Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Compaq Computer Corporation, Inc.

Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.p.

Paul James Broyles

Mark A Piwonka

Patrick L Gibbons

Rahul Patel

Syed S Azam

Humberto M Fossati

Luke Mulcahy

Don R James, Jr

Examples associated with interference generation are described. One example system includes a personal digital assistant. A listening device in the system may receive voice input to control the personal digital assistant. An interference generator integrated with the listening device may generate a noise pattern to prevent the listening device from receiving voice input. An interface for the interference generator may allow a user to activate and deactivate the interference generator and provide a visual indicator describing whether the interference generator is active.

Interference generation

A method including initializing at least one component of another computing machine in response to the other computing machine coupling to a computing machine, loading a component driver onto the computing machine for at least one of the initialized components, and configuring the computing machine to use the component driver to control at least one of the initialized components of the other computing machine.

Configuring a computing machine to use a component driver to directly control at least one of initialized hardware components of another computing machine

An 'ownership tag' in a special area of memory of a computer system identifies an owner of the computer system by displaying the ownership tag during initialization of the computer system. The ownership tag may be presented during the installation and execution of the Basic Input Output System. (BIOS) preferably during Power on Self Test (POST) process. An administrator may access the ownership tag by interrupting the process by pressing the an appropriate key, which transitions the computer to an administrator set up mode. An administrator able to enter the administrator password may then alter the contents of the protected memory, changing the ownership tag. The ownership tag is preferably stored in a region of memory not accessible to a typical user, but accessible to an administrator aware of the administrator password. The ownership tag is stored in a flash memory, which is very difficult to remove from the system board, or to modify without administrator-level security access. This makes it superior to conventional storage mechanisms such as RTC RPM, hard disk, etc. since these are easily modifiable and/or easily removable.

Ownership tag on power up screen

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a method for recovering a BIOS in a computer is described, comprising: unattendingly loading a BIOS recovery code image into system ROM stored on a bootable device; and unattendingly rebooting the computer.

Unattended BIOS recovery

The present technique is associated with a device-controller configuration system for a computer system having a plurality of controllers. The technique utilizes an automatic switching assembly so that each device is routed to one of the controllers based on a data transfer specification of the device and data transfer capacities of the controllers. Accordingly, the technique evaluates at least one of a plurality of hypothetical configurations to determine a viable and/or optimal configuration.

Dynamic allocation of devices to host controllers

Systems and methods are disclosed for detecting and reporting revision identification numbers ('rev IDs'). When the revision identifier of hardware that the computer is built out of changes, this can impact the actual and/or perceived stability of the computer. In some embodiments, devices may include a programmable register, which may be programmed to a revision identifier. This number may be the revision identifier of a previous version of this hardware that was originally incorporated in the system design.

Method and apparatus for providing revision identification numbers

An &ldquo;ownership tag&rdquo; in a special area of memory of a computer system identifies an owner of the computer system by displaying the ownership tag during initialization of the computer system. The ownership tag may be presented during the installation and execution of the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) preferably during Power on Self Test (POST) process. An administrator may access the ownership tag by interrupting the process by pressing the an appropriate key, which transitions the computer to an administrator set up mode. An administrator able to enter the administrator password may then alter the contents of the protected memory, changing the ownership tag. The ownership tag is preferably stored in a region of memory not accessible to a typical user, but accessible to an administrator aware of the administrator password. The ownership tag is stored in a flash memory, which is very difficult to remove from the system board, or to modify without administrator-level security access. This makes it superior to conventional storage mechanisms such as RTC RPM, hard disk, etc. since these are easily modifiable and/or easily removable.

Ownership tag on power-up screen

A computer system that includes a system ROM with at least two sets of character strings, one set in English and at least one other set in a non-English language. Generally, each set of character strings includes characters, words and phrases that are translations of corresponding character strings in the other sets. In a preferred embodiment, the system ROM includes only two sets of character strings&mdash;one English and the other non-English. The non-English set of character strings is included as part of a &ldquo;language module&rdquo; stored or flashed into the system ROM. The character strings preferably are used to provide information and instructions to a user during system setup. When setup is run, the computer system determines whether a valid international language module is included in the system ROM. If a valid language module is included, the user is prompted to select either English or whatever international language is provided in the language module. Based on the user's selection for a language, additional information and instructions during setup are shown on the computer's display in the language selected by the user.

Method for supporting optical international language modules flashed into ROM

A computer system provides for flashing a non-volatile memory image to a non-volatile memory and reading data from a non-volatile memory independently of an operating system. An image buffer is allocated in a volatile memory of the computer system. If flashing a non-volatile memory image to the non-volatile memory is desired, the image buffer is loaded with a portion of the non-volatile memory image. BIOS interface code is then called to place an SMI event code into a memory and to generate a system management interrupt causing the computer system to enter a system management mode. SMI handler code examines the SMI event code and calls SMI service code. Next, the image buffer is located and the portion of the non-volatile memory in the image buffer is flashed to the non-volatile memory by the SMI service code. Locating the image buffer may include locating an image header defined within the volatile memory. The image header may include a password for providing access to the non-volatile memory. The steps of loading the image buffer, calling BIOS interface code, and flashing a portion of the non-volatile memory image to the non-volatile memory may be repeated until the entire non-volatile memory image is flashed to the non-volatile memory. Alternatively, if reading data from a non-volatile memory independently of an operating system is desired, a system management interrupt is generated to place the computer system in a system management mode, an SMI event code is placed in a memory, the SMI handler code processes the SMI event code and calls SMI service code, the image buffer is located by the SMI service code, and the SMI service code copies data from the non-volatile memory to the image buffer.

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Cypress, TX, United States of America

Paul James Broyles