Method and apparatus for communications between a virtualized host and remote devices

A computer readable memory, containing computer instructions which, when executed by a first processor of a host computer, manage communication between a plurality of virtual machines on a second processor of the host computer and a plurality of remotely located devices connected to a plurality of remote computers, by:

• establishing, by the first processor, communications between the host computer and one of the plurality of remote computers, the one of the plurality of remote computers comprising a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device interface and a High Definition (HD) Audio device interface;
• associating, by the first processor, the one of the plurality of remote computers with a one of the plurality of virtual machines;
• presenting, by the first processor, via a physical Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)-Express connection, to the one of the plurality of virtual machine, in forms recognizable by native bus drivers of an operating system of the one of the plurality of virtual machines as forms in which hardware interface functions are presented by local interface controller hardware that control local device interfaces, a USB bus controller interface in operative control, via the communications, of the first device interface type and an HD Audio bus controller interface function associated with the second device interface;
• executing, by the one of the plurality of virtual machines, a command in response to an event presented by the USB device controller interface, the event associated with the USB device interface, the executing the command generating data;
• and
• sending, via the HD audio bus controller interface and the communications, the data to the one of the plurality of remote computers, the data usable by the HD Audio device interface;
• and
• determining that a second one of the plurality of remote computers requires a set of interface functions and repeating the establishing, the associating, the presenting, the executing, and the sending between a second one of the plurality of virtual machines and the second one of the plurality of remote computers.

An apparatus for communicating between a plurality of virtual machines on a host computer and a plurality of remotely located device interfaces, the apparatus comprising:

• a Central Processing Unit (CPU) sub-system that hosts the plurality of virtual machines;
• a physical Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)-Express connection;
• a host bridging module comprised of hardware circuits that is independent of the CPU sub-system, the host bridging module physically coupled to the CPU sub-system by the physical PCI-Express connection, the host bridging module comprised of hardware circuits comprising a plurality of interface functions presented to the CPU sub-system, via the physical PCI-Express connection, as a plurality of PCI-based peripheral bus controllers, the plurality of interface functions enabled to communicate, commands and data, with the plurality of remotely located device interfaces in a one-to-one relationship, each of the plurality of interface functions individually presented, as equivalent to a local bus controller for local ones of the plurality of remotely located device interfaces, to a bus driver of ones of the plurality of virtual machines;
• and
• a network interface, the network interface operatively coupling, via a computer network, the host bridging module and a plurality of remote computers, the plurality of remote computers comprising the plurality of remotely located device interfaces.