Managing multiple systems in a computer device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10140958-B2
Application number	US-201615354434-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 17, 2016
Priority date	Mar 19, 2013
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

Resources of multiple systems are managed in a computer device. A first processing system having a set of dedicated resources also has a resource manager to manage at least one of the resources. The first processing system is prevented from directly accessing the resources without authorization. A second processing system, connected to the set of dedicated resources, has a supervisor application to grant control to individual resources to the resource manager of the first processing system. A computer program is executed in the first processing system. The supervisor application grants control of at least one resource to the resource manager of the first processing system in a way that is transparently to the computer program executing in the first processing system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer device, comprising:
a first processing system having at least one processing core configured to concurrently execute at least two computer programs stored in a memory, the at least two computer programs including a first computer program that stores first displayable graphics data in a first virtual frame buffer and a second computer program that stores second displayable graphics data in a second virtual frame buffer, the first processing system having a resource manager configured to manage at least one resource and configured to deliver program execution output from both the first computer program and the second computer program via an output resource;
a set of resources dedicated to the first processing system wherein the set of resources includes the output resource; and
a second processing system coupled to the set of resources and configured to execute the second computer program, the second processing system having a supervisor application configured to grant control to individual resources of the set of resources to the resource manager of the first processing system, wherein the first processing system has access to the individual resources only after the supervisor application has granted control of the individual resources, wherein control of the output resource is granted by the supervisor application to the first processing system transparently to the first computer program, wherein a first portion of a display is driven by the first displayable graphics data from the first computer program in the first virtual frame buffer and a second portion of the display is driven by the second displayable graphics data from the second computer program in the second frame buffer.

2. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the output resource is a graphical resource.

3. A computer device according to claim 2 , wherein the first virtual frame buffer and the second virtual frame buffer are included in the output resource.

4. A computer device according to claim 3 , wherein the first and second virtual frame buffers are managed by the supervisor application in a memory space dedicated to receiving the program execution output.

5. A computer device according to claim 4 , comprising:
a display coupled to the output resource.

6. A computer device according to claim 5 , wherein the displayable graphics data from the first computer program is formatted for presentation on a full screen, and wherein presentation of the displayable graphics data from the computer first program on a portion of the display is transparent to the first computer program.

7. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the set of resources includes a General Processing Unit (GPU) and an audio/video decoder (CODEC).

8. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the set of resources includes hardware resources.

9. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the output resource includes at least one of a virtual frame buffer and a video plan arranged to cooperate with a hardware compositor configured to drive a display.

10. A computer device according to claim 1 comprising:
a display, wherein the supervisor application is operable to control the display to create an opening on the display, and wherein the program execution output is graphically presented within the opening.

11. A computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the computer device is a mobile computing device.

12. A method to manage resources in a computer device comprising:
providing a display;
providing a first processing system, the first processing system having a resource manager configured to manage at least one resource of a set of resources, the set of resources dedicated to the first processing system;
preventing the first processing system from directly accessing resources of the set of resources without authorization;
providing a second processing system, the second processing system connected to the set of resources, the second processing system having a supervisor application configured to grant control to individual resources of the set of resources to the resource manager of the first processing system;
executing a first computer program in the first processing system, the first computer program storing first displayable graphics data in a first virtual frame buffer;
executing a second computer program in the second processing system, execution of the second computer program concurrent with the execution of the first computer program, the second computer program storing second displayable graphics data in a second virtual frame buffer;
granting, by the supervisor application, control of the at least one resource of the set of resources to the resource manager of the first processing system, wherein the first processing system has access to resources of the set of resources only via the supervisor application, wherein the at least one resource is selected by the supervisor application of the second processing system transparently to the computer program executing in the first processing system;
driving a first portion of the display with the first displayable graphics data from the first computer program in the first virtual frame buffer; and
driving a second portion of the display with the second displayable graphics data from the second computer program in the second frame buffer.

13. A method according to claim 12 , comprising:
providing an output resource as one of the set of resources, the output resource having the first virtual frame buffer; and
managing the first virtual frame buffer with the supervisor application in a memory space dedicated to receiving output data from the first computer program.

14. A method according to claim 12 , comprising:
formatting the first displayable graphics data from the first computer program for presentation on a full screen, wherein presentation of the first displayable graphics data from the computer first program on the first portion of the display is transparent to the first computer.

15. A method according to claim 12 , comprising:
providing a hardware compositor; and
compositing, with the hardware compositor, data in the first virtual frame buffer and the second virtual frame buffer.

16. A method according to claim 12 , comprising:
detecting, with the supervisor application of the second processing system, a launch of the first computer program in the first processing system; and
allocating the at least one resource from the set of resources to the first computer program when the launch is detected.

17. A method according to claim 16 , comprising:
detecting, with the supervisor application, a change in size of the first computer program; and
detecting, with the supervisory program, a change in capability of the allocated at least one resource in accordance with the detected change in size.

18. A non-transitory computer program product having stored thereon a set of computer instructions, the computer instructions configured to carry out a method comprising:
executing a first computer program with a first processing system, the first computer program storing first displayable graphics data in a first virtual frame buffer;
executing a second computer program in a second processing system, execution of the second computer program concurrent with the execution of the first computer program, the second computer program storing second displayable graphics data in a second virtual frame buffer;
executing a resource manager with the first processing system, the resource manager co

Assignees

• St Microelectronics Grenoble 2
• St Microelectronics Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Inventors

• Collado Raphael
• Walishetty Shivachitta S
• Cheng ling yu

Classifications

• G06T1/20

  Processor architectures; Processor configuration, e.g. pipelining · CPC title

• G09G2360/18

  Use of a frame buffer in a display terminal, inclusive of the display panel · CPC title

• G06F2209/5011

  Pool · CPC title

• G09G2360/127

  Updating a frame memory using a transfer of data from a source area to a destination area · CPC title

• G06F9/50

  Allocation of resources, e.g. of the central processing unit [CPU] · CPC title