Virtual machine for operating N-core application on M-core processor
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorJames R. Larus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A virtual machine is instantiated on an M-core processor, and an N-core application is instantiated on the virtual machine such that the virtual machine emulates an N-core processor to the N-core application. Thus, the virtual machine hides difference between the N cores expected by the application and the M cores available from the processor.
Claims16
A computing device comprising:
- a multi-core processor having a particular number M of executing cores, each core being a discrete logical processing entity capable of individually being assigned work;
- a multi-core application instantiated on the computing device and expecting a particular number N of executing cores to be present on the M-core processor, where N is not equal to M, the N-core application assigning N application work portions for processing;
- and
- a virtual machine instantiated on the M-core processor, the N-core application being instantiated on the virtual machine, and the virtual machine emulating an N-core processor to the N-core application for processing of the N application work portions.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for execution by a computing device having a multi-core processor having a particular number M of executing cores, each core being a discrete logical processing entity capable of individually being assigned work, the computer-executable instructions executed by the computing device comprising:
- a multi-core application instantiated on the computing device for performing a processing function on input data, said multi-core application expecting a particular number N of executing cores to be present on the M-core processor, where N is not equal to M, the N-core application assigning N application work portions for processing the input data using N executing cores;
- and
- a virtual machine instantiated on the M-core processor, the N-core application being instantiated on the virtual machine, and the virtual machine emulating an N-core processor to the N-core application for processing of the N application work portions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.