JP2017162165A - Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To appropriately process power control requests from a plurality of guest OSs operating in a virtual environment.SOLUTION: An information processing apparatus of an embodiment is an information processing apparatus causing a plurality of guest OSs to operate in a virtual environment and comprising: a virtualization part that controls the operation of the plurality of guest OSs in the virtual environment and holds allocation information indicating allocation of hardware of the information processing apparatus to the guest OSs; and a BIOS part that creates a plurality of ACPI tables on the basis of the allocation information. The virtualization part causes the ACPI tables created on the basis of the allocation information to correspond to the respective plurality of guest OSs.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program.

  In a recent general PC, a multi-core system having a plurality of CPU cores is used. In order to use these multiple CPUs efficiently, correspondence with applications and OSs has been advanced. As one of the technologies, a technology called HW (Hardware) virtualization (such as VMware (registered trademark) and VirtualBox (registered trademark)) has been generalized. In particular, this technology is actively used in data centers where a large number of server PCs operate. Advantages of the HW virtualization technology include reducing the number of physical units by consolidating a plurality of OSs into one PC, reducing installation costs, power, and maintenance costs.

  Patent Document 1 discloses a method and apparatus for bidirectional communication between a VMM (Virtual Machine Manager) and an ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) compliant guest operating system (OS), and a competition on the system. A configuration using a dedicated VM for managing the server is disclosed.

  In addition, there is a movement to apply hypervisor-type HW virtualization to embedded devices. For embedded devices such as TrustONIC (registered trademark) and Open Kernel Lab, etc., the impact on important performance is reduced as much as possible and ROM / RAM size is reduced. Techniques for realizing reductions are already known.

  However, the above-mentioned technology for embedded devices is specialized for ARM-based CPUs, and there is a problem that x86, which has recently been focused on smartphones and embedded devices, does not operate in the first place. As a problem specific to x86, software called BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) exists between the hypervisor and the hardware. This BIOS has functions for performing basic hardware initialization and power control. The power control is realized by a standard called ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface). When performing control via the BIOS using ACPI for the hardware managed by each guest OS, the BIOS cannot recognize that multiple OSs exist. There is a problem that power supply control conflict occurs.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and provides an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program capable of appropriately processing power control requests from a plurality of guest OSes operating in a virtual environment. For the purpose.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, the present invention is an information processing apparatus that operates a plurality of guest OSs (Operating Systems) on a virtual environment, and is provided on the virtual environment of the plurality of guest OSs. A virtualization unit that controls operation and holds allocation information indicating hardware allocation of the information processing apparatus to the guest OS, and creates a plurality of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables based on the allocation information A BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) unit, and the virtualization unit associates an ACPI table created based on the allocation information with each of the plurality of guest OSes.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to appropriately process power control requests from a plurality of guest OSes operating in a virtual environment.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an ACPI table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of starting a plurality of guest OSs according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example when the power supply control according to the first embodiment competes. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the second embodiment.

  First, the HW virtualization technology will be described. There are two types of HW virtualization technology, called host OS type (host type) and hypervisor type (bare metal type).

  The host OS type (host type) is a method often used in PCs and server devices. In the host OS type, host type virtualization software is installed on an already installed OS (such as Windows (registered trademark) and Linux (registered trademark)), and then a virtual machine (VM: Virtual Machine) is started up. This is a HW virtualization technology that installs and operates another virtual OS (hereinafter referred to as a guest OS). As a feature of the host OS type, since the OS is already operating, there is an advantage that it can be easily started and checked. On the other hand, the host OS type always requires the host OS, and there is a problem that the performance of the guest OS is difficult to be obtained due to resources for operating the host OS, delay of the host OS, and the like.

  The hypervisor type (bare metal type) is a system in which software called a hypervisor (Virtual Machine Monitor: VMM) is arranged directly on hardware, and a virtual machine is operated directly from the hypervisor. As a feature of the hypervisor type, there is a point that there is little influence on the performance of the guest OS because the OS is unnecessary. Also, each guest OS can directly control the hardware assigned to each guest OS.

  Exemplary embodiments of an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(First embodiment)
First, an example of the hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described.

[Hardware configuration of information processing device]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment. An information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment includes a CPU 1, a CPU 2, a memory 3, a flash ROM 4, a USB controller 5, an LCD controller 6, and a network controller 7.

