Patent ID: 7429990

Claim:
A mechanism for use in a host system having a video subsystem, comprising: a program to implement a video capture sequence of operations; and a bus controller controlled by said program, to track events on a bus of the host system, including operations of said video subsystem of the host system, and to execute said video capture sequence of operations initiated by said program to capture a screen image provided by said video subsystem of the host system for transmission to a remote system, via a communication link, for remote viewing and remote system management, wherein said video subsystem of the host system includes a video memory to retain graphics or character information for display, video registers including graphics indexes and system latches, and a graphics controller to control a visual display of said screen image, and wherein said bus corresponds to a Peripheral Component Interface (PCI) bus, and wherein said bus controller includes a PCI bus interface arranged to provide an interface to the PCI bus; an internal bus interface arranged to provide an interface to an internal bus; a data buffer unit arranged to transport video data between the PCI bus interface and the internal bus interface; Programable Snoop Engines (PSEs) programmed to snoop all input/output (I/O) cycles passing through the PCI bus to sense a video mode transition in the video subsystem between text and graphics modes; and a Video Capture Hardware Assist Machine (HWAM) arranged to execute said video capture sequence of operations to capture said screen image of the host system for transmission to the remote network over said communication link.