10237results about "Bootstrapping" patented technology

The present invention is a portable device that a computer can boot from, containing a prefabricated independent operating system environment which is engineered from the ground up to prioritize security while maximizing usability, in order to provide a safe, reliable and easy to use practical platform for high risk applications. An embodiment of the present invention may temporarily transform an ordinary computer into a naturally inexpensive logical appliance which encapsulates a turn-key functional solution within the digital equivalent of a military grade security fortress. This allows existing hardware to be conveniently leveraged to provide a self contained system which does not depend on the on-site labor of rare and expensive system integration and security experts.

A method for remote installation of a target operating system is carried out on a machine operating a source operating system. In one embodiment, it is presumed that the source operating system was booted from a first bootable region of a storage associated with the machine. According to the method, a copy of the source operating system together with the target operating system are delivered to the machine and stored in a second bootable region of the storage. The copy of the source operating system may be stored in a first partition of the second bootable region of the storage, and the target operating system may be stored in a second partition of the second bootable region. A boot loader is then configured to boot the copy of the source operating system from the second bootable region of the storage. The machine is then re-booted. At this point, the machine is still running the source operating system, although in this case that operating system was booted from the second bootable region of the storage. The original source operating system (from the first bootable region) is then removed, and the boot loader is re-configured to boot the target operating system from the second bootable region of the storage. The machine is then re-booted again, after which the target operating system is operational. In one embodiment, the first and second bootable regions may be separate hard disks, and the source and target operating systems are Linux and Windows, or vice versa.

A networked computer system has a plurality of servers and a plurality of distributed clients, which may be devices or computers. Each client has a boot operating system (OS). Upon startup, the boot OS in each client automatically initiates a connection to one of the servers via the Internet. The boot OS can detect the type of medium (e.g., cable modem, DSL) to which the client is connected. The server automatically downloads a base OS and dynamically configures a suite of applications on the client without running the standard installation programs. One included application is an Internet telephony application, allowing a user to plug a standard telephone into the client appliance or computer, pick up the telephone, and automatically dial out using long distance Internet telephony. Optionally, the server may download a plurality of operating systems that are automatically initiated to run concurrently on the client. The clients use a random access memory (RAM) caching technique. A first portion of each OS or application is downloaded at startup and maintained in the client RAM, containing the files needed to launch the OS or application. If the client processes a request for an OS or application program file not in the client's RAM, the requested file is automatically downloaded from the server.

A computer architecture includes a first operating system (COS), which may be a commodity operating system, and a kernel, which acts as a second operating system. The COS is used to boot the system as a whole. After booting, the kernel is loaded and displaces the COS from the system level, meaning that the kernel itself directly accesses predetermined physical resources of the computer. All requests for use of system resources then pass via the kernel. System resources are divided into those that, in order to maximize speed, are controlled exclusively by the kernel, those that the kernel allows the COS to handle exclusively, and those for which control is shared by the kernel and COS. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, at least one virtual machine (VM) runs via a virtual machine monitor, which is installed to run on the kernel. Each VM, the COS, and even each processor in a multiprocessor embodiment, are treated as separately schedulable entities that are scheduled by the kernel. Mechanisms for high-speed I/O between VM's and I/O devices are also included.

The present invention is related to memory management, and in particular, to methods and systems for accessing and managing nonvolatile, such as in a wireless phone. A wireless phone memory controller is disclosed that, comprises a first interface circuit configured to be coupled to wireless phone nonvolatile memory, a second interface circuit configured to be coupled to wireless phone volatile memory, a first processor interface configured to be coupled to a first wireless phone processor, wherein the first processor interface is configured to provide the first processor with access to the wireless phone volatile memory, a second processor interface configured to be coupled to a second wireless phone processor, and a controller circuit configured to copy at least a portion of wireless phone nonvolatile memory data to the wireless phone volatile memory.

A memory device includes two dies. A first memory is fabricated on one die. A controller of the first memory is fabricated on the other die. Also fabricated on the other die is another component, such as a second memory, that communicates with a host system using a plurality of signals different from the signals used by the first memory. The device includes a single interface for communicating with the host system using only the respective signals of the second component. In a most preferred embodiment, the first memory is a NAND flash memory and the second memory is a SDRAM.

Systems and methods are provided for accelerated loading of operating system and application programs upon system boot or application launch. In one aspect, a method for providing accelerated loading of an operating system includes maintaining a list of boot data used for booting a computer system, preloading the boot data upon initialization of the computer system, and servicing requests for boot data from the computer system using the preloaded boot data. The boot data may comprise program code associated with an operating system of the computer system, an application program, and a combination thereof. The boot data is retrieved from a boot device and stored in a cache memory device. The boot data is stored in a compressed format on the boot device and the preloaded boot data is decompressed prior to transmitting the preloaded boot data to the requesting system.

A system for interfacing with a co-processor or input/output device is disclosed. According to one embodiment, the system includes a computer processing unit, a memory module, a memory bus that connects the computer processing unit and the memory module, and a co-processing unit or input/output device, wherein the memory bus also connects the co-processing unit or input/output device to the computer processing unit.

A system for remote loading of objects or files in order to update software includes operating system architecture that calls for different tasks to be broken down into software modules that are connected to one another by dynamic links or are composed of executable subroutines that have main dependence links to other parts of the operating system. Each of the modules is composed of object files or libraries that are represented by dynamic link libraries among themselves according to a number of dependence levels that are described in their respective attributes.

