Patent Application
20100306773
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a computer architecture. More particularly, the invention relates to an instant-on platform.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In computing, virtualization is a broad term that refers to the abstraction of computer resources. One useful definition is a technique for hiding the physical characteristics of computing resources from the way in which other systems, applications, or end users interact with those resources. This includes making a single physical resource, such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device, appear to function as multiple logical resources; or it can include making multiple physical resources, such as storage devices or servers, appear as a single logical resource.
In computer science, a virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine (computer) that executes programs as a real machine.
The invention provides a method and apparatus that allows multiple computer operating systems (OS) and/or personalities to run concurrently. An instant-on platform includes a resource management service, a caching service, a profile manager, a network stack which provides TCP/IP communication to the OS, and at least one appliance. The instant-on platform can be placed in the path of network and disk traffic between said user OS and actual system hardware. User selectable profiles and personalities are also provided.
The invention provides an instant-on platform. In one embodiment, the invention adds an instant-on environment to notebook and desktop PCs. In this embodiment, a consumer can use the PC within five to 10 seconds of pressing the power button. The environment contains key virtual appliances, such as a DVD player, browser, e.g. to access Internet, find map directions, find contact information, check email, etc, diagnostics, etc. The invention has no impact on existing OEM hardware design, with the possible exception of increasing the boot firmware footprint by a small amount.
The manner in which the invention is realized involves inserting a small footprint operating system and virtual appliances into the boot ROM of a system. When the power button is pressed, the boot firmware starts executing. To minimize boot time, the boot firmware only executes partially, just enough to ready the hardware for instant-on OS operation. Execution jumps to the instant-on OS to initialize hardware, launch the GUI menu, and thus display available virtual appliances to a user. In this embodiment of the invention, the OS and virtual appliances are optimized for fast boot. Thus, the GUI menu may show available virtual appliances, virtual appliances on a USB flash drive (if present), virtual appliances on a hard disk drive (if present), and virtual appliances online (if the PC is online). When the user is done, the user can either power the system off directly or exit the instant-on OS to boot, for example, the Windows operating system. Upon exit, the boot firmware continues execution and then loads the user OS normally, e.g. Windows.
The instant-on OS and virtual appliances reside in the boot ROM along with the original boot code. To implement the invention, the original boot ROM is replaced with a larger boot ROM having an identical footprint. No hardware redesign is needed to implement the invention. The OS and virtual appliances are designed for small size.
Alternative approaches to expanding functionality and the amount of space for an appliance include using an external USB flash drive for code storage, for additional virtual appliances, etc; and downloading or streaming additional virtual appliances or additional functionality, e.g. drivers, from the Internet. For example, the invention may use the http or https/P2P protocols to prevent problems with firewalls. Where the base browser is limited in functionality, e.g. due to footprint constraints, additional browser components, such as JavaScript, Ajax, foreign language fonts, etc, or a full-featured browser, can be delivered from sources online. Also, where the base browser is limited in functionality, usually due to footprint constraints, a gateway may be provided that renders all rich, online content, e.g. JavaScript, Ajax, etc, into a format optimized for the base browser's display capabilities.
The approaches described above require modifying BIOS code to jump to an instant-on OS. In other embodiments, there may be approaches to achieve a similar result without having to modify the boot BIOS. This may allow usage of the instant-on OS in today's existing systems. The invention may allow the creation of an instant-on, OS system-option ROM. The BIOS by default automatically finds and executes option ROMs as part of the normal boot process. This may result in a longer boot time than modifying the BIOS to jump to the instant-on OS directly. If most of the existing BIOS boots quickly enough, then it may be acceptable to have a BIOS complete in a normal boot sequence, and then load the instant-on OS. In this embodiment, the only change needed is configuring the BIOS settings to set the proper boot order. Some other handshaking methods that exist in today's BIOS may be used, for example, to pass control to an instant-on, real-time OS from early in the execution of the boot BIOS.
In addition to the discussion with regard to the GUI menu there are alternative approaches and other embodiments of the invention as well. For example, the first screen displayed on the computer upon starting the device would be to show choices as icons, e.g. available virtual appliances (VAs). The user can make a selection either by clicking on an icon with a mouse, or by pressing a function key associated with the icon. In other embodiments of the invention, an OEM may designate hotkeys on the keyboard for booting into instant-on operating system and/or booting directly into a particular virtual appliance. If the instant-on platform predicts a particular event that is linked to a virtual appliance, that virtual appliance can be launched automatically without the user clicking on the icon, e.g. by automatically playing a DVD if a DVD movie is inserted into the disc player on the PC.
For the existing installed base of PCs without an instant-on platform, it is possible to retrofit such devices with instant-on functionality. This may be done via a combination of a new boot-ROM image, plus software installed into local storage, such as the hard drive, USB dongle, or flash device. Alternatively, as previously mentioned, the order of boot devices may be modified, such that the boot ROM can complete normally and then hand off to the instant-on OS instead of to the user OS, e.g. Windows.
The applicability of the instant-on platform is not limited to notebook or desktop PCs, which traditionally suffer from the longest boot times. Other devices that have significant boot times and can benefit from the instant-on usage model include UMPCs, PCs, kiosks, and handhelds, such as smartphones and iPods.
Systems currently in use take 30 to 60 seconds for the regular OS to boot. However, the PCs use is typically for target or popular tasks with a five to 10 second boot. Further, the invention allows a secure, virus- and spyware-free environment. The instant-on environment runs out of a read-only boot ROM. If desired, the system can use only RAM as the workspace with no access to personal storage, e.g. the hard drive. This means that the instant-on environment is safe from online viruses, malware, etc. The user configuration that needs to be stored for user convenience, e.g. browser bookmarks and the like, could be handled in a variety of ways, including online storage, e.g. Yahoo bookmarks.
In one embodiment, a ready-to-run motherboard, without a hard drive and without loading an OS, can be provided. The motherboard can serve useful purposes even when no hard drive is available or when the user OS is not installed. With a sufficient collection of virtual appliances, a commercial-user OS may not even be needed.