  The CPUs 1 and 2 are control devices that control the operation of the information processing apparatus 100. The CPUs 1 and 2 have a function for supporting MMU (Memory Management Unit) and virtualization. The function that supports virtualization is a function that supports, for example, memory virtualization and IO virtualization. In the description of the first embodiment, the case of two CPUs will be described for simplicity, but the number of CPUs is not limited to two and may be arbitrary.

  The memory 3 is a general volatile memory such as DDR2 and DDR3. The flash ROM 4 is a flash memory device such as a NOR type and a NAND type. The flash ROM 4 is a non-volatile memory that stores information on programs and user data.

  The USB controller 5 is a controller for controlling a USB memory or the like. The LCD controller 6 is a controller for controlling the LCD that displays characters and images. The network controller 7 is a controller for communicating with other devices.

[Software configuration of information processing device]
Next, an example of the software configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment. The information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment includes a BIOS unit 20, a communication unit 25, a virtualization unit 30, a first guest OS 40, and a second guest OS 50. In the description of the first embodiment, a case where there are two guest OSs will be described for simplicity, but the number of guest OSs is not limited to two and may be arbitrary.

  The BIOS unit 20 controls a BIOS function that performs the lowest level input / output with the hardware of the information processing apparatus 100. A program for realizing the BIOS unit 20 is stored in the flash ROM 4 described above. The BIOS unit 20 holds a plurality of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables 21. The ACPI table 21 includes information on power management and hardware.

  First, the BIOS unit 20 creates one ACPI table on the memory 3 when the BIOS unit 20 is activated, as in the conventional case. Next, the BIOS unit 20 generates an ACPI table 21 referred to by the first guest OS 40 on the memory 3 based on allocation information 31 described later when the first guest OS 40 is started. Next, the BIOS unit 20 generates the ACPI table 21 referred to by the second guest OS 50 on the memory 3 based on the allocation information 31 described later when the second guest OS 50 is started. Details of the ACPI table 21 will be described later with reference to FIG.

  The communication unit 25 transmits and receives information between the BIOS unit 20 and the virtualization unit 30. For example, the communication unit 25 transmits allocation information 31 (described later) to the BIOS unit 20 and receives the addresses of the plurality of ACPI tables 21 from the BIOS unit 20. The communication unit 25 is realized by an API (Application Programming Interface) that enables communication between the BIOS unit 20 and the virtualization unit 30.

  The virtualization unit 30 performs control for operating the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50 on the virtual environment.

  The virtualization unit 30 of the first embodiment is realized by a hypervisor called VMM. That is, the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment uses a hypervisor type HW virtualization technology that causes the virtualization unit 30 to operate directly on the hardware in FIG. 1 described above. Then, the virtualization unit 30 operates the virtual machine, thereby operating the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50 on the virtual machine.

  The virtualization unit 30 holds allocation information 31. The allocation information 31 is information indicating hardware allocation to the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50 operating in the information processing apparatus 100.

  Table 1 is a table showing an example of the allocation information 31 of the first embodiment.

  The allocation information 31 of the first embodiment includes hardware, allocation targets, and attributes. The CPUs 1 and 2, the memory 3 and the flash ROM 4 are assigned to the virtualization unit 30 as basic devices. The basic device is controlled by the virtualization unit 30, but can also be accessed from the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50. That is, the basic device is shared hardware shared by a plurality of guest OSs.

  On the other hand, the network controller 7 and the USB controller 5 are allocated to the first guest OS 40 as dedicated devices. The network controller 7 and the USB controller 5 cannot be accessed from the second guest OS 50. That is, the network controller 7 and the USB controller 5 are dedicated hardware for the first guest OS 40.

  The LCD controller 6 is assigned to the second guest OS 50 as a dedicated device. The LCD controller 6 cannot be accessed from the first guest OS 40. That is, the LCD controller 6 is dedicated hardware for the second guest OS 50.

  The first guest OS 40 is an OS that operates in a virtual environment on the virtualization unit 30. The first guest OS 40 includes an ACPI driver 41. The ACPI driver 41 is a software module having a system power management function and an interpreter. The interpreter of the ACPI driver 41 executes an AML (ACPI Machine Language) (described later) existing on the ACPI table 21 while sequentially interpreting it.

