Apparatus and methods implementing dispatch mechanisms for offloading executable functions

Abstract

A method of offloading a computing kernel from a host central processing unit (CPU) to a co-processor includes obtaining, by an application running on the host CPU, a virtual address of a packet in a user level queue of a general packet processing unit (GPPU) and initializing, by the application, the packet referenced by the virtual address using an application programming interface of a user level device driver (ULDD). The packet includes a plurality of handles corresponding to the computing kernel. The method further includes finalizing, by the ULDD, the packet by including a list of bootstrap translation addresses comprising a physical address and a virtual address for each of the plurality of handles and output by a kernel level device driver (KLDD) of an operating system running on the host CPU, and accessing, by the application using the virtual address, results obtained from the co-processor processing the computing kernel.