Semiconductor device for providing a virtualization technique

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11003474-B2
Application number	US-201916255275-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 23, 2019
Priority date	Jun 4, 2018
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

Provided are semiconductor devices. A semiconductor device includes a processor which provides a virtualization function for a physical device to a first guest operating system and a second guest operating system; and an SFR (Special Function Register) which is electrically connected to the processor, and includes a first region allocated to the first guest operating system and a second region allocated to the second guest operating system, wherein information on a first data access request provided from the first guest operating system is stored in the first region, and information on a second data access request provided from the second guest operating system is stored in the second region, and the processor generates a first interrupt and a second interrupt designated to the first guest operating system and the second guest operating system, respectively, in response to the first data access request and the second data access request.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor device comprising:
a processor configured to provide a virtualization function for a physical device to a first guest operating system and a second guest operating system; and
a special function register (SFR) electrically connected to the processor, the SFR comprising a first region allocated to the first guest operating system and a second region allocated to the second guest operating system,
wherein first information indicating a first data access request among a data read request and a data write request provided from the first guest operating system is stored in the first region, and second information indicating a second data access request among a data read request and a data write request provided from the second guest operating system is stored in the second region, and
wherein the processor is further configured to generate a first interrupt and a second interrupt designated to the first guest operating system and the second guest operating system, respectively, in response to the first data access request and the second data access request.

2. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
provide the first interrupt to the first guest operating system after processing the first data access request on the physical device, and
provide the second interrupt to the second guest operating system after processing the second data access request on the physical device.

3. The semiconductor device of claim 1 , wherein when a time point at which the first information on the first data access request is stored in the first region of the SFR is earlier than a time point at which the second information on the second data access request is stored in the second region, the processor first processes the first data access request earlier than the second data access request.

4. The semiconductor device of claim 3 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine a priority of processing of the first data access request and the second data access request, using a queue.

5. The semiconductor device of claim 4 , wherein the first data access request is first inserted into the queue, earlier than the second data access request.

6. The semiconductor device of claim 4 , wherein the first data access request is first deleted from the queue earlier than the second data access request, and
the processor processes the first data access request on the physical device to provide the first interrupt to the first guest operating system, and then,
the processor processes the second data access request on the physical device to provide the second interrupt to the second guest operating system.

7. A semiconductor device comprising:
a processor configured to provide a virtualization function for a physical device to a first guest operating system and a second guest operating system;
a special function register (SFR) electrically connected to the processor, the SFR comprising a first region allocated to the first guest operating system and a second region allocated to the second guest operating system; and
an internal memory electrically connected to the SFR,
wherein a first address of the internal memory is stored in the first region and a second address of the internal memory different from the first address is stored in the second region,
first information indicating a first data access request from the first guest operating system among a data read request and a data write request is stored in a region accessible at the first address of the internal memory,
second information indicating a second data access request from the second guest operating system among a data read request and a data write request is stored in a region accessible at the second address of the internal memory, and
the processor generates a first interrupt and a second interrupt designated to each of the first guest operating system and the second guest operating system, respectively, in response to the first data access request and the second data access request.

8. The semiconductor device of claim 7 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
provide the first interrupt to the first guest operating system after processing the first data access request on the physical device, and
provide the second interrupt to the second guest operating system after processing the second data access request on the physical device.

9. The semiconductor device of claim 7 , wherein when a time point at which the first information on the first data access request is stored in a region accessible at the first address of the internal memory is earlier than a time point at which the second information on the second data access request is stored in a region accessible at the second address of the internal memory, the processor processes the first data access request earlier than the second data access request.

10. The semiconductor device of claim 9 , wherein the processor determines a priority of processing of the first data access request and the second data access request, using a queue.

11. The semiconductor device of claim 10 , wherein the first data access request is first deleted from the queue earlier than the second data access request, and
the processor processes the first data access request on the physical device to provide the first interrupt to the first guest operating system, and then,
the processor processes the second data access request on the physical device to provide the second interrupt to the second guest operating system.

12. The semiconductor device of claim 7 , further comprising:
a DMA which processes a data transfer between the SFR and the internal memory,
wherein the DMA loads the first information on the first data access request stored in the region, which is accessible at the first address of the internal memory, to the first region of the SFR, and
the DMA loads the second information on the second data access request stored in the region, which is accessible at the second address of the internal memory, to the second region of the SFR.

13. A semiconductor device comprising:
a processor configured to provide a virtualization function for a physical device to a first guest operating system and a second guest operating system;
a special function register (SFR) electrically connected to the processor and comprising a first region allocated to the first guest operating system and a second region allocated to the second guest operating system; and
an external memory electrically connected to the SFR,
wherein a first address of the external memory and a second address of the external memory different from the first address are stored in the first region and the second region,
wherein first information indicating a first data access request from the first guest operating system among a data read request and a data write request is stored in a region accessible at the first address of the external memory,
wherein second information indicating a second data access request from the second guest operating system among a data read request and a data write request is stored in a region accessible at the second address of the external memory, and
wherein the processor is further configured to generate a first interrupt and a second interrupt designated to each of the first guest operating system and the second guest operating system, respectively, in response to the first data access request and the second data access request.

14. The semiconductor device of claim 13 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
provide the first interrupt to the first guest ope

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Han Jong-Hun

Classifications

• G06F9/45545 Primary

  Guest-host, i.e. hypervisor is an application program itself, e.g. VirtualBox · CPC title

• G06F9/327

  for interrupts · CPC title

• G06F9/30101

  Special purpose registers · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F9/4812

  by interrupt, e.g. masked · CPC title