UEFI Virtual Video Controller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016314758-A1
Application number	US-201514697057-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 27, 2015
Priority date	Apr 27, 2015
Publication date	Oct 27, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

An information handling system includes a processor; a memory, a firmware, and a video agent. The memory includes a frame buffer for image data. The frame buffer accessible to an operating system. The firmware is configured to present to the operating system a graphics output protocol. The graphics output protocol includes an address of the portion of the reserved portion of the memory and soft video display parameters. The video agent is configured to retrieve image data from the reserved portion of the memory, and provide the image data to an external system for remote video display to be completed upon finalization of application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . An information handling system comprising:
a processor; a memory including a frame buffer for image data, the frame buffer accessible to an operating system; a firmware configured to:
present to the operating system a graphics output protocol, the graphics output protocol including an address of the portion of the reserved portion of the memory and soft video display parameters; and
a video agent configured to:
retrieve image data from the reserved portion of the memory; and
provide the image data to an external system for remote video display.

2 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the graphics output protocol is a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface graphics output protocol.

3 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the soft video display parameters include a resolution and a pixel format.

4 . The information handling system of claim 3 , wherein resolution includes a 1024 pixel vertical resolution and a 768 pixel horizontal resolution.

5 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the memory is a dynamic random access memory.

6 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the video agent includes direct memory access.

7 . A method comprising:
reserving a portion of system memory as a frame buffer; initializing a graphics output protocol with a pointer to the frame buffer; providing to an operating system display parameters and the pointer to the frame buffer; writing image data, by the operating system, to the frame buffer; accessing the frame buffer, by a video agent, to retrieve the image data; and providing the image data retrieved from the frame buffer by the video agent to an external system.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the system memory is a dynamic random access memory.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein graphics output protocol is a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface graphics output protocol.

10 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the display parameters include a resolution and a pixel format.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein resolution includes a 1024 pixel vertical resolution and a 768 pixel horizontal resolution.

12 . The method of claim 7 , wherein accessing the frame buffer by the video agent utilizes direct memory access.

13 . The method of claim 7 , wherein accessing the frame buffer by the video agent utilizes a system management interrupt.

14 . An information handling system comprising:
a processor; an operating system comprising a built-in graphics driver; a system memory including a frame buffer for image data, the frame buffer being accessible to the operating system; a firmware configured to:
provide a block transfer function to manipulate the image data within the frame buffer; and
present to the operating system a graphics output protocol including an address of the frame buffer and soft video display parameters; and a video agent configured to:
retrieve image data from the reserved portion of the memory; and
provide the image data to an external system for remote video display;
wherein the built-in graphics driver is configured to write image data to the frame buffer based on the address of the frame buffer and the video display parameters provided by the graphics output protocol.

15 . The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the graphics output protocol is a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface graphics output protocol.

16 . The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the system memory is a dynamic random access memory.

17 . The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the display parameters include a resolution and a pixel format.

18 . The information handling system of claim 17 , wherein resolution includes a 1024 pixel vertical resolution and a 768 pixel horizontal resolution.

19 . The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the video access agent utilizes direct memory access.

20 . The information handling system of claim 14 , wherein the video access agent utilizes a system management interrupt.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Moyes William A

Classifications

• G09G5/006 Primary

  Details of the interface to the display terminal (specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04) · CPC title

• G06F3/1454

  involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay · CPC title

• G09G2330/026

  Arrangements or methods related to booting a display · CPC title

• G06F13/362

  with centralised access control · CPC title

• G09G2370/022

  Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally · CPC title