Nadeem Ahmad Quraishi

Steven G LeMay

Gregory A Schlottmann

Warner R Cockerille, Iv

Xuedong Chen

Rex Yinzok Lam

Bryan D Wolf

Robert Leland Pickering

Venkata Dhananjaya Kuna

Sangshetty Patil

Gaming machines and systems having a universal interface layer linking a gaming platform to a hardware platform are disclosed. In particular, the universal interface layer is configured such that the gaming platform is hardware platform independent and such that the hardware platform is gaming platform independent. Platform independence can facilitate the interchangeability of one platform without a corresponding need to modify the other platform. The gaming platform can include various gaming modules and an operating system, while the universal interface layer can include firmware, various additional gaming modules, hardware specific drivers and various APIs to facilitate communication between the gaming platform and other universal interface layer components. A safe storage manager can be included to utilize a non-volatile storage component to store data regarding a gaming machine state, with the state being recoverable after a substantial interruption to the machine.

Universal operating system to hardware platform interface for gaming machines

A disclosed gaming machine is coupled to a plurality of 'USB gaming peripherals.' The USB gaming peripherals, which may include one or more peripheral devices, communicate with a master gaming controller using a USB communication architecture. As part of the USB communication architecture, a USB device class manager may configure a USB device interface. The USB device interface may comprise a plurality of USB drivers where the USB device drivers are used to provide interfaces that are compatible with the gaming operating system such that processes in the gaming operating system may use USB communications to communicate with the plurality of USB gaming peripherals. Further, the USB device class manager may authorize the connection of each USB gaming peripheral to the USB device interface. In addition, the USB device class manager may be capable of downloading firmware to the USB gaming peripherals.

USB software architecture in a gaming machine

Gaming machines and systems having MRAM and MROM are disclosed. MROMs for storing boot programs and other Read Only code are formed by cutting write connections or not providing PCB socket leads to MRAM write pins, or by using memory hubs to prevent writing to MRAMs. A tale-tale board or other logging device monitoring activities at various components while primary machine power is down records to MRAM, which can be dual ported to the logging device and MGC. Various components can each have dedicated logging devices and MRAMs. One MRAM associated with the brain box replaces both DRAM and NVRAM of regular machine architectures, and is used for dual purposes of regular operational use and as safe storage to facilitate a state recovery. Prioritization of data during the storage process is rendered unnecessary. Another MRAM associated with the back plane board stores data associated with the exterior housing or terminal.

Magnetoresistive memory units as read only memory devices in gaming machines

A disclosed gaming machine is coupled to a plurality of 'USB gaming peripherals.' The USB gaming peripherals, which may include one or more peripheral devices, communicate with a master gaming controller using a USB communication architecture. The USB gaming peripherals may include USB DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade)-compatible peripheral devices. One or more host processes, such as a USB device class manager or a DFU driver, may be capable of downloading firmware to the USB DFU-compatible peripheral device. The host processes may receive a firmware identifier from the USB DFU-compatible peripheral device where the firmware identifier allows for two USB DFU-compatible peripheral devices with identical product identification information to be downloaded different firmware.

Download procedures for peripheral devices

A disclosed gaming machine is coupled to a plurality of 'USB gaming peripherals.' The USB gaming peripherals, which may include one or more peripheral devices, communicate with a master gaming controller using a USB communication architecture. The USB communication architecture may include a vendor-specific class protocol. The USB vendor-specific class protocol may comprise: 1) a base protocol for defining message handling relating to peripheral device functionality common to a plurality of peripheral devices; and 2) one or more feature-specific protocol extensions for defining message handling specific to a USB feature where each feature-specific protocol extension defines feature-specific messages. The base protocol may be designed such that when one of the feature-specific messages is modified, the base protocol does not change.

Protocols and standards for USB peripheral communications

A disclosed gaming machine has a plurality of 'gaming peripherals,' each communicating with a master gaming controller via a standard peripheral interface such as the USB (Universal Serial Bus).). For USB compatible communications, characteristics of a USB gaming peripheral class are defined. The USB gaming peripheral class allows features of a USB gaming peripheral in the USB gaming peripheral class to be controlled by a USB host in a manner compatible with USB.

Growing community of inventors

Reno, NV, United States of America

Nadeem Ahmad Quraishi