Patent · US Expired

Method for fast reinitialization wherein a saved system image of an operating system is transferred into a primary memory from a secondary memory

US6807630B2 · kind B2 · utility

180Cited by
10References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateDec 15, 2000
Grant dateOct 19, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 3, 2022

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/4418
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

The invention relates to a computer in which an image of the operating system is maintained in a secondary memory. This memory is either powered from a source independent of the main memory, or is non-volatile in nature. When the computer is reinitialized, the loader software that normally builds the operating system from components instead checks the secondary memory for the presence of an operating system image. If such an image is detected, the loader transfers the image from the secondary memory to the primary memory and transfers control of the computing system to the image of the operating system now in the primary memory. If no image is detected, the loader operates in a standard fashion. Additionally, a complete system image may be stored in the secondary memory. This would include the contents of the primary memory, the contents of the virtual memory, and the system state. As such, a preexisting version of an operational computing system may be directly loaded at boot time.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.