Network-Enabled Graphics Module Latency Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Virtual computing systems experience latency when streaming large video data due to hardware configuration-related propagation and processing delays, particularly in server systems with separate GPUs, CPUs, and NICs, which lead to increased computation time and memory bandwidth demands.
Innovation Solution
A system with a network-enabled graphics processing module (NEGPM) that integrates CPUs, GPUs, and NICs to reduce copying and buffering during video rendering, encoding, and transmission, allowing these operations to be performed independently of the host system resources, thereby minimizing latency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If video data is processed through separate hardware components (GPU, CPU, NIC) in a virtual computing environment, then the system can perform rendering, encoding, and transmission functions, but latency increases due to propagation and processing delays between components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the GPU, CPU, and NIC into a single integrated hardware module, allowing video rendering, encoding, and network transmission to occur within the same physical component without data copying between separate hardware components. This eliminates the propagation delays and processing overhead associated with inter-component communication in traditional separate-hardware architectures.
2Productivity
If video data is copied between host memory and hardware components during processing, then the system can access and manipulate video data, but computation time and memory bandwidth demands increase
Solution Approach 1:
By integrating the GPU, CPU, and NIC into a single hardware module with shared memory space, the patent eliminates the need to copy video data between host memory and separate hardware components. The integrated architecture allows all processing operations to access video data directly from the integrated memory, significantly reducing computation time and memory bandwidth consumption.
3Productivity
If multiple hardware components are used for video processing, then the system can distribute workloads across components, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the GPU, CPU, and NIC into a single integrated hardware module, simplifying the overall system architecture by reducing the number of discrete components and their interconnections. This integration maintains the functional capabilities of rendering, encoding, and transmission while reducing hardware complexity and the number of data transfer interfaces required.
Data Source
AI summary
A system disclosed within this document is capable of improving performance in virtual computing environments, e.g., by reducing latency associated with streaming video data between a client device and an associated server system over a network. As discussed in detail below, such performance improvements can be achieved using techniques that avoid, reduce and/or overlap operations that are executed by the server system in order to render, encode, and/or transmit video data to a client device over a network. Such techniques can be used to reduce propagation and/or processing delays imposed by, for example, the server system's CPU operations, input/output (I/O), infrastructure, NIC, OS processes, among other types of hardware and software-based overheads. In various implementations, the performance enhancements can be realized at the rendering, encoding, or transmission operations performed by the server system.