Methods and Apparatuses of Game Appliance Execution and Rendering Service

Abstract

The present invention presents methods and apparatuses of game appliance execution and rendering service wherein a game appliance system can start a game appliance for a client system and said client system can send input to the game appliance system via a network to control game play of the game appliance and in return receive media stream of the game appliance via a network. Said game appliance system comprising, at least one game appliance apparatus wherein said game appliance apparatus further comprises, at least one transceiver; at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, on-demand retrieve game appliance from at least one game appliance distribution system, and a plurality of control processing elements wherein each control processing element can be programmed to, execute a game appliance using emulation or virtualization; receive input from client system; capture graphics rendering command of the executed game appliance using virtual graphics driver; and transmit the captured graphics rendering command to at least one graphics rendering apparatus. Said game appliance system can further comprise, at least one graphics rendering apparatus wherein said graphics rendering apparatus can comprise, at least one transceiver wherein said transceiver connects said graphics rendering apparatus with one or a plurality of game appliance apparatuses; a plurality of graphics accelerators; and at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, receive graphics rendering command from at least one game appliance apparatus over network; schedule the received graphics rendering command to the graphics accelerators; direct the graphics accelerators to compress the rendered frame into compressed frame or video; transcode the rendered frames into streaming video; and stream said video over a network to client system.

1 . A game appliance apparatus which can offer game appliance execution service for at least one client system wherein a game appliance apparatus can start a game appliance for a client system and said client system can send input to the game appliance apparatus via network to control game play of the game appliance and in return receive media stream of the game appliance via a network, said game appliance apparatus comprising,
 at least one transceiver;   at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, on-demand retrieve game appliance from at least one game appliance distribution system or retrieve a game appliance from a local game appliance cache; and   a plurality of control processing elements wherein each control processing element can be programmed to, 1) execute a game appliance using emulation or virtualization; 2) receive input from at least one client system; 3) capture graphics rendering command of the executed game appliance using virtual graphics driver; and 4) transmit the captured graphics rendering command to at least one graphics rendering agent over virtual graphics bus.   
   
   
       2 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 1  further comprising at least one storage device wherein said storage device comprises cache of game appliance. 
   
   
       3 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 1  further comprising a game appliance fetching agent wherein a game appliance is split into a plurality of pieces and said game appliance fetching agent can retrieve a piece of a game appliance when said piece of the game appliance is required during execution of the game appliance by the game appliance apparatus. 
   
   
       4 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 1  further comprising at least one WiFi transceiver. 
   
   
       5 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 1  further comprising a plurality of game appliance execution units wherein said game appliance execution units are assigned to a plurality of control processing elements and said game appliance execution units can execute multiple game appliances in parallel. 
   
   
       6 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 1  further comprising, at least one graphics accelerator; and
 at least one graphics rendering agent wherein said graphics rendering agent is executed by at least one control processing element and said graphics rendering agent can schedule graphics rendering command to the graphics accelerator.   
   
   
       7 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 6  further comprising at least one compressor wherein said compressor is executed by the graphics accelerator and said compressor can compress rendered frame into compressed frame or video. 
   
   
       8 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 6  wherein the graphics accelerator further comprising,
 at least one graphics processing unit; and   at least one network interface coupled with said graphics processing unit.   
   
   
       9 . The game appliance apparatus in  claim 8  wherein the network interface further comprising at least one network processing engine. 
   
   
       10 . A graphics rendering apparatus which can offer 3D graphics rendering and frame compression service for at least one game appliance apparatus wherein a game appliance apparatus can send graphics rendering command to the graphics rendering apparatus over network, said graphics rendering apparatus comprising,
 at least one transceiver;   a plurality of graphics accelerators; and   at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, 1) receive graphics rendering command from at least one game appliance apparatus; 2) schedule graphics rendering command to the graphics accelerators; and 3) direct the graphics accelerators to compress the rendered frame,   whereby a game appliance apparatus can, execute a game appliance using emulation or virtualization; receive input from at least one client system; capture graphics rendering command of the executed game appliance using virtual graphics driver; and transmit the captured graphics rendering command to at least one graphics rendering apparatus.   
   
   
       11 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 10  wherein the graphics accelerator further comprising,
 at least one graphics processing unit; and   at least one network interface coupled with said graphics processing unit.   
   
   
       12 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 11  wherein the network interface further comprising at least one network processing engine. 
   
   
       13 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 11  wherein the graphics processing unit further comprising a plurality of MIMD engines wherein said MIMD engines are programmed to, render frame for game appliance or compress said rendered frame. 
   
   
       14 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 10  further comprising at least one graphics rendering agent wherein said graphics rendering agent can schedule graphics rendering commands of a plurality of game appliances to the graphics accelerators. 
   
   
       15 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 10  further comprising at least one WiFi transceiver. 
   
   
       16 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 10  further comprising at least one video transcoder wherein said video transcoder is executed by at least one control processing element and said video transcoder transcodes rendered frames into streaming video. 
   
   
       17 . The transcoder in  claim 16  further comprising at least one video encoding accelerator. 
   
   
       18 . The graphics rendering apparatus in  claim 16  further comprising at least one video streamer wherein said video streamer is executed by at least one control processing element and said video streamer can stream transcoded video stream over network to at least one client system. 
   
   
       19 . A game appliance system which can offer game appliance execution and rendering service for at least one client system wherein a game appliance system can start a game appliance for a client system and said client system can send input to the game appliance system via network to control game play of the game appliance and in return receive media stream of the game appliance via a network, said game appliance system comprising,
 at least one game appliance apparatus wherein said game appliance apparatus further comprising, 1) at least one transceiver; 2) at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, on-demand retrieve a game appliance from at least one game appliance distribution system or retrieve a game appliance from a local game appliance cache; and 3) a plurality of control processing elements wherein each control processing element can be programmed to, execute a game appliance using emulation or virtualization; receive input from client system; capture graphics rendering command of the executed game appliance using virtual graphics driver; and transmit the captured graphics rendering command to at least one graphics rendering apparatus; and   at least one graphics rendering apparatus wherein said graphics rendering apparatus further comprising, 1) at least one transceiver wherein said transceiver connects said graphics rendering apparatus with one or a plurality of game appliance apparatuses; 2) a plurality of graphics accelerators; and 3) at least one control processing element that can be programmed to, receive graphics rendering command from at least one game appliance apparatus; schedule the received graphics rendering command to the graphics accelerators; direct the graphics accelerators to compress the rendered frame; transcode the rendered frames into streaming video; and stream the transcoded video over network to at least one client system wherein said client system can, decode the video and display the decoded video.   
   
   
       20 . The game appliance system in  claim 19  wherein the graphics rendering apparatus further comprises a WiFi transceiver.