Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.P.

Arad Rostampour

Larry N McMahan

Gary Belgrave Gostin

Mark Edward Shaw

Richard W Adkisson

Craig William Warner

Paul Bouchier

Michael Alex Schroeder

Dong Wei

Richard Dickert Powers

Huai-Ter Victor Chong

Thierry Fevrier

Joe Perry Cowan

Gregory William Thelen

David M Binford

Timothy J Evans

Wendy C Hamilton

Systems, devices, and methods, including program instructions, are provided for firmware filters and patches. One method embodiment includes executing extended firmware interface (EFI) program instructions during runtime to modify a firmware implementation underlying an interface and invoking the modified firmware implementation, while the original firmware code in non-volatile memory remains unmodified. A further embodiment includes adding a runtime service in an system abstraction layer (SAL) interface and adding a subordinate runtime service that describes a device not known to a firmware image on a system but useable by a particular operating system (OS).

Adding a runtime service for firmware-based images for a device not known to an operating system

A computing device having partitions, and a method of communicating between partitions, are disclosed wherein at least one partition comprises: at least one register substantially always accessible to other partitions and capable of defining an address area; at least one address area that may be accessible to other partitions and is capable of being defined by the at least one register; and address areas other than the at least one accessible address area that are not accessible to other partitions. A method of processing interrupts comprising receiving an interrupt, assessing the origin of the interrupt, accepting, rejecting, or further assessing the interrupt, depending on its origin, when further assessing the interrupt, accepting or rejecting the interrupt depending on its contents, and forwarding accepted interrupts but not rejected interrupts to a target processor, and a device carrying out that method are also disclosed.

Communication among partitioned devices

Block data access is provided for an operating system by allocating a portion of solid-state memory of a data processing arrangement for use as a block storage device. A block device interface is created that provides access to the portion of solid-state memory via firmware of the data processing arrangement. The block device interface emulates an electromechanical data-storage device. The block device interface is presented to the operating system at a boot-time of the operating system and the block device interface is accessed using a block device driver of the operating system during the boot-time of the operating system. The block device driver emulates the electromechanical data-storage device to the operating system.

Providing block data access for an operating system using solid-state memory

Systems, devices, and methods, including program instructions, are provided for migrating operating system images. One method embodiment includes performing a process on a first device. The operation of the process is paused as a persistent image which is then migrated to a second device.

Migration of system images

Embodiments of the present invention pertain to automatically selecting firmware instructions for an operating system. According to one embodiment, at least a part of a first subset of firmware instructions on a computer system is executed. An automatic determination of whether the first subset of firmware instructions supports an operating system the computer system will execute is made. If the first subset of firmware instructions does not support the operating system, a second subset of firmware instructions that does support the operating system is automatically caused to execute without requiring human intervention. A single firmware includes the first subset and the second subset of firmware instructions for different operating systems.

Automatically selecting firmware instructions for an operating system

Systems, methods, and devices are provided for embodiments of the present invention to describe a technique that provides an operation region and associated operation region handler to define a virtual device for extending the functionality of an existing operating system.

Operation region describing a virtual device

Hardware access is provided for an operating system by allocating a portion of firmware address space of a data processing arrangement for use as a virtualized data interface that emulates a first hardware device. The virtualized data interface is presented to the operating system. The operating system accesses the virtualized data interface using a standardized kernel component of the operating system adapted to interface with the first hardware device. Data is exchanged between the virtualized interface and a second hardware device based on accesses of the virtualized data interface by the operating system via the standardized kernel component.

Providing virtual device access via firmware

Information objects and system firmware for a processor in a partitionable computing system are disclosed. One object comprises information corresponding to components of the computer system. The information comprises entries defining an address and a size for registers normally accessible to other partitions. The registers are capable of defining an address area such that in use the processor is arranged to permit other partitions to access at least one address area defined by the at least one register and to deny other partitions access to address areas other than the at least one accessible address area.

A computer-implemented method is disclosed for use in a computer system. The method includes: (A) receiving an indication of a first hotplug event for a first operating system executing in the computer system; (B) identifying, among a plurality of hotplug handling methods, a first hotplug handling method associated with the first operating system; and (C) handling the first hotplug event using the first hotplug handling method.

Growing community of inventors

Fort Collins, CO, United States of America

Arad Rostampour