The invention also allows for better power management. By having full control over the hardware and by providing an assortment of virtual appliances, the instant-on OS can have knowledge of exactly what level of hardware resources are needed. The instant-on OS can power off or throttle down components and processors to the minimum level required. This achieves power savings over a general-purpose OS. Further, hardware can be disabled or throttled down, i.e. run at lower clock rates, and includes such things as processor cores, DRAM, hard drives, optical drives, LCD backlighting, and I/O busses.
If the OS, e.g. Windows, does not boot, the instant-on platform's diagnostics and/or antivirus-appliance features could help with various diagnostics and repair actions. The invention allows the downloading of platform-specific drivers from an OEM Web site, which reduces the need for a driver/recovery CD-ROM to be shipped with every PC or motherboard. The invention allows the user to perform diagnostics that are traditionally done by OEM support tools or by use of a recovery CD. Optionally, feedback may be provided to the OEM as a result of such diagnostics to help with problem resolution. If the OEM has additional diagnostic tools or a CD-ROM, those can be downloaded and/or burned into a CD using the instant-on platform. This reduces the need for a recovery CD-ROM to be shipped with every PC or motherboard. The instant-on platform can also be used to scan the OS, e.g. Windows, and a partition for viruses and for downloading BIOS updates. For example, in the case of the Vista operating system, the instant-on platform can also inject updated drivers or application into a Windows partition to repair and/or enhance the Windows operating system.
The invention allows the OEM to establish a direct relationship with end users. OEMs can use the instant-on platform as a channel to interact with and learn more about its customers. For example, the instant-on menu can show an OEM's branding, and an instant-on browser can default to the OEM's online forum for product support, questions, and other product interests.
The invention provides an ultimate platform for innovation as well. OEMs can innovate on top of the instant-on platform by implementing their own instant-on virtual appliances that further differentiate them and their offering from those of others in the market. These innovations are not tied to the base OS, e.g. Windows.
Some virtual appliances may model, for example, a movie appliance that the user can pay for, and which can stream down movies that the user can watch, with payment shared by a movie studio, OEM, and a portal. Some premium virtual appliances may also be provided for user payment at activation, for example, a multiplayer online game.
The invention collects platform-capability, user information, and unique identification information via a profile manager. A virtualized guest OS, such as Windows, does not see related hardware and capabilities. This is because the invention provides a solution that starts running before the virtualization layer is initialized. The invention can collect and help manage information, such as platform capabilities, user information, and unique IDs. For example, the invention can provide platform capability collection. In this embodiment, the invention can collect information concerning the CPU, such as the number of cores, cache amounts, power-management features, virtualization support, multi-threading support, etc. The invention can provide memory-capability information, such as cache amounts, ReadyBoost/ReadyDrive/Robson capabilities, main-memory partitioning, etc. Graphics capabilities can also be identified, such as 2D and 3D capabilities, virtualization support, processing element configurations, etc. The invention can be used to identify the chip set, including power-management capabilities, bandwidth, and, thus, allocation. The invention can also be used to identify I/O functionality, such as physical drives, NICs, expansion ports, slots, and capabilities, etc.
The invention can also be used for a platform capability management, such as resource allocation and prioritization. For example, the invention can be used to dedicate a single CPU to a given workload, allocate a certain amount of memory for a given CPU or a graphics controller core, allocate bandwidth between network devices, maintain graphs for virtual chronological, and physical device profiles, etc. Additionally, the invention can be used for power management.
In another embodiment of the invention, user information and unique identification information may be managed. For example, the invention can store user names, passwords, and other associated account information for different facilities on the local machine, external expansion devices, such as a USB flash drive, as well as for services on the network, such as Web sites, subscriptions, etc. The invention can map this information to personalities and appliances, such as this information can be shared, cached, or synchronized across the different environments, so that the user does not need to enter the same information all the time. Usage and demographics profiling information may also be collected and associated to facilitate the delivery of relevant software, advertisements, or other services.
A unique ID may be implemented and used in such a way that the user or other software can control the amount of information exposed to third parties. For example, usage information may be provided only for aggregation purposes, or only potential subsets of the profiled information may be provided to a given site, etc. The unique ID could potentially be created by leveraging hardware resource fingerprints, i.e. MAC address or a combination of other unique numbers, and may also be used for authentication purposes. In general, both the platform capability and the user information and unique ID can be used by higher-level software, including hypervisors and virtual machine monitors, operating systems, drivers, applications, or even services, for customization, profiling, or optimization purposes.
In the invention, a menu can be used to select appliances based on platform capability or it can go to a general OS, for booting the OS, or restoring it from hibernation. This can be done either using onscreen menus, buttons, or hotkeys. For example, in one embodiment the invention uses the VGA, mouse, and/or keyboard capabilities built into the BIOS ROM to display the menu as quickly as possible (12). This is similar to the graphics and user-interface capability of the BIOS set-up screens. In alternative environments, the invention can use facilities that exist in pre-OS boot, such as the menu screens provided boot loaders such as Grub/Lilo. The invention may display the menu after loading a portion of the operating system associated with a virtual machine and the necessary drivers. For example, it may be done after the kernel loads but before all drivers and graphics libraries are fully loaded. In an alternative embodiment, the invention may display the menu after the full virtual operating system has booted, along with graphics subsystems. This may be a preferred option if all applications are based on the virtual OS and reduces latency between appliance selection and application availability.
The latter approach may be implemented in a single level of menus or in a multilevel structure. A multilevel implementation is illustrated in
In
In
The instant-on invention allows for the showing of news, video, music, advertisements, or other capabilities while the main operating system, e.g. Windows, is virtualized and booted or restored from hibernation. Thus, virtualization allows for concurrency. One powerful usage of the aforementioned capabilities provides a mechanism to engage the user in meaningful activity, such as displaying information, advertisements, providing research, playing media, etc, while the user is waiting for the main operating system and application to become available. This level of concurrency might be made possible by taking advantage of the platform's virtualization capabilities or making use of any multithreading or multi-core capabilities the platform may provide. If the invention is implemented through virtualization, the virtualization engine (hypervisor/cybervisor, virtual machine monitor, or other necessary software) may be run directly from local storage, either BIOS ROM, hard drive, direct attached, external storage, such as a USB flash drive, streamed or downloaded to the computing device, are executed directly from the network.
Another use of the technology is to engage in non-interactive activities, such as pre-fetching, caching, streaming useful content or applications and appliance data while the user is waiting for the main OS and applications to become available.
