Citrix Systems, Inc.

Assured Information Security, Inc.

Sandy Stutsman

Julian Petrov

Rian Patrick Quinn

Brendan Kerrigan

Maurice Gale

Rodney Forbes

Jonathan Farrell

A method provides a graphical interface for a computer system and includes receiving window information from each domain of multiple domains in which applications execute. Based on the received window information, the method builds the graphical interface on a graphics device of the computer system from graphics data provided from the multiple domains to the graphics device. The graphics device includes a GPU and graphics memory having multiple graphics memory portions, where each domain is dedicated a respective different graphics memory portion and is given write access thereto. The building issues commands to the graphics device that instruct the GPU to composition together graphics data from graphics memory portion(s) to thereby composition together graphics data from each of two of more domains of the multiple domains. The method also includes issuing commands to the graphics device to output the graphical interface to a set of one or more display devices.

On-GPU compositioning of graphical data from multiple domains

A computing system includes a graphics processing unit (GPU) and main processing circuitry to execute computer program instructions forming a hypervisor, a control virtual machine (VM) and a specialized rendering VM for graphics processing. An application program of a guest VM generates graphics commands and data according to a graphics API such as Direct 3D. The rendering VM includes a graphics driver native to the GPU and is assigned pass-through access to the GPU by the control VM. The rendering VM receives the graphics information from the application program via an inter-VM communication channel, and it uses the graphics driver to control the GPU to perform graphics rendering. The use of the rendering VM enables native graphics performance to be achieved without constraining the control VM to use a compatible operating system. The technique is generally applicable to virtualization of hardware resources by specialized VMs.

Specialized virtual machine to virtualize hardware resource for guest virtual  machines

Growing community of inventors

Westford, MA, United States of America

Sandy Stutsman