Apple Inc.

Simon M Douglas

Michael James Paquette

Alexei Elias Kosut

Russell Alexader Blaine

Dean Reece

Joshua P De Cesare

James Michael Magee

Joseph Sokol, Jr

Roberto G Yepez

Daniel Allen Chimene

Daniel Andreas Steffen

Jeremy C Andrus

David J Redman

Thomas W Costa

Joseph R Auricchio

Francois Barbou-Des-Places

Arnold S Liu

Landon J Fuller

Yevgen Goryachok

John K Kim-Biggs

Giovanni M Agnoli

Brad W Simeral

Arthur L Spence

Chendi Zhang

Jacob Z Weiss

Yiqiang Nie

Brent W Schorsch

Ross Thompson

Joshua De Cesare

Embodiments described herein provide techniques to manage drivers in a user space in a data processing system. One embodiment provides a data processing system configured perform operations, comprising discovering a hardware device communicatively coupled to the communication bus, launching a user space driver daemon, establishing an inter-process communication (IPC) link between a first proxy interface for the user space driver daemon and a second proxy interface for a server process in a kernel space, receiving, at the first proxy interface, an access right to enable access to a memory buffer in the kernel space, and relaying an access request for the memory buffer from the user space driver daemon via a third-party proxy interface to enable the user space driver daemon to access the memory buffer, the access request based on the access right.

Execution space agnostic device drivers

A device implementing a system for displaying an image includes a processor configured to, generate, during a first power state of a device, a data structure specifying image frames and a respective display time for each of the image frames, and retrieve, during a second power state of the device and from the data structure, an image frame based on the respective display time for the image frame. The at least one processor is further configured to display, during a third power state of the device, the retrieved image frame on a display of the device.

Power management for image display

A memory management system, such as a virtual memory manager that manages a virtual memory space that includes volatile memory (e.g. DRAM) and non-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory) creates a reserved portion of memory in the volatile memory for at least one user application in one embodiment, and that reserved portion can also store content that it restricted to read only permission within the non-volatile memory.

Reserved memory in memory management system

The disclosed embodiments provide a system that facilitates seamlessly switching between graphics-processing units (GPUs) to drive a display. In one embodiment, the system receives a request to switch from using a first GPU to using a second GPU to drive the display. In response to this request, the system uses a kernel thread which operates in the background to configure the second GPU to prepare the second GPU to drive the display. While the kernel thread is configuring the second GPU, the system continues to drive the display with the first GPU and a user thread continues to execute a window manager which performs operations associated with servicing user requests. When configuration of the second GPU is complete, the system switches the signal source for the display from the first GPU to the second GPU.

Facilitating efficient switching between graphics-processing units

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 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.

Method and apparatus for intercommunications amongst device drivers

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that enables a computing device to save additional power by entering a 'hibernation mode,' wherein the active state of the computing device is preserved in non-volatile storage while power to volatile storage is turned off. During operation, the system reanimates a computing device from a hibernation image by restoring reanimation code from the hibernation image and then executing the reanimation code. While executing this reanimation code, the system restores the rest of the hibernation image by, reading compressed data containing the rest of the hibernation image, and decompressing the compressed data using computational circuitry within the computing device. During this process, the decompression operations are overlapped with the reading operations to improve performance.

Method and apparatus for facilitating device hibernation

Techniques for associating device drivers via a device tree are described herein. In one embodiment, a device tree having a hierarchical structure is maintained by a kernel of an operating system. The device tree includes device nodes corresponding to devices installed in a computer, including a first node and a second node. An auxiliary driver identifier is encoded within the first node for identifying a second device driver associated with the second node. The auxiliary driver identifier is used by a first device driver associated with the first node to invoke the second device driver to perform a predetermined operation on a device associated with the first node. Other methods and apparatuses are also described.

Method and apparatus for associating device drivers via a device tree

Methods and apparatuses for dynamic virtual frame buffer management. At least one embodiment of the present invention dynamically enables or disables the use of a virtual frame buffer, which is not under control of graphics hardware of a data processing system, without restarting the graphical user interface system (e.g., the window system) of the data processing system. For example, in response to the addition or removing of a frame buffer that is under control of a graphics controller (e.g., due to the activation or deactivation of the graphics controller, or the hot plug-in or hot disconnection of the graphics controller), the virtual frame buffer is disabled or enabled respectively.

Method and apparatus for frame buffer management

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.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Simon M Douglas