Generally, the invention takes advantage of any spare system resources while the rest of the system is engaged in starting up, or resuming the main OS to provide additional value, whether it is to engage the user or to accelerate system performance in some manner.
The instant-on environment in accordance with the invention enjoys a real-time interrupt using a hotkey. In this embodiment of the invention, a quick and easy way of accessing instant-on capabilities in appliances is provided, regardless of the state of the system. As discussed above, the invention provides keyboard shortcuts and hardware buttons which provide the ability to bypass some or all of the menu facilities. The extension of this capability provides the ability to quick-switch whether the system is off, in standby, or in hibernation modes, or when the system is on. When the system is off or in hibernation, pressing the associated keyboard shortcut or hardware button may run the menu systems and start the instant-on environment directly with few complications. When the system is in standby mode, a facility is provided to store the hibernation file to disc and store any other necessary system states and parameters before starting the instant-on environment. Similarly, if the system is running when the hotkey or a button is pressed, facilities may be provided to shut the system down, put the system in standby or suspend or sleep mode, or in some other manner store enough system state information for resumption at a later time before turning off the instant-on environment.
The invention also comprises a manager of appliances and appliance data. In this embodiment of the invention, some information is either streamed down to the device or already pre-cached, for example, in a hard disc drive, USB flash drive, or otherwise. The invention creates a partition for caching and creates a workspace on an existing partition, such as direct view or a file, where the virtual appliances can be stored. As discussed previously, one implementation option is to access software and content stored locally, whether it is in some non-volatile storage component directly on the system mainboard, on some expansion board or riser, on a hard drive or an optical drive, on external flash devices, such as USB flash discs, SD memory discs, memory cards, memory sticks, or USB-attached drives.
In this embodiment of the invention, the software or content may be installed or downloaded previously onto these devices or, instead, may have been cached in workspaces in all of the devices. Alternatively, the software and content may be executed remotely or streamed directly from the network. Where the remote server delivers or streams an application to the system, such applications could be packaged applications that load directly into memory without an installation requirement and could optionally be cached in local storage such as a hard disc drive, USB dongle, or flash devices.
The instant-on environment has a facility for managing the data and the associated resources, including the necessary storage and/or processing capabilities record and execute and access the data. For example, the instant-on environment may provide for the seamless retrieval of appliances or content from virtual storage, either from a network, a local flash, a motherboard, a local hard disc drive, or an attached USB flash dongle, depending on the proximity and freshness of the information. In one embodiment, as shown in
In addition to applications, appliances, and content data for use directly within the instant-on environment, the instant-on environment may also access network resources and services to download platform-specific drivers, utilities, or applications, or content for use in the main system. For example, in one embodiment all content may be made available for playback and usage in the DVD environment or within the main OS, e.g. Windows.
These facilities may include the ability not only to download system software, but also system firmware, such as option ROMs and BIOS updates. The instant-on environment provides a facility to administer support, diagnosis, and/or update the system locally or remotely, whether this is the instant-on environment itself, system firmware, or system software. For example, as shown in
Thus, in
The instant-on environment may also provide the capability to validate or verify the authenticity of all data and packages. This may be implemented simply as a check sum or CRC, or include more elaborate schemes, such as digital signatures and central registries.
In one embodiment of the invention, a low-end browser might require a proxy server to render assistance. To optimize memory allocation and utility, the instant-on environment may provide a full browser with extensive plug-in capabilities or a minimal browser experience, which may not in fact render content locally on a local system, but rather would take advantage of a proxy server or other compute capability on the network to do some or all of the rendering. The system would then send in immediate results or a representation to the instant-on environment for display.
A further embodiment of the invention provides multi-language support and internationalization capabilities within the instant-on environment. This may be for localized user experience, as well as for support considerations. The user interface itself may be localized but, in addition, other facilities such as spell-checking, font and including libraries, user input methods, including speech and handwriting recognition and keyboard methods, and translation tools, text-to-speech and speech-to-text tools, and the like may be provided.
Depending on the hardware and peripheral configuration of the PC or device, the instant on code can reside in one or more of the following areas, depending upon available memory space, usage models, etc:
BIOS Flash (EFI): instant on code can be stored in the current BIOS from flash (512K-1M) R EFI ROM/(1-2M) if there is any available space not taken by the BIOS code of the system. Alternately, the OEM/ODM can provide a larger BIOS for the eCode with which the invention is placed.
Separate Flash Onboard: Adding an additional flash chip to the PC or PC motherboard is one solution. In this case, the BIOS would call to execute the PC code during the boot sequence. The code can also be in a PCI card. Alternately, the code can be stored as an option ROM such that when the BIOS boots, it calls this option ROM code to execute.
USB Dongle or other external memories such as SD memory cards, memory stick, compact flash, etc: The instant on code can be stored on external USB flash memory when there is not enough memory onboard the system or when portability and/or mobility is needed for the instant on code.
Robson/ReadyBoost Flash: The instant on code can be stored on additional performance enhancement flash memory card by Intel's Robson technology and Microsoft's ReadyBoost technology, for example as used by the Vista operating system.
KBC flash: The instant on code can be stored in Access keyword controller chip flash (KBC). The KBC generally has 64 kb to 128 kb of flash built in. Companies such as Renesas offer KBCs with up to 1 meg of internal flash. The 1 megabit flash card enables OEMs to put their BIOS code in the KBC.
NIC/Chipset Flash: In vPRO/AMT style motherboards, there is flash memory available for third-parties to use with the chipset or NIC. The instant on code can be stored in this available flash.
Gigabyte i-RAM Type PCI-E Card: This type of component is built with volatile memory with no power interruption, i.e. it is battery-backed. The component acts as a hard disk drive with the benefits of a flash memory. The instant on code could be stored in this type of component if available.
TPM Flash: Typical TPM have about 64 kb to 128 kb of internal flash. Following the logic of the motherboard discussed above, larger flash may be available to embed the instant on code. Due to security concerns, those implementing the invention could work with TPM hardware/firmware providers to embed the instant on code.
Hard Disk Drive: The invention would operate with a separate partition created on a hard disk drive to store the instant on code on a flash portion of a ReadyDrive for quick access and power saving.
