Hardware-based protection of virtual function resources

Abstract

Virtual functions are implemented using a plurality of resources and physical function circuitry that executes a virtual function using information stored in the plurality of resources. A processing unit executes a host driver that selectively enables access to the plurality of resources by the virtual function based on an operational state of the processing unit. In some cases, a state machine that determines a state of the virtual function and the host driver that enables access to the plurality of resources by the virtual function based on the state of the virtual function executing on the processing unit. The subsets of the plurality of resources are used to implement a frame buffer, one or more context registers, a doorbell, and one or more mailbox registers.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.