Virtualizing embedded devices

摘要

A device virtualization system is described herein that separates common computer processing tasks of an embedded device from the application-specific peripherals of the embedded device to allow at least some functions of the device to be offloaded to servers or other computing devices. The device virtualization system greatly simplifies management, configuration, and control of virtual embedded devices. Because much of the software of the device runs on the virtualization server, information technology (IT) personnel can be assigned to manage the virtualization server and to apply any updates and diagnose any problems that occur. Moreover, a single server or group of servers can be used to provide virtualization services for a wide variety of virtualized embedded devices for a wide variety of users. Thus, the system enhances the usefulness of embedded devices and allows a longer lifetime and wider variety of uses than embedded devices today.

主权项

1. A virtualization system, comprising:
at least one memory and at least one processor, the at least one memory and the at least one processor being respectively configured to store and execute instructions for performing operations, the operations comprising: receiving, at the virtualization system, information identifying an embedded device that relies upon the virtualization system for processing to facilitate a function provided via the embedded device; identifying, by the virtualization system, a particular type and a particular instance of the embedded device; loading a set of application-specific instructions related to the identified type of the embedded device from a data store having sets of application-specific instructions for multiple types of embedded devices, the loaded set of application-specific instructions being for execution on the virtualization system; receiving, at the virtualization system, input from one or more peripherals of the embedded device; processing, at the virtualization system, the received input with the loaded set of application-specific instructions; and sending one or more results of the processing of the received input with the loaded set of application-specific instructions from the virtualization system to the embedded device.