Computer system and method for executing one or more software applications, host computer device and method for a host computer device, memory device and method for a memory device and non-transitory computer readable medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11010309-B2
Application number	US-201816114241-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 28, 2018
Priority date	May 18, 2018
Publication date	May 18, 2021
Grant date	May 18, 2021

Abstract

A computer system for executing one or more software applications includes a host computer device configured to execute the one or more software applications. The computer system further includes one or more memory devices configured to cryptographically protect volatile memory of the one or more memory devices. The one or more memory devices are configured to provide access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory for the one or more software applications. The host computer device is configured to execute the one or more software applications by executing a portion of the one or more software applications associated with the cryptographically protected volatile memory using a processor of the one or more memory devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A host computer device for a computer system, wherein the computer system includes one or more memory devices configured to cryptographically protect volatile memory of the one or more memory devices, and to provide access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory for one or more software applications of the host computer device, the host computer device comprising:
an interface for communicating with the one or more memory devices; and
a control module configured to:
execute the one or more software applications by executing a portion of the one or more software applications associated with the cryptographically protected volatile memory using a processor of the one or more memory devices,

wherein software applications of the one or more software applications comprise a first software application portion and a second software application portion,
wherein the first software application portion is associated with volatile memory of the host computer device and wherein the second software application portion is associated with the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices,
wherein the control module is configured to execute the second software application portion using the processor of the memory device comprising the cryptographically protected volatile memory associated with the second software application portion.

2. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to provide data of the one or more software applications to the one or more memory devices by writing the data to the one or more memory devices using direct memory access.

3. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to provide further data of the one or more software applications to the one or more memory devices by providing a direct memory access address of the further data to the one or more memory devices.

4. The host computer device according to claim 3 , wherein the control module is configured to provide the further data of the one or more software applications to the one or more memory devices by providing the direct memory access address of the further data to the one or more memory devices via an asynchronous buffer.

5. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to implement read and/or write access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications.

6. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to implement the write access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications based on a write combine cache policy.

7. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to implement the read access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications based on a write through cache policy.

8. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to provide one or more memory windows for access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications to a further portion of the one or more software applications executed by a processor of the host computer device.

9. The host computer device according to claim 8 , wherein the control module is configured to provide the one or more memory windows with separate read and write access, wherein a cache semantic of the read access is different from a cache semantic of the write access.

10. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to provide transparent memory access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications to a further portion of the one or more software applications executed by a processor of the host computer device.

11. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to provide a local cache of data written to volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications to a further portion of the one or more software applications executed by a processor of the host computer device.

12. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the control module is configured to store code and data of the one or more software applications within volatile memory of the one or more memory devices associated with the one or more software applications.

13. The host computer device according to claim 1 , wherein the host computer device comprises a network connection interface for communicating via a local network connection, wherein the one or more memory devices are exposed as individual devices via the local network connection.

14. A memory device for a computer system, wherein the computer system includes a host computer device configured to execute one or more software applications, the memory device comprising:
an interface for communicating with the host computer device;
volatile memory; and
a control module configured to:
cryptographically protect the volatile memory, and
provide access to the cryptographically protected volatile memory for the one or more software applications,
execute a portion of the one or more software applications associated with the cryptographically protected volatile memory using a processor of the memory device,

wherein software applications of the one or more software applications comprise a first software application portion and a second software application portion,
wherein the first software application portion is associated with volatile memory of the host computer device and wherein the second software application portion is associated with the cryptographically protected volatile memory of the memory device,
wherein the control module is configured to execute the second software application portion.

15. The memory device according to claim 14 , wherein the control module is configured to provide data of the one or more software applications to the host computer device by writing the data to the host computer device using direct memory access.

16. The memory device according to claim 14 , wherein the control module is configured to provide further data of the one or more software applications to the host computer device by providing a direct memory access address of the further data to the host computer device.

17. The memory device according to claim 16 , wherein the control module is configured to provide the further data of the one or more software applications to the host computer device by providing the direct memory access address of the further data to the host computer device via an asynchronous buffer.

18. The memory device according to claim 14 , wherein the control module is configured to implement read and/or write access to volatile memory of the host computer device for the portion of the one or more software applications being executed using the processor of the memory device.

19. The memory device according to claim 18 , wherein the control module is configured to implement the write access to the volatile memory of the host computer device based on a write combine cache policy.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Chakrabarti Somnath
• Vij Mona
• Hoekstra Matthew

Classifications

• G06F21/79 Primary

  in semiconductor storage media, e.g. directly-addressable memories · CPC title

• G06F12/0835

  for main memory peripheral accesses (e.g. I/O or DMA) · CPC title

• G06F2212/1052

  Security improvement · CPC title

• G06F2221/2141

  Access rights, e.g. capability lists, access control lists, access tables, access matrices · CPC title

• G06F21/62

  Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules · CPC title