System for virtual device access in computer system

摘要

The system allows virtual device access to lock a graphic hardware device (14) of a computer system (10) for applications (12) which run on the computer system. The system has a hardware control management device (40). This detects when one of the applications is trying to access the graphic hardware device and allows and prevents access to the graphic hardware device. The system also has a signal handling device associated with each application. Each signal handling device is configured to carry out a graphic context switch over when the hardware control management device signals when the associated application is trying to access the graphic hardware device. The system also has a shared memory operating means (44) which can be accessed through each application. The shared memory operating means is configured to store an identity of the application currently accessing the graphic hardware device for use by each signal treatment device (42) when the graphic context switch over is carried out.