  The description of the second guest OS 50 and the ACPI driver 51 is the same as the description of the first guest OS 40 and the ACPI driver 41, and will be omitted.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the ACPI table 21 according to the first embodiment. ACPI table 21, RSDP (Root system Description Pointer) 201, XSDT (eXtended System Description Table) 202, FACP (Fixed ACPI Description Table) 203, DSDT (Differentiated System Description Table) 204 and,, SSDT (Secondary System Description Table) 205. RSDP201, XSDT202, FACP203, DSDT204, and SSDT205 are structures.

  The RSDP 201 includes a pointer to a structure called an RSDT (Root System Description Table), a pointer to the XSDT 202, and the like.

  The RSDP 201 includes pointers to various tables, and the XSDT 202 is a structure that associates the RSDT with a 64-bit memory space. Here, XSDT 202 will be described as an example.

  The XSDT 202 includes entries (pointers) to various tables. Here, three important structures (FACP203, DSDT204, and SSDT205) will be described.

  The FACP 203 includes register information to the hardware related to ACPI, exclusive control with the BIOS called FACS (Firmware ACPI Control Structure), information on the memory location used for exchange with the BIOS at the time of suspend resume, etc. including. The FACP 203 also holds a pointer to the DSDT 204.

  The DSDT 204 describes information related to hardware mainly described in an intermediate language called AML (ACPI Machine Language). The OS interprets this information delivered from the BIOS by an interpreter in the ACPI driver and executes it.

  The SSDT 205 is used as a supplement to the DSDT 204.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the virtualization unit 30 addresses the ACPI table 21 created based on the allocation information 31 for each of the plurality of guest OSs (the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50). To provide a dedicated ACPI table 21 to each of a plurality of guest OSes. Note that the addresses of the ACPI table 21 are determined, and a plurality of guest OSs (the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50) access the ACPI table 21 using predetermined addresses. Therefore, specifically, the virtualization unit 30 does not need to modify the source code of the first guest OS 40 (second guest OS 50) according to the connection-source guest OS of the ACPI table 21. The address of the ACPI table 21 created based on the allocation information 31 is made to correspond to each guest OS by performing address conversion of a predetermined address.

[Information processing method]
Next, the information processing method of the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a method of starting a plurality of guest OSs (first guest OS 40 and second guest OS 50) according to the first embodiment. First, the BIOS unit 20 is activated by pressing the power button on the casing of the information processing apparatus 100 and resetting the CPU 1 (2) (step S1).

  Next, the BIOS unit 20 creates the ACPI table 21 on the memory 3 (step S2). Next, the BIOS unit 20 activates the virtualization unit 30 (step S3). Next, the virtualization unit 30 notifies the BIOS unit 20 of the allocation information 31 by transmitting the allocation information 31 to the BIOS unit 20 via the communication unit 25 (step S4).

  Next, the BIOS unit 20 creates the ACPI table 21 based on the allocation information 31 notified by the process of step S4 (step S5). Specifically, the BIOS unit 20 generates the ACPI table 21 referred to by the first guest OS 40 and the ACPI table 21 referred to by the second guest OS 50 on the memory 3 based on the allocation information 31. To do.

  The ACPI table 21 referred to by the first guest OS 40 includes information regarding power management of the USB controller 5 and the network controller 7. The ACPI table 21 referred to by the second guest OS 50 includes information related to power management of the LCD controller 6.

  Next, the BIOS unit 20 notifies the virtualization unit 30 of the addresses by transmitting the addresses of the two ACPI tables created by the process of step S5 to the virtualization unit 30 via the communication unit 25. (Step S6). Next, the virtualization unit 30 activates a plurality of guest OSs (first guest OS 40 and second guest OS 50) (step S7).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example when the power supply control according to the first embodiment competes. The example of FIG. 5 illustrates a case where the first guest OS 40 transmits an energy saving transition request to the virtualization unit 30. The energy saving transition request is an example of a power control request that requests control of the power state of the hardware of the information processing apparatus 100 (see FIG. 1). The energy saving transition request described in the example of FIG. 5 is a request for shifting the power state of the information processing apparatus 100 to the S3 state defined by the ACPI standard. The S3 state is called Suspend to RAM. In Suspend to RAM, the memory 3 is held in the self-refresh state, but the hardware register information is lost.

