Intel Corporation

Edward R Rhoads

James P Ketrenos

Charles R Lynch

A distributed file system intelligently allocates portions of a file system from a server to one or more clients on a network. File system data used during power-on of a client may be stored on the client. A retrieval of the file system may subsequently be made to the extent the client has capacity to store the file system. A multicast operation, performed as a background operation on the client, may be used to retrieve the file system. For portions of the file system not allocated to the client, the client may still access the file system from the server. Network bandwidth may thus be reduced and client access to the file system may generally be more efficient.

Distributed file system including multicast retrieval

File data for an operating system may be stored in a compressed format in a re-programmable semiconductor memory. The memory may be provided with a header and data for one or more file systems all stored in a compressed format. A device driver also stored in the memory may be utilized to decompress the data and to convert it to a format suitable for a particular file system or operating system.

Accessing file data stored in non-volatile re-programmable semiconductor memories

A plurality of partitions may be formed in a non-volatile re-programmable memory which may act as the primary non-volatile file system for a processor-based system. The memory may store, for example, the basic input/output system for the processor-based system together with its operating system. An address partition may include information about the location of the other partitions, in association with information about the type of information stored in each partition.

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Sherwood, OR, United States of America

Edward R Rhoads