Stream from Network: The instant on code could be stored with user interface, network setup, and many of the appliances can be stored in the BIOS, but the rest of the software components would be streamed from the network.
The appliances that may be used in connection with the instant-on invention described herein include, for example, the following:
A browser appliance can be provided for browsing email, news, searching, music, videos, instant messaging, social network, and the like, to support Web-based applications, appliances, and clients by providing an instant-on, fully functional browser that allows plug-ins, such as Flash, Java Script, and AJAX support. The instant-on lightweight browser is supported by a proxy server in some embodiments for rendering sophisticated Web pages. The browser appliance also enables instant access to Web 2.0 and Office 2.0 contents and services, such as RSS feeds and the like. The browser appliance may include private browsing mode for Web access that are not to be cached, stored, tracked, logged, or correlated with any other Web accesses.
A guest appliance may provide an environment where other users are allowed to access the hardware capabilities of the device, but where no persistent storage of guest user activity is provided such that guest user data is not stored. This limits or prevents access of a guest to the main system in the primary user storage. Such appliance may be useful for installations or access with regard to children, one-time guest users, and the like.
A Webtop/desktop appliance which would provide both online and offline access to a Webtop- or desktop-type interface, such as any of the online office suites or Google Desktop.
An IM appliance may be provided to support custom IM clients and use.
A DVD appliance may be provided for DVD, Blu-ray, and HD DVD applications. In this embodiment, the instant-on media player is capable of supporting DVD, Blu-ray, and/or HD DVD playback content which may be local, streamed, or downloaded.
A gadget/widget appliance may be provided which is installed in the system running a general OS, such as Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux, and which collects information, i.e. calendar, contact list, favorites, profiles, cookies, etc, and uploads to a remote server as intermediate storage, which is retrievable by the embedded OS. The embedded OS could also upload information to the remote server, which is retrievable or updated by the general OS gadgets and widgets. Auto-synchronization would also be supported. Further, this embodiment of the invention could provide instant-on access to gadgets native to other environments, such as Apple, MySpace, Vista, or Google.
A slideshow appliance may be provided, for example, for a Vista gadget to provide contact and calendar information. Similar to the PortalPlayers Preface product but which implements an additional display, CPU, memory, and other components which will offer a O-BOM slideshow appliance leveraging the main CPU, memory, and display, but running in the instant-on code.
Such appliance has the following features: It is not an immediate information retrieval device. It would offer a variety of gadgets that are running on the main OS or on a partition, such as Vista, such that it can leverage slideshow technology and APIs, and such that user information may be written to files or to an appliance storage area. The appliance storage area could include a separate partition on a hard disk or on the network or in the main system hard disk partition. The appliance would retrieve information and files from the main memory and hard disk. Because this embodiment of the invention leverages the main CPU, memory, and display, users are offered a better user experience similar to the normal users' experience with the benefit of instant availability.
A hardware-dependent appliance may be provided, either integrated into the motherboard or attached to a USB memory. The instant-on code to support the head end hardware-dependent appliances and applications, such as meeting communication appliances, includes such application as DVB-H/mobile TV appliances, which is not an appliance integrated with the DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting Space—Handheld), and any other hardware to support multimedia contents from the DVB-H network. A cable TV tuner appliance integrated into the instant-on appliance, for example as a TV tuner card, to support multimedia contents from service providers. 3G appliance (BREW, Access/Palm, Openwave, NTT, Korea, China Mobile . . . ) which is an instant-on appliance integrated with 3G chips (or 3.5G and beyond) to support connection in value-add services provided by carriers, such as telecom companies, mobile platform providers, and the like. A time shifting (DVR) and place shifting (Slingbox-type) appliance with peer-to-peer support. In this embodiment, through the touch of one key, which may be a hardware or a software key or selection of a menu item, a user is offered an instant on-DVR or Slingbox-type function. The necessary system resources are allocated to run this function, such that it is not impacted by the general OS running other unrelated tasks or processes that might impact performance and/or user experience. A GPS appliance that, through the touch of one key, can offer instant GPS or a platform that has such capabilities. In such application, startup and reaction time are crucial, as well as stability. The GPS appliance can be applied to all sorts of devices, such as PCs, UMPCs, in-car PCs, kiosks, and handhelds, such as smartphones or the iPod. A UWB appliance that can stream software, data, or content other devices using UWB. One application of this embodiment is the home server which can simultaneously stream video, music, and other services and files to thin clients and display it in different rooms.
The invention may comprise a VoIP appliance, such as Skype or Vonage. Use of that appliance would be provided by the service provider, ISV partner, or other to support voice over Internet protocol function services.
“Last mile” appliances may be provided, such as ISP, cable, 3G, metro WiFi, or WiMAX applications. In this embodiment, the partner would provide last mile service providers, such as Comcast or Verizon, with such embodiments the invention would allow the service providers to offer instant-on services and immersive user experiences on the inventive platform. This helps build platform and offer content and services on the PC by creating a competitive advantage that is not restricted by other stack providers, such as Microsoft. In such embodiment, 3G providers such as Cingular or Verizon can work with the provider of the instant-on service to provide an instant browse experience or gateway for the subscribers. Such system can use the provider's DRM and other solutions as necessary. In this case revenue would be shared among the service provider and the provider of the instant-on platform.
A video cam conferencing appliance could be provided in the instant-on appliance invention, where the instant-on aspect is provided by the peripheral vendor, service provider, ISV partner, or another company. The instant-on appliance is integrated into the video camera to provide video conferencing functions and services.
A media appliance provides the functionality to synchronize media and/or PIM data between the system and other portable devices, such as cell phones, cameras, camcorders, music players, etc, without starting up the full operating system. The content for the synchronization may come from the main system. Such embodiment may provide the functionality to play streaming media between the system and other devices, such as cell phones, cameras, camcorders, music players, televisions, DVD players, DVRs, etc, without starting up the full OS. The content for the synchronization may come from the main system or from another source.
A game appliance may be provided, such as a game like Nintendo, or an appliance can be provided in which game vendors create a virtual game console on the instant-on platform with the advantages that include the control over the level of system resources dedicated to the gamer's experience in contrast with running on a Windows system. For example, the game vendors can expand the number of members of their user base and the platforms that can play their games. In this embodiment, for some vendors, the game console and hardware may be subsidized. Online gamers now have simpler access to the online environment through the instant-on system which does not require the other operating system components or antivirus software and the like running. In this embodiment also, parts of the game may be cached.
