Offloading GPU computations for computers and virtual machines

A system for performing computations on a virtual machine without a special hardware computation unit, the system comprising:

• a first physical computer having a CPU and a memory coupled to the CPU;
• at least one virtual machine executing on the first physical computer;
• a user application and a computation module executing in the virtual machine;
• a second physical computer having a physical special hardware computation unit and a remote node;
• wherein the computation module is configured to:
• intercept, from the user application executing in the virtual machine, a request to load accelerated code in the virtual machine;
• transmit the accelerated code comprised of special computation unit instructions to the remote node executing on the second physical computer;
• responsive to intercepting from the user application a request to start execution of the accelerated code by the special hardware computation unit of the virtual machine, transmit to the second physical computer a request to execute the accelerated code using the physical special hardware computation unit of the second physical computer;
• and
• responsive to intercepting from the user application a request to transfer results of the accelerated code execution, retrieve, by the virtual machine, results from the physical special hardware computation unit of the second physical computer, and load the retrieved results into a memory of the virtual machine.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for performing computations on a virtual machine without a special hardware computation unit, including instructions for:

• intercepting, from a user application executing in the virtual machine, a request to load accelerated code in the virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is executing in a first physical computer;
• transmitting the accelerated code comprised of special computation unit instructions to a remote node executing on a second physical computer having a physical special hardware computation unit;
• responsive to intercepting from the user application a request to start execution of the accelerated code by the special hardware computation unit of the virtual machine, transmitting to the second physical computer a request to execute the accelerated code using the physical special hardware computation unit of the second physical computer;
• and
• responsive to intercepting from the user application a request to transfer results of the accelerated code execution, retrieving, by the virtual machine, results from the physical special hardware computation unit of the second physical computer, and loading the retrieved results into a memory of the virtual machine.