douglas Michael Boecker, Stephan Otis Broyles, Scott Allen Liebl, Hemlata Nellimarla
  • Patent number: 7870301
    Abstract: A mechanism for modifying resources in a logically partitioned data processing system is provided. A request to modify resources associated with a virtual adapter allocated on a physical adapter is invoked. The resources associated with the virtual adapter comprise a subset of the physical adapter resources. The request to modify the physical adapter is conveyed to the physical adapter. Responsive to receipt of the request by the physical adapter, the physical adapter modifies the resources allocated to the virtual adapter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Louis Arndt, Giora Biran, Patrick Allen Buckland, Harvey Gene Kiel, Vadim Makhervaks, Renato John Recio, Leah Shalev, Jaya Srikrishnan
  • Patent number: 7865910
    Abstract: A virtual driver is enabled and a class driver is bypassed to provide at least one functionality different than that of the bypassed class driver. A filter driver is initialized in the stack of a class driver in order to bypass the class driver. The filter driver receives inputs associated with the input device and/or application emulating an input device and passes the input data to a virtual driver. The virtual driver provides data to an operating system for functionality that is at least partially different than that of the bypassed class driver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Olumuyiwa M. Durojaiye, Steven P. Dodge, Bryan D. Scott, Doron J. Holan, Eliyas Yakub, Reed L. Townsend, Michael Tsang
  • Patent number: 7853960
    Abstract: Completion interrupts corresponding to I/O requests issued by a virtual machine guest, which runs on a host platform, are virtualized in such a way that I/O completion interrupts to the requesting guest are delivered no faster than it can stably handle them, but, when possible, faster than the nominal speed of a virtual device to which a virtual machine addresses the I/O request. In general, completion events received from the host platform in response to guest I/O requests are examined with respect to time. If enough time has passed that the virtual device would normally have completed the I/O request, then the completion interrupt is delivered to the guest. If the nominal time has not elapsed, however, the invention enqueues and time-stamps the event and delivers it at the earliest of a) the normal maturity time, or b) at a safepoint.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: VMware, Inc.
    Inventors: Ole Agesen, Boris Weissman, Keith Adams, Jennifer-Ann M. Anderson, Maxime Austruy
  • Publication number: 20100293559
    Abstract: Techniques for achieving Input/Output I/O coalition across multiple computing systems and/or environments (e.g., computing devices) are disclosed. I/O coalition can be achieved by allowing one or more internal I/O devices of a first computing device to be effectively shared with a second computing device while one or more I/O devices of the second computing device is effectively shared with the first computing device. An Input-Output Coalition Management (IOCM) system can be provided for each the computing devices to facilitate I/O coalition between them. An IOCM system can, for example, be provided as Virtual Input-Output Computing Environment (VIOCE). By way of example, one or more Virtual Machines (VMs) can be provided to effectively support one or more Virtual Device Drivers (VDDs). An IOCM system can also be provided as and/or by an Operating System (OS).
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 12, 2009
    Publication date: November 18, 2010
    Applicant: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Onur Aciicmez, Doreen Cheng, Swaroop S. Kalasapur, Yu Song, Xinwen Zhang, Victoria S. Coleman
  • Publication number: 20100287569
    Abstract: A computer is disclosed. The computer includes a hardware human interface device and a processor. The processor programs the following steps. A plurality of application programs are executed by the processor. A plurality of virtual logical human interface devices are provided to the processor. The virtual logical human interface devices are assigned to the application programs respectively for allowing the application programs to interact with the hardware human interface device in different ways.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 4, 2009
    Publication date: November 11, 2010
    Inventor: Kuan-Wen CHEN
  • Patent number: 7793307
    Abstract: Embodiments described are generally directed to a system and method for providing virtualized hardware resources within a virtual execution environment. In one embodiment, it is determined whether an operating system (OS) is a guest OS running within a virtual execution environment of a host platform. If an OS is determined to be a guest OS within a virtual execution environment, a virtual driver is provided for the virtual execution to fetch host hardware initiator information from a host server via a virtualization layer. In one embodiment, no corresponding guest driver is available to the virtual execution environment. In one embodiment, the virtualization layer provides virtualized hardware resources, including the virtual driver, for a virtual execution environment. Using the host hardware initiator information, in one embodiment, one or more virtual storage devices may be created within the host attached storage of the host platform. Other embodiments are described and claimed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: Network Appliance, Inc.