A thin-client appliance (ICA, RDP, etc.) may be provided with an instant-on client site interface with a client/server-type network architecture with backend support. Such embodiment enables the standard PC platform to be used as a thin client in a client/server environment, i.e. Citrix independent computing architecture and remote desktop protocol. For example, the system administrator can limit user access to the corporate network by disabling certain functionalities, or even the main operating system, such that the PC is used only as a thin client in the enterprise. The invention would enable the instant-on menu of available functions within the network. This would provide better security for the network. Further, such system would have lower costs because a single platform could serve two purposes, i.e. local computing and network client. This would also allow the use of commodity hardware in such applications.
A music appliance, such as an iTunes-type appliance, could be provided to create an instant-on, for example, one-key touch, music player. The music may be stored in any of the storage locations, including the main hard disk partition, separate hard disk partition, external storage, such as USB and other drives, or streamed over the Internet, or even from a peer-to-peer location. This environment offers power savings because it is not necessary to run any of the other unnecessary OS processes or tasks or even turn on those hardware components such as graphics components and display components.
A play-only appliance may be provided for DRM which includes user interface or client software provided by a content provider, service provider, or other service that has a play-only function to support multimedia contents which are subjected to DRM.
A DVD/HD movie peer-to-peer appliance may be provided, such as a MovieBeam-type appliance. Such appliance can be streamed or cached, or may be provided on a USB dongle or obtained through peer-to-peer network applications. A provider of the instant-on appliance can partner with the content or service provider, such as MovieBeam. The invention allows partners to build their own appliance or UI and thereby achieve downloading or streaming of content. Alternately, the content may be pre-cached and then erased after it is viewed by the user. In such environment, the content or service provider would user their own DRM and could use the invention to offer value-add services directly on the appliance. In such case, revenue would be shared among the various partners. Further, there is a potential power savings due to the single-purpose use of the platform.
An Adobe Apollo appliance may be provided which comprises a platform using Apollo (with Flash, AJAX, HTML capabilities, etc.) that works with third-party ISV, content, or service providers to provide end user experience, rich media, and an immersive experience. This serves as a platform to generate revenue via software, content, and services for distribution or advertising. This aspect of the invention may be provided in various embodiments with other types of runtime environments, such as Java Shockwave, Flash, or even the .net CRR.
An IPTV appliance may be provided that is similar in concept to the music and movie appliance discussed above and that can work with service providers directly, with a revenue sharing option.
An online/offline appliance may be provided, for example, for pre-caching or that may be used in a social network. This aspect of the invention provides a platform to such services as Google, MySpace, Yahoo!, and others (for example using Web 2.0 or Office 2.0) such that such services can offer an appliance or agent that interacts with users no matter if they are online or offline. In a sense, this embodiment of the invention allows a service to provide a mini-server that allows the users of the service to continue to use such services, such as searching Google or using a spreadsheet, even when the users are offline. The user input information gets cached in synch with the server when the user is back online. Thus, the service providers can continue to offer services or run ads when the users are offline. In a social networking setting, this appliance allows users to upload photos or to blog and to generate content even when they are offline. Such changes to the system are synched when the users go online or the users mail others to directly access their computers. Thus, different levels of sharing are provided.
A local online/offline advertisement appliance can be provided that displays advertisements online and offline, even if the user is not online or at any Web site. The invention can cache high-quality ads and content to be served to the user when the user is offline. The invention can also take advantage of system boot times to display ads during system booting. In such an environment, the system would first configure graphics aspects of the platform and then immediately post a screen prior to the boot system. The invention can also post ads when the main operating system is booting. If an operating system is under, such as a Microsoft, an OEM license that requires a Windows boot screen to be displayed, then the invention can virtualize the screen in a separate window or in the background.
A support diagnostic appliance can be provided. In this embodiment, if the main operating system has a problem, such as virus, drivers, configuration problems, etc, the instant-on code can get access to the Internet and communicate with support teams or a support Web site. The instant-on system can use the platform to run diagnostic programs to root cause the issue. Alternatively, the instant-on platform can inject OS drivers or other software into the main OS or otherwise as needed. Further, the support team can stream over a recovery CD or software that is more updated, or they can do virus scans on the main OS itself from an isolated, lower-level environment.
A backup appliance may be provided in which the instant-on appliance creates backups of selected files and applications on a local hard disk drive or a server on the network. By leveraging virtualization, the OS environment can be treated as a file, and the different differential of the file as it is before use and afterwards can be saved, and the original image may be maintained online or as a recovery CD.
A security appliance may be provided in which the instant-on appliance performs a security check on memory devices and provides a solution of any security threats. This embodiment of the invention operates underneath or isolated from the main OS environment which is generally the target of such viruses.
A photo appliance may be provided that would allow users' friends to push photos through the appliance as with the Chumby application. This is an appliance that allows people to save and share, that is, send and receive, photos through the Internet, for example, with Web 2.0. Also, for example, a user can push pictures from the instant-on appliance to their friends' instant-on appliances or accounts, with proper security being taken. Thus, when a user boots the machine, they immediately see the new pictures, using an instant-on photo application and, for example, provided in the background. The provider of the instant-on application can partner with photo printing shops, photo sharing Web sites, etc, to offer integrated services.
A social network appliance may be provided, such as a Flock browser-type appliance. In this instant-on appliance, the client interface allows people to share multimedia contents to connect with other people through the Internet. This embodiment would link or integrate enough content and/or services, or provide software as a service, to create an immersive experience for users such that they would not have to leave this environment to get things done.
A my own Web server appliance may be provided which, if always on, is connected to a fat upstream pipe. The instant-on appliance would supply contents for personal Web page or other content with an open format. Contents could be stored on an online server and/or in local memory. The owner of the Web page could choose to make content public or open it to a certain group of people online. This allows for friends or other traffic to access the appliance and contents directly and locally with no limit on uploading size or format or form of applications.
