Apparatus and method for intelligent resource provisioning for shadow structures

A method comprising:

• processing graphics commands and responsively rendering a plurality of image frames in a graphics memory address space;
• reserving one or more shadow slots in the graphics memory address space in which to store shadow instances of different GPU contexts;
• and
• implementing a partial shadowing policy for shadowing GPU contexts in the shadow slots, the partial shadowing policy based on characteristics of pages of the GPU contexts.

A system comprising:

• a memory to store data and program code;
• a central processing unit (CPU) comprising an instruction cache for caching a portion of the program code and a data cache for caching a portion of the data, the CPU further comprising execution logic to execute at least some of the program code and responsively process at least some of the data, at least a portion of the program code comprising graphics commands;
• a graphics processing subsystem to process the graphics commands and responsively render a plurality of image frames, the graphics processing subsystem comprising:
• graphics processing unit (GPU) to process graphics commands and responsively render a plurality of image frames in a graphics memory address space;
• shadow structure management logic to reserve one or more shadow slots in the graphics memory address space in which to store shadow instances of different GPU contexts;
• and
• the shadow structure management logic to implement a partial shadowing policy for shadowing GPU contexts in the shadow slots, the partial shadowing policy based on characteristics of pages of the GPU contexts.