Patent · US Active

Reducing power-on time by simulating operating system memory hot add

US7987336B2 · kind B2 · utility

5Cited by
0References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 14, 2008
Grant dateJul 26, 2011
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 3, 2029

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F9/4406
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

This invention generally provides a method for speeding up system boot time, by initializing a subset of memory during the system firmware test/initialization, and allowing the system to boot an operating system with this subset of installed memory. While the system is completing the operating system boot with the subset of installed memory, a remainder of the installed system memory is being initialized/tested. When the initialization the remainder of system memory is completed (and after the OS has booted), the SMI handler is invoked. The SMI handler then simulates a physical memory “Hot Add” event, and reports the event to the OS. This allows much of the memory initialization/test activity to occur in parallel with the firmware initialization/test and operating system startup processes.

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