An edutainment or elearning appliance could be provided in which the instant-on interface is supported by a backend server with education and entertainment contents and servers, such as multimedia and games. A remote home appliance could be provided which allows for using the PC as a remote access point with all of its peripherals, camera, analog/digital converters, etc, such that a user can monitor home activities, turn on or off home electronics, etc, without the instability or interruption of the OS services or even without the use of a hard drive.
A medical appliance could be provided in which the instant-on application is used for monitoring, collecting, storing, and analyzing medical data, e.g. blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc. Such application can also be used as a remote sensoring device from remote diagnostics.
A solutions-based-home UWB NAS appliance may be provided with various appliances for accessing multiple PCs. In this case, the invention would comprise an instant-on home database for access to multiple home devices and would enable high-quality content to be served, streamed, or shared via UWB.
This embodiment of the invention allows multiple operating systems to run concurrently on hypervisor. This aspect of the invention uses a model similar to that of Intel's VPro, which is a lightweight hypervisor that only virtualizes the NIC. All other mean I/O, that is, disk, graphics, and audio, are not virtualized but are still controlled by the user OS, e.g. Windows.
A VPro appliance may be provided that expands user storage to online. This is similar to the discussion above with connection to backup and mirroring, except that appliance OS virtualizes both the disk and network interfaces. Whatever the user OS writes to the disk, the appliance OS can send that information over the Net to some virtual hard drive. This enables such companies as Google to provide huge or unlimited or easily expandable online storage for free or for a fee. If online storage is not fast or secure enough for all hard drive data, then the appliance OS can discern what information is being written and decide whether to send that information to a local drive or to an online drive. For example, the OS and applications would be stored locally, while huge multimedia files may be stored online.
The invention also provides the VPro appliance as a media/file server. In this embodiment, an appliance partition acts as a shared repository for music, videos, and files. The user OS and the other PCs in the user's home can connect to the appliance OS to access and add media and/or share files. This allows multiple PCs centralized storage. This is essentially a software implementation of NAS, but it is free and easy to set up.
Virtual clients may be provided for VPro uses model with no UI to make online tools available offline. For example, this embodiment of the invention may be used with MySpace, Google, or other Web-based information services such as web space office suites. This embodiment of the invention is transparent to the user of the Web sites and tools whether the PC is online or offline. For example, a Google Web-based office suite can be run as a VM appliance behind the scenes on the same PC. When the PC is online, the user accesses Google from his Windows browser. This access goes directly to the Google site. When offline, the user can still access the same Google tools, but now the access is handled locally by the Google offline suite Web server's virtual machine. In essence, Google can deliver a Google Web-based suite offline to the end user, and the user can take advantage of all the features even when not connected. Once the connection is reestablished, the Google office suite service via virtual machine synchronizes with Google online suite, updating it and uploading locally modified documents, etc. The documents can be saved to a local Windows system if desired. Another example of this embodiment of the invention includes a subset of the MySpace functionality that can be replicated as a virtual machine appliance. Even when the user is offline, the user can update the profile. The user can show other than the profile and friends' pages while offline. When connected online, the virtual machine synchronizes with the online MySpace. This enables the ability to deliver online experiences when offline.
Other VPro appliances include such applications as security, profiling and indexing, media players (DVDs, CDs, music, videos), the equivalence of the Vista slideshow, which works with Vista gadgets just like calendar, contacts, etc. These appliance are shown in
Services such as YouTube, MySpace, and Flickr use Web 2.0. As the amount of information in these servers expands, all users become providers of information and data. Most Web 2.0 portals are not personal enough. For example, the top 10 favorites may appeal to some, but probably not to most others. Most sites are very U.S.-centric in their groupings and directories, etc. However, relevance is more important than ever. People increasingly lose patience with irrelevant material. Thus, users are looking for others with common interests and/or identity. The profile manager software is provided on every PC or for every user or account and allows you to input and save your personal profile. When a user searches the Internet, he can allow any portion of the profile to be sent to the Web site or portal to which he searched. Based on this profile, the Web site or portal may produce improved relevant results in content rated by people of similar profiles. For example, when a user with a profile manager visits YouTube, he'll see the most viewed or top-rated or most discussed categorized information based on people with similar profiles in addition to generic groupings.
High level of requirements of this embodiment of the invention include the fact that users only input their profiles that they desire. Users may grant the profile manager rights to collect their online and/or offline activities, history, similar to a Web clipping service in Google or Apple. When collecting the profile, users can be run through a series of questions, images, or selections to determine the profile and/or interest of the user. Users must approve the passing of profile information to each site, or they may grant access for a limited period of time or for all times. A security mechanism is provided in which information passed to the portals may be encoded and used only via pattern matching. In this way, the profile is kept confidential and cannot be spread. The profile is portable. Thus, users can carry the profile on a USB dongle or cell phone flash. The profile may also be available for online access. For those users that prefer, a Web site may be provided at which the user can park their personality for access anywhere. The invention includes a mechanism by which the profile is returned to the user after the user logs off to ensure privacy and security. If the system codes the profile, then this may not be necessary. The profile can be integrated also with browsers or a tool bar or a side bar, such as Google desktop. If selected by the user, the profile manager remembers the user actions of the past period of time to allow the user to perform relevant searches automatically. The profile manager also uses a combination of key words and coded profiles for relevant searches. For example, recent search words may be key words, but more personal data is not coded in the profile.
In the preferred embodiment, the profile and history stays with the user and not on a particular Web site or server. Therefore, users no longer have to re-enter their profile for every portal. Even for new Web sites, e.g. first time visits, users can get the benefit of personalized search and relevant content. Users can change and erase their profiles at any time for any and all portals. The user profile is kept confidential and is not kept by the portals. This aspect of the invention provides ease of use for even casual PC users. In some embodiments, the profile can be pre-bundled on a white box, laptop, or notebook, or driver installation CD. The invention enables Web sites and portals to provide their services without having to create different content and/or sites for different interest groups or even different geographies. Thus, it's much easier for content management and availability. This also allows globalization of Web sites and portals. This also enhances targeted advertising.
