System and method for accelerated machine switching

#1. Technical Field

#The present disclosure relates generally to the field of data processing systems that improve a users' ability to manipulate and access audio and video media.

#2. Description of Related Art

#The present disclosure will be understood more fully from the detailed description that follows and from the accompanying drawings, which however, should not be taken to limit the disclosed subject matter to the specific embodiments shown, but are for explanation and understanding only.

#FIG. 1 illustrates an architecture of a prior art video gaming system.

#FIGS. 2a-b illustrate a high level system architecture according to one embodiment.

#In the following description specific details are set forth, such as device types, system configurations, communication methods, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, persons having ordinary skill in the relevant arts will appreciate that these specific details may not be needed to practice the embodiments described.

#FIGS. 2a-b provide a high-level architecture of two embodiments in which video games and software applications are hosted by a hosting service 210 and accessed by client devices 205 at user premises 211 (note that the “user premises” means the place wherever the user is located, including outdoors if using a mobile device) over the Internet 206 (or other public or private network) under a subscription service. The client devices 205 may be general-purpose computers such as Microsoft Windows- or Linux-based PCs or Apple, Inc. Macintosh computers with a wired or wireless connection to the Internet either with internal or external display device 222, or they may be dedicated client devices such as a set-top box (with a wired or wireless connection to the Internet) that outputs video and audio to a monitor or TV set 222, or they may be mobile devices, presumably with a wireless connection to the Internet.

#Any of these devices may have their own user input devices (e.g., keyboards, buttons, touch screens, track pads or inertial-sensing wands, video capture cameras and/or motion-tracking cameras, etc.), or they may use external input devices 221 (e.g., keyboards, mice, game controllers, inertial sensing wand, video capture cameras and/or motion tracking cameras, etc.), connected with wires or wirelessly. As described in greater detail below, the hosting service 210 includes servers of various levels of performance, including those with high-powered CPU/GPU processing capabilities. During playing of a game or use of an application on the hosting service 210, a home or office client device 205 receives keyboard and/or controller input from the user, and then it transmits the controller input through the Internet 206 to the hosting service 210 that executes the gaming program code in response and generates successive frames of video output (a sequence of video images) for the game or application software (e.g., if the user presses a button which would direct a character on the screen to move to the right, the game program would then create a sequence of video images showing the character moving to the right). This sequence of video images is then compressed using a low-latency video compressor, and the hosting service 210 then transmits the low-latency video stream through the Internet 206. The home or office client device then decodes the compressed video stream and renders the decompressed video images on a monitor or TV. Consequently, the computing and graphical hardware requirements of the client device 205 are significantly reduced. The client 205 only needs to have the processing power to forward the keyboard/controller input to the Internet 206 and decode and decompress a compressed video stream received from the Internet 206, which virtually any personal computer is capable of doing today in software on its CPU (e.g., a Intel Corporation Core Duo CPU running at approximately 2 GHz is capable of decompressing 720p HDTV encoded using compressors such as H.264 and Windows Media VC9). And, in the case of any client devices, dedicated chips can also perform video decompression for such standards in real-time at far lower cost and with far less power consumption than a general-purpose CPU such as would be required for a modern PC. Notably, to perform the function of forwarding controller input and decompressing video, home client devices 205 do not require any specialized graphics processing units (CPUs), optical drive or hard drives, such as the prior art video game system shown in FIG. 1.