Methods and systems for updating operating systems are disclosed. A computer includes a disk drive that stores an operating system to be updated. The computer creates a backup image of a first partition of the disk drive, then deletes the first partition to create free space on the disk drive. The computer also places an image of a maintenance operating system into the free space, wherein the maintenance operating system is operable to manage an operating system update. Thereafter, the computer updates the stored operating system under control of the maintenance operating system.

A system and a method to manage a data center, the method including, for example, retrieving a physical topology of a service; determining from the physical topology a concrete type of a resource for the service; and selecting an actual instance of the resource in the data center. The actual instance having the concrete type and the actual instance selected such that a consumption of the actual instance does not violate at least one of a constraint and a policy.

The present invention may be embodied in a method, performed in a computer system having a disk drive, for installing an application program for execution under a user's preferred operating system without requiring user intervention. A command is received by the disk drive for reading a first data block to initiate a bootload of the user's preferred operating system. The disk drive detects the command and transfers a second data block which bootloads an installer program for installing the application program. The installer program is executed in the computer system to transfer the application program from a protected area of the disk drive to a user area of the disk drive, to modify a parameter of the user's preferred operating system to cause the application program to be loaded during a bootload of the user's preferred operating system, and to reboot the system to bootload the user's preferred operating system.

An embodiment of the present invention comprises a method of updating firmware of a peripheral device coupled to a computer system. A first boot operation is executed for loading an operating system into the computer system, and an update routine is installed for loading updated firmware into the peripheral device. The operating system is modified so that the update routine is executed early during a second boot operation for loading the operating system into the computer system. The second boot operation is executed, during which the update routine is executed to load the updated firmware into the peripheral device. In one embodiment, the update routine comprises an update driver having a DriverEntry code segment for loading the updated firmware into the peripheral device.

A method and apparatus for protecting a computer system. Specifically, a method and system for validating portions of memory at each power-on cycle is described. A Boot Block is used to validate the BIOS, CMOS and NVRAM of a system. The BIOS may also be used to validate the Boot Block, CMOS and NVRAM.

A system, method and apparatus dedicated to accessing certain aspects of the Internet. The system includes a hardware device having a display and firmware associated with the display. The firmware includes a web browser and an operating system, configured to automatically connect to a datacenter server using the web browser, and to receive a frameset template from the datacenter, the frameset including frames, wherein each frame includes a preset content locator, upon boot of the operating system. The data center server may have preconfigured framesets with assigned content locators, and be configured to transmit one or more of the framesets to the device. Each frame may include content from transmitted from a different internet server upon boot of the operating system.

Physical (or prior virtual) machine volumes can be converted to virtual machines at a virtual machine host while the physical machines are running. In one implementation, a volume shadow copy service can be used to create an application (and/or file system)-consistent snapshot of one or more physical machine volumes while the one or more volumes are running. The snapshot data can then be transferred to a mounted virtual hard disk file (dynamic or fixed) at a virtual machine host. Operational information (e.g., boot record, system registry, drivers, devices, configuration preferences, etc.) associated with the virtual hard disk file and the operating system(s) within the virtual machine can then be modified as appropriate to ensure that the corresponding virtual machine is bootable and functional at the virtual machine host. The virtual hard disk file can then be un-mounted, and used as a new virtual machine.

Disclosed is a system and method that uses digital signature technology to authenticate the contents of one or more manifests located on a storage device. Each manifest contains a list of file records, where each record contains the name of a file stored on the storage device, and a signature value derived from the contents of the file. At boot time, the gaming machine first authenticates the contents of the manifest and then authenticates the contents of the files using the signature value stored in the manifest. Files are verified using the signature, as they are needed, during the boot up of the operating system and throughout normal operation. This method reduces the boot time of the gaming machine and eliminates the need to check digital signatures for each individual file or over the entire contents of a non-secure media. Similarly, a method of adding authentication ability to legacy software components without necessarily altering the legacy software components is disclosed. Introduction of a stronger authentication algorithm, or when a private key has been compromised would normally require the software component to be re-built to support the new algorithm or private/public key pair; however, a method is disclosed where algorithms and key pairs may be changed and applied to legacy software without having to re-built, re-test, re-sign, or re-submit the component to regulatory agencies for approval. Also disclosed is a system and method of establishing a trusted environment containing a gaming operating system and associated authentication module, file system drivers, and/or network drivers that may be used to in the process of authenticating contents of one or more manifests located on a storage device.

The invention in the simplest form is a self-booting software defined radio (SDR) module which may be embodied as a PCMCIA, Compact Flash, or other plug in form factor module. The performance characteristics of the module, may include the radio frequency (RF) carrier frequency, instantaneous RF bandwidth, carrier modulation and demodulation, symbol coding and decoding, security, and network protocol that can be altered and saved by means of computer software transferred to the module from a host device such as a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant, lap top computer or other programming device

A computer network connects a personal computer system to a content delivery system for delivering digital content to the personal computer. The personal computer comprises a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery system and a server-contacting program. The disk drive comprises firmware installed during manufacturing of the drive which initiates execution of the server-contacting program to enable the network connection and facilitate delivery of content to a large number of personal computers.

Disclosed herein is an electronic device network including a plurality of electronic devices. The electronic devices may each have updating software adapted to update firmware/software resident in the electronic devices. The electronic devices may also employ additional software for updating the updating software in the electronic devices. The electronic devices may also have software adapted to determine whether a current version of the updating software is to be invoked or whether a previous backup version of the updating software is to be invoked. The determination may be made based upon status information resident in a update status indicator. The status information may indicate that an update upon the updating software is to be conducted, rather than a normal startup operation without performing any updates. The network may also include an update generator adapted to generate updates for use in updating the updating software in the electronic devices.