In one embodiment, when a user buys a PC, a wizard is provided asking the person to define their profile by answering a list of questions and indicating their preferences. The profiles are encrypted and saved. The user is asked for permission to store the information in the database online for future access. The information is synchronized periodically. When a user visits a Web site, the user is prompted to obtain user permission before the profile information is sent to the Web site. If the user agrees, then an encrypted file such as an XML file is passed to the Web site or portal. This information can be saved as a cookie so that in the future the user does not need to be asked again. The user will see the content in the search results, relevance rated by users with similar profiles. The invention creates a fingerprint or pattern of the user profile so that the user's profile information is not disclosed. The Web appliance can then use the fingerprint or pattern to deliver information to the user by matching the fingerprint. Personalized content and services can be provided without knowing the detailed profiles of the users in this way.
In a peer-to-peer social networking application of the invention, each person serves a profile page directly from their PC via the peer-to-peer file-sharing technologies. Thus, users can browse each others' profiles via peer-to-peer technologies. By using peer-to-peer technology, it is possible to maintain a downloading and browsing experience. This embodiment of the invention permits freedom of self-expression in which the user can use all the tools in a medium that is necessary to make publicly available instead of being limited to HTML pages or whatever structure the portal limits the user to, such as file formats, maximum size, etc. Portals such as MySpace have an advantage because they're established. However, the invention allows further exploitation of Web 2.0.
The invention provides means for proving power savings via virtualization. This aspect of the invention can apply to current hypervisors, such as XEN. The invention allows the system to power down or throttle back hardware reserves to what is minimally required by currently running virtual machines. This includes powering down unused cores or scheduling. The virtual machines share cores when a computing task is not demanding. Based on the virtual machine or virtual environment running, the invention can power off certain pieces of hardware, such as the DVD/CD-ROM when an Internet machine is being used. Depending on the machine running, peer-evaluated performance requirements can be established for which a system is throttled back and/or in which processors are turned off or cores are turned off to meet the performance requirements of the currently running virtual machine.
The invention allows pre-installation of personalities which can comprise applications, content, services, and/or virtual machine images. Virtual machine images comprise the combination of the operating system plus applications, plus content, plus services, plus data. These personalities can be loaded into hard drives prior to the hard drive being assembled into PCs. This enables additional OSes, such as Windows, to be installed, and are added to the hard drive without impacting the existing personalities. The personalities can reside in hidden partitions and can be activated based on user profiles.
The invention also allows the establishment of assistance at ODM's factory and assembly lines to support provision of images, e.g. personalities to the devices. Optionally, this allows content and service providers to bid and/or auction to be integrated into these images and/or personalities.
The invention also makes complete virtual machine images and/or personalities portable via portable Flash devices. Portable Flash devices include USB dongles, cell phones, MP3 players, etc. Modern Flash devices are mainly used to transport data, content, and possibly applications. The invention extends this to transport complete virtual machine images, such as operating systems, applications, content, and/or services and personalities.
The invention incorporates a hypervisor and platform-specific drivers into the boot ROM. Any operating system installation is automatically virtualized, thus gaining all the advantages of virtualization. Thus, the systems are portable, easy to backup and restore, etc. Virtual machines, i.e. with operating systems, applications, etc., can be made available on this platform merely by drag and drop.
The invention also provides an architecture hard drive partitioning to enable separation of the operating system, application, and data. In this embodiment, the operating system is secured and locked while remotely updated in a secure fashion. The applications run inside their own containers, e.g., they're not necessary to be installed into the OS. Thus, no modification to the OS partition is needed. The application can be remotely updated as well. Optionally, the application partition can be an application server that streams containerized applications to the operating system partition. Data partition is separate and can be backed up easily.
The invention also provides multi-personality windows, for example, for the Vista operating system.
The invention also aggregates I/O bandwidth. Virtualization enables the aggregating of the I/O bandwidth when multiple devices are available, making that bandwidth available to guest OSes transparently. For example, when there are both DSL and 3G network access available, the hypervisor can aggregate the bandwidth. Guest OSes can take advantage of this higher bandwidth without having to be aware of the hardware involved. The hypervisor abstracts the I/O devices into a standard virtual Ethernet controller.
The invention also provides for application of virtualization. For example, child versions of applications for Vista may be offered but are packaged using application virtualization technology so that they're easy to install and delete without contaminating the user's OS environment. User application virtualization technology thus builds a sandbox within a user environment, where applications can be tried in a manner similar to USB dongle-based concepts, such as MojoPac, Ceedo, etc. If a user decides to keep an application, the application can be dragged from the sandbox to a production partition. Using just a WIM technology enables a new app model within Vista. Instead of installing applications via traditional setup programs, the applications can be pulled directly from WIM.
One embodiment of the invention provides content, services, and software separated out into containers referred to herein as personalities. These personalities provide a better user experience by enhancing the following characteristics of today's general purpose compute devices:
A personality enhances relevance by offering end users pre-bundled, pre-configured, and/or pre-organized content, services, and software. Personalities can be one application on its own, e.g. a World of Warcraft personality, or a combination of content, services, or software, e.g. a Disney personality. Personalities also include packages of personalities, or super-personalities.
Personalities and super-personalities can be selected or configured at time of hardware purchase or as an upgrade or refresh after purchase. The purchaser may be given a choice of pre-packaged personalities or super-personalities, may be offered a drill-down selection, or may have personalities and/or super-personalities recommended by profile. These profiles may generated through online surveys, or import of profile data through other accounts, e.g. Netflix, Google, A9, Amazon, Yahoo, MSN, mySpace, del.icio.us, RSS, and blog subscriptions, and may consist of demographic data, e.g. age, gender, profession, and ethnic background, or of specific interests, e.g. first-person shooter games, Disney, shopping, cooking, etc.
Usability is also enhanced because the number of icons, links, and shortcuts for each personality can be reduced, and the layout of these items can be organized and optimized for each personality's particular use case.
Personalities provide better isolation by running in software containers which are abstracted from the underlying platform. These containers have the effect of reducing cross-contamination of viruses and spam, and conflicts between DLL's and other libraries among the various applications, drivers, and OS versions. Installation and uninstallation of personalities are made much cleaner, e.g. reduced to file copy and delete operations.
These personalities and containers also facilitate the checkpointing and recovery of system state. Due to the nature of the personalities, automated transparent checkpointing can happen much easier, merely taking a snapshot of a file, and require little or no user intervention.
