Apparatus and method for remote display and content protection in a virtualized graphics processing environment

A method comprising:

• rendering a sequence of video images;
• compressing the sequence of video images to generate a sequence of compressed video images by an encoder;
• transmitting the compressed video images over a network link to a remote display;
• storing read pointers and write pointers in a plurality of buffer pointer registers, the read pointers and write pointers identifying read locations and write locations, respectively, in a frame buffer and a compressed stream buffer;
• initializing the read pointers and write pointers for processing one or more of the video images by a central processing unit (CPU);
• accessing a first write pointer by a rendering circuitry to write to a specified location in the frame buffer;
• reading from the frame buffer by an encoder based on a first read pointer value;
• writing by the encoder to the compressed stream buffer based on a second write pointer value;
• and
• reading from the compressed stream buffer by a network interface controller based on a second read pointer value, the first and second write and read pointer values to be updated without intervention from the CPU as the rendering circuitry writes to the frame buffer, the encoder reads from the frame buffer and writes to the compressed stream buffer, and the network interface controller reads from the compressed stream buffer.

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having program code stored thereon which, when executed by a machine causes the machine to perform operations of:

• rendering a sequence of video images;
• compressing the sequence of video images to generate a sequence of compressed video images by an encoder;
• transmitting the compressed video images over a network link to a remote display;
• storing read pointers and write pointers in a plurality of buffer pointer registers, the read pointers and write pointers identifying read locations and write locations, respectively, in a frame buffer and a compressed stream buffer;
• initializing the read pointers and write pointers for processing one or more of the video images by a central processing unit (CPU);
• accessing a first write pointer by a rendering circuitry to write to a specified location in the frame buffer;
• reading from the frame buffer by an encoder based on a first read pointer value;
• writing by the encoder to the compressed stream buffer based on a second write pointer value;
• and
• reading from the compressed stream buffer by a network interface controller based on a second read pointer value, the first and second write and read pointer values to be updated without intervention from the CPU as the rendering circuitry writes to the frame buffer, the encoder reads from the frame buffer and writes to the compressed stream buffer, and the network interface controller reads from the compressed stream buffer.