    Inventors: Geeta Gokhale, Timothy J. Clayton-Luce, Umesh Venkatesh
  • Patent number: 7793298
    Abstract: At least one input/output (I/O) firmware partition is provided in a partitioned environment to facilitate access to I/O resources owned by the at least one I/O firmware partition. The I/O resources of an I/O firmware partition are shared by one or more other partitions of the environment, referred to as consumer partitions. The consumer partitions use the I/O firmware partition to access the I/O resources. Since the I/O firmware partitions are responsible for providing access to the I/O resources owned by those partitions, the consumer partitions are relieved of this task, reducing complexity and costs in the consumer partitions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ronald L. Billau, Charles S. Graham, Harvey G. Kiel, Chetan Mehta, Jaya Srikrishnan
  • Patent number: 7788665
    Abstract: A computing device has first and second virtual machines (VMs) and a resource assigned to the first VM. Each access request for the resource is forwarded thereto until the first VM is to be saved or migrated. Thereafter, each access request is forwarded to a holding queue. When the resource has acted upon all access requests forwarded thereto, the resource is reassigned to the second VM, and each access request at the holding queue is forwarded to the second VM and then the resource. Thus, all access requests for the resource are acted upon by the resource even after the resource is removed from the first VM and assigned to the second VM, and the save or migrate of the first VM can thereafter be completed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventor: Jacob Oshins
  • Patent number: 7730157
    Abstract: A method and system are provided for executing an application remotely on a server computer for a client computer in a computer network. The server receives at user input from the client computer associated with the application, and executes the application. The server processes display commands of the application to generate display primitives, and translates the display primitives into lower level display commands defining display updates using semantic information of the display primitives. The lower level display commands are selected from a predetermined set of lower level display commands. The lower level display commands are aggregated and ordered into one or more command queues. Each command queue is associated with a given display region. The server computer transmits the lower level display commands in the one or more command queues over the network to the client computer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2010
    Assignee: The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
    Inventors: Ricardo Baratto, Jason Nieh
  • Patent number: 7725608
    Abstract: Device images, for example IDE mass storage device images, may be enabled and disabled without disrupting a host system. In one embodiment, the invention includes a memory device register to indicate the presence of a memory device to a computer system, a switch coupled to the memory device register to set the memory device register to indicate the presence of a memory device, and an external interface coupled to the switch to operate the switch.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Nimrod Diamant
  • Patent number: 7716683
    Abstract: A method and apparatus forward a hardware call from a driver to graphics hardware via a virtual connection. Specifically, the method and apparatus process graphical data in a system having the driver, which produces a hardware call for the controlling the operation of the graphics hardware. As noted above, the method and apparatus first establish the virtual connection between the driver and the graphics hardware. Next, the hardware call is forwarded to the graphics hardware via the virtual connection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Hansong Zhang, David Shreiner
  • Patent number: 7711539
    Abstract: A system and method for emulating SCSI reservations using network file access protocols is provided. The system and method enable applications or operating systems on a networked computer designed to utilize SCSI reservations on only locally attached storage to also access networked data storage. The emulation occurs transparently to higher levels of operating systems or applications so that the applications or operating systems which are designed to only access locally attached storage may be enabled to access networked storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
    Inventors: Jeffrey S. Kimmel, Robert Hawley
  • Publication number: 20100064301
    Abstract: An information processing device realizing a plurality of virtual machines by switching over and thus operating a plurality of operating systems receives data, makes a backend driver unit associated with any one of the plurality of operating systems transmit data to a frontend driver unit of the associated operating system, determines operating system to which data is distributed in a way that refers to an identification table stored with identifying information for identifying the plurality of operating systems, and transmits data to the frontend driver unit of the determined operating system from the associated backend driver unit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 1, 2009
    Publication date: March 11, 2010
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventor: Kazuhiro Suzuki
  • Patent number: 7653801
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and distributed data processing system that allows a single physical I/O adapter, such as a PCI, PCI-X, or PCI-E adapter, to track performance and reliability statistics per virtual upstream and downstream port, thereby allowing a system and network management to be performed at finer granularity than what is possible using conventional physical port statistics, is provided. Particularly, a mechanism of managing per-virtual port performance metrics in a logically partitioned data processing system including allocating a subset of resources of a physical adapter to a virtual adapter of a plurality of virtual adapters is provided. The subset of resources includes a virtual port having an identifier assigned thereto. The identifier of the virtual port is associated with an address of a physical port. A metric table is associated with the virtual port, wherein the metric table includes metrics of operations that target the virtual port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 26, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Richard Louis Arndt, Harvey Gene Kiel, Renato John Recio, Jaya Srikrishnan