Performance is enhanced in that only those processes and services which are needed for active personalities are run at any particular time. Resource utilization can then be managed at a more reasonable level than what is available currently. Suspend and resume-type operations can also be used to save entire workspaces, personality state, thus freeing up resources for other activities.
The consumer's experience of using personalities can be further enhanced by making the same experience available wherever the consumer has access to a PC. Providing personalities in containers with virtualization technologies facilitates putting containers onto mobile devices, such as USB drives, and then opening up the containers on any PC that has a USB port and the appropriate virtualization support.
Configuration mechanisms and installation sources include:
Some personalities may have additional hardware requirements, e.g. CPU speed, amount of RAM, peripherals, etc., for optimal operation. Where this is the case, hardware recommendations can be made at the time of customer selection of personalities or hardware. Some profiles also have associated hardware recommendations, e.g. a teenager profile recommends a graphics card for gaming purpose.
One embodiment of the invention ties configuration to an installation and provisioning mechanism.
A customer's selection of personalities is the front end of the configuration process. The resulting data are passed to the back end and customer's PC is loaded with his choice of personalities. Tools are provided to facilitate the transfer of data and the loading of personalities. There are also tools to integrate this process seamlessly into OEM's or channel partner's PC assembly process.
The recommended customization for a certain profile may be as simple as a configuration, e.g. a set of favorites in a browser, one personality, e.g. a set of applications, or a group of personalities. Customer profiles can be based on demographics, interests, or data from other online companies and communities, such as:
Another embodiment of the invention may comprise a personality of personalities, e.g. a virtual appliance concept. This embodiment creates a package of personalities that is suitable for a certain profile, e.g. family package that includes teenager and home office personalities, or performs a group of related functions, e.g. multimedia appliance package that does music, video, etc. Packaging personalities in this way simplifies the consumer's ordering process by providing pre-thought out choices.
A white box configuration workbench may be provided that allows selection of personalities and provisioning of the virtualization platform and the selected personalities. It can be distributed in the form of a DVD along with all available personalities and then run by either end user or VAR. It can also be preloaded on the hard drive along with the possible personalities.
The invention also comprises a migration toolkit, that can:
Another embodiment of the invention concerns the transfer of old versions of the Windows OS. Many consumers have old versions of Windows, whether a purchased copy or a copy that came with an old PC. These old versions may be used as guest OS for a Windows-based personality that does not require latest version of Windows. They may also enable consumer to get latest version of Windows by paying just the upgrade fee rather than the full price. A marketplace can be created to facilitate exchange of these licenses.
This embodiment comprises a copy-based OEM provisioner or installer that ties in with the configurator.
The provisioning and installation tool is used by an OEM or VAR to set up a PC with the desired personalities. The installation process can just be file copies because each personality is a file, rather than a typical installation process that touches many parts of underlying software, e.g. registry, DLLs, etc. This makes the process simpler and faster.
An auto-generated recovery CD, DVD, hard-disk, or USB image shipped with purchased device may be provided. Disk images customized with consumer's choice of personalities are pre-loaded onto purchased device or as a separate disc media shipped with purchased device.
An activation-based provisioner may be provided in which all images are the same, personalities not selected are disabled or deactivated. Instead of creating customized images, a purchased device or disc media can be loaded with all possible personalities. The customer then chooses or activates desired personalities upon boot up.
Tools for user preferences, configurations, skins, and favorites, e.g. pre-configured and personalized based on profiles, are provided. Personalities for different profiles may have exact same set of applications but just different settings, e.g. favorites, skins, user preferences, and configurations. One example is a browser personality that has pre-configured links to different websites for a teenager vs. a browser with links that match a college student profile. Tools can facilitate creation of settings files and deployment of different settings to personalities.
A further aspect of the invention concerns a tie in with rebates and service contracts. The personalities that provide significant financial return to the content partner or ISV may include a rebate on purchase price of the device to the consumer. This rebate can be reflected directly in customer's purchase price. One example is a consumer that signs up for a movie personality with Netflix subscription and gets a discount on the laptop computer.
Embodiments of the invention comprise:
The personality development kit enables content partners and ISVs to develop personalities on their own, to offer to consumers either as a pre-loaded option or as a downloadable option from the user community. This aspect of the invention comprises:
With regard to processor and memory management:
With regard to I/O:
Concerning the architecture:
This aspect of the invention refers to personalities being organized around functionality, e.g. gaming vs. productivity:
Frame and window sharing: GUI for seamless switching of personalities. MetaVNC-like, but enabled for multiple local VMs. This embodiment shows multiple personalities on-screen simultaneously, with each personality as a window to facilitate working simultaneously within multiple personalities, e.g. carry on a VoIP conversation while playing a game, or switching amongst personalities, e.g. show all personalities in miniaturized windows on the desktop so can pick the desired one with one click. MetaVNC and Apple's Expose are similar usage models.
This aspect of the invention refers to personalities being organized around user profile, e.g. teenager vs. Mom. Each may have its own set of games and communication tools:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
This aspect of the invention enables seamless synchronization of media and data amongst personalities and peripheral devices, e.g. cell phones, PDAs, iPods, camera, etc. Enables easy sharing of data amongst personalities, e.g. a common calendar shared by all user personalities within a family. This aspect of the invention enables different models of data repository, e.g. a common data repository for all personalities, separate data repositories for each personality with publish and subscribe-like functionality for sharing, etc:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
This personality is primarily for downloading media content from online and playing those media content back for consumer via various interfaces. The media content can be country- or culture-specific. It may also interface to some special peripherals for interacting with certain content, e.g. microphone for karaoke content.
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
Downloads media from cameras, camcorders, cell phones, etc. Lets consumers organize them and play back, similar to the role played with Apple iPhoto, iTunes, etc.
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
With regard to this aspect of the invention:
The personality VM can be configured to download content specific to consumer's language, culture, country of origin, etc:
Although the invention is described herein with reference to the preferred embodiment, one skilled in the art will readily appreciate that other applications may be substituted for those set forth herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the invention should only be limited by the Claims included below.
This application is a national phase application of PCT/US2007/83499 filed 2 Nov. 2007, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/864,561, filed 6 Nov. 2006, which application is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference thereto.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US07/83499 | 11/2/2007 | WO | 00 | 8/12/2010 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60864561 | Nov 2006 | US |