  Conventionally, the energy saving transition request is not individually notified to the virtualization unit 30 from each guest OS. In the information processing apparatus 100 of the first embodiment, a dedicated ACPI table 21 is secured for each guest OS. For this reason, the virtualization unit 30 can individually process the energy saving transition request received from each guest OS. However, for example, when the virtualization unit 30 receives an energy saving transition request from the first guest OS 40, shared hardware (here, the memory 3) shared by the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50 as they are. If the energy saving state is set, the operation of the second guest OS 50 is affected. Therefore, when the virtualization unit 30 receives an energy saving request from the first guest OS 40, the virtualization unit 30 performs power control according to the state of the second guest OS 50.

  First, the virtualization unit 30 receives an energy saving transition request from the first guest OS 40 (step S11).

  Next, the BIOS unit 20 performs an energy saving transition process for dedicated hardware that affects only the first guest OS 40 (step S12). Specifically, in the example of the ACPI table 21 created based on the allocation information 31 (see Table 1) of the first embodiment, the BIOS unit 20 saves energy by reducing the power consumption of the USB controller 5 and the network controller 7. Perform migration process.

  Next, the BIOS unit 20 determines whether or not the second guest OS 50 has already shifted to energy saving (S3 state) (step S13). When the second guest OS 50 has already shifted to the energy saving state (S3 state) (Yes in step S13), the BIOS unit 20 determines that the entire information processing apparatus 100 system can shift to the energy saving state of the S3 state. Then, the memory 3 that is the shared hardware is set in a self-refresh state (step S14).

  When the second guest OS 50 has not been transferred to the energy saving (S3 state) (No at Step S13), the energy saving transfer process according to the energy saving transfer request received at Step S11 ends.

  As described above, in the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment, the virtualization unit 30 controls the operation of the plurality of guest OSs (the first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50) on the virtual environment. The allocation information 31 indicating the hardware allocation of the information processing apparatus 100 to the guest OS is held. The BIOS unit 20 creates a plurality of ACPI tables 21 based on the allocation information 31. Then, the virtualization unit 30 associates the ACPI table 21 created based on the allocation information 31 with each of the plurality of guest OSs.

  Thus, according to the information processing apparatus 100 of the first embodiment, it is possible to appropriately process power control requests from a plurality of guest OSs operating in a virtual environment without modifying the source code of the guest OS. For example, when an energy saving transition request is requested from one guest OS, power control for shared hardware shared by a plurality of guest OSs is not affected to other guest OSs operating on the information processing apparatus 100. Can be handled properly.

  In addition, according to the information processing apparatus 100 of the first embodiment, the consumption of the memory 3 and the flash ROM 4 necessary for appropriately performing hardware power control in a state where a plurality of guest OSs are running is reduced. It can be less than the control method.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment will be described. In the description of the second embodiment, the description similar to that of the first embodiment is omitted, and only points different from the first embodiment will be described. In the description of the second embodiment, the host OS type (host type) HW virtualization technology is used for the information processing apparatus 100, which is different from the case of the first embodiment.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a software configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the second embodiment. The information processing apparatus 100 according to the second embodiment includes a BIOS unit 20, a communication unit 25, a virtualization unit 30, a first guest OS 40, a second guest OS 50, a host OS 60, an application 70a, and an application 70b. In the description of the second embodiment, the case where there are two guest OSs will be described for the sake of simplicity, but the number of guest OSs is not limited to two and may be arbitrary.

  The BIOS unit 20 holds a plurality of ACPI tables 21. The virtualization unit 30 holds allocation information 31. The first guest OS 40 includes an ACPI driver 41. The second guest OS 50 includes an ACPI driver 51.

  Unlike the case of the first embodiment, the virtualization unit 30 of the second embodiment is realized by host-type virtualization software that operates on the host OS 60. The type of host OS 60 may be arbitrary. The first guest OS 40 and the second guest OS 50 operate as virtual machines controlled by the virtualization unit 30 that operates on the host OS 60. The BIOS unit 20 and the virtualization unit 30 transmit and receive information (such as the allocation information 31 and the address of the ACPI table 21) through the communication unit 25, as in the case of the first embodiment.

