Patent ID: 8639812

Claim:
A computer management system comprising: a plurality of host computers, each one including a memory buffer and a host software program executing thereon; a user console having associated user interface devices including a keyboard, a cursor control device, and a video display unit; and a management device operatively connecting the user console to the plurality of host computers via a communications channel, wherein the management device manages keyboard control signals and cursor control signals transmitted from the user console to the plurality of host computers, buffers incoming video frames received from the plurality of host computers, permits selection of a selected one of the plurality of host computers, and permits simultaneous display of the incoming video frames from the plurality of host computers on the video display unit, the management device including a management software program executing thereon and a video processing unit including a video frame buffer memory; wherein the host software program and the management software program operate together to provide automatic generation of commands to transfer data from the selected one of the plurality of host computers to at least a second one of the plurality of host computers by monitoring a first memory buffer of the selected one of the plurality of host computers, and upon detecting the data being added to the first memory buffer, copying the data to a second memory buffer of the second one of the plurality of host computers; wherein the video processing unit is adapted to display on the video display unit windows controlled by each of the plurality of host computers while suppressing display of portions of video frames generated by respective ones of the plurality of host computers; and wherein the video processing unit is adapted to reduce total video bandwidth processed by the video processing unit by performing at least one of selectively reducing resolution of the chrominance and selectively cropping video data corresponding to portions of incoming video frames from one of the plurality of host computers when the portions of incoming video frames would be displayed behind video from other ones of the plurality of host computers.