  The applications 70a and 70b are arbitrary applications that operate on the host OS 60. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the virtualization unit 30 according to the second embodiment operates on the host OS 60 in the same manner as the applications 70a and 70b.

  As described above, in the information processing apparatus 100 according to the second embodiment, the virtualization unit 30 is realized by host-type virtualization software, but the information processing apparatus 100 according to the second embodiment also includes the first embodiment. The same effect as in the case of can be obtained.

  The program executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first and second embodiments is an installable or executable file, such as a CD-ROM, a memory card, a CD-R, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk), or the like. Stored in a computer-readable storage medium and provided as a computer program product.

  The program executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first and second embodiments may be provided by being stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and downloaded via the network. . The program executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first and second embodiments may be provided via a network such as the Internet without being downloaded.

  In addition, the program executed by the information processing apparatus 100 according to the first and second embodiments may be provided by being incorporated in advance in a ROM or the like.

1 CPU
2 CPU
3 Memory 4 Flash ROM
5 USB controller 6 LCD controller 7 Network controller 20 BIOS unit 21 ACPI table 25 Communication unit 30 Virtualization unit 31 Allocation information 40 First guest OS
41 ACPI driver 50 Second guest OS
51 ACPI driver 60 Host OS
70 Application 100 Information processing apparatus 201 RSDP
202 XSDT
203 FACP
204 DSDT
205 SSDT

JP 2011-238272 A

Claims (9)

An information processing apparatus that operates a plurality of guest OSs (Operating Systems) in a virtual environment,
A virtualization unit that controls operations of the plurality of guest OSs in a virtual environment and holds allocation information indicating allocation of hardware of the information processing apparatus to the guest OSs;
A BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) unit for creating a plurality of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables based on the allocation information;
The virtualization unit associates an ACPI table created based on the allocation information with each of the plurality of guest OSes.
Information processing device. The virtual environment of the information processing apparatus is a hypervisor type,
The virtualization unit is a VMM (Virtual Machine Manager).
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The virtual environment of the information processing apparatus is a host OS type,
The virtualization unit is host type virtualization software,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1. The virtualization unit receives, from each of the plurality of guest OSs, a power control request for requesting control of a power state of hardware of the information processing apparatus;
The BIOS unit is used by the guest OS that has transmitted the power control request from the plurality of ACPI tables and is not used by another guest OS, and the guest that has transmitted the power control request The shared hardware used for the OS and at least one other guest OS is identified, the power status of the dedicated hardware is controlled based on the power control request, and the power status of the shared hardware is determined. , When the at least one other guest OS has already shifted to the same power state as that requested by the power control request, the power state of the shared hardware is controlled based on the power control request.
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The power supply state is a power supply state defined by the ACPI standard.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4. A communication unit that transmits the allocation information to the BIOS unit and receives addresses of the plurality of ACPI tables from the BIOS unit;
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: Each of the plurality of guest OSs accesses the ACPI table using a predetermined address,
The virtualization unit performs address conversion of the predetermined address according to a guest OS that is a connection source of the ACPI table, thereby converting the address of the ACPI table created based on the allocation information into the plurality of guest Correspond to each OS,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6. An information processing method of an information processing apparatus for operating a plurality of guest OSs (Operating Systems) in a virtual environment,
A step in which a virtualization unit controls operations of the plurality of guest OSs in a virtual environment;
A step in which a virtualization unit retains allocation information indicating hardware allocation of the information processing apparatus to the guest OS;
A step in which a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) unit creates a plurality of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables based on the allocation information;
A step of causing the virtualization unit to associate an ACPI table created based on the allocation information with respect to each of the plurality of guest OSes;
An information processing method including: An information processing apparatus that operates a plurality of guest OSes (Operating Systems) in a virtual environment,
A virtualization unit that controls operations of the plurality of guest OSs in a virtual environment and holds allocation information indicating allocation of hardware of the information processing apparatus to the guest OSs;
Based on the allocation information, it functions as a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) unit that creates a plurality of ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) tables.
The virtualization unit associates an ACPI table created based on the allocation information with each of the plurality of guest OSes.
program.

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