Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Shiraz Ali Qureshi

Martin O Nicholes

Sachin Navin Chheda

Terry Lee

Dong Wei

Chris Denamur

A system and method for discovering I/O bus capabilities. Specifically, a system is described for discovering I/O bus capabilities on a computer system. The system includes an ACPI name space, a first ACPI interface, and a second ACPI interface. The ACPI name space details hardware configuration in the computer system. The first ACPI interface in the ACPI name space details current capabilities of an I/O bus that is communicatively coupled to an I/O slot. The second ACPI interface details a list of all the capabilities of the I/O bus that supports the I/O slot.

System and method for discovering I/O bus capabilities on a computer system via ACPI

A computer system includes an operating system. An advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) system is in communication with the operating system and receives an ACPI request from the operating system. A cache is in communication with the ACPI system and receives the ACPI request from the ACPI system and provides ACPI data to the operating system via the ACPI system.

Accessing information associated with an advanced configuration and power interface environment

In one embodiment of the invention, a method of semaphoring between a system firmware and ACPI subsystem, includes: prior to entering a critical section by a first entity, checking a turn flag to determine if a second entity has a turn to access a critical section; if the second entity has the turn, then checking an In flag of the second entity to determine if the second entity is in the critical section; if the second entity is in the critical section, then waiting for the second entity to exit the critical section; and entering the critical section by the first entity. The method may further include: if the second entity is not in the critical section, then entering the critical section by the first entity.

Semaphoring system between system firmware and hardware manipulation subsystem

An interface for handing off computer system information. The interface has a data structure stored on a computer readable medium. The data structure has fields for component data pertaining to components of a computer system. The data structure is available to be populated by a first program filling in component data using identifiers for locating the component data in the data structure. The first program is able to discover components. The component data is accessible by a second program indexing the data structure with the identifiers. The second computer program is for assisting an operating system gain the component data.

Method and device for providing computer system component data

A computer program that is executable by a computer system for causing the computer system to detect a character subsequent to a double quote mark and adjacent to a string in a double-quoted portion of a pre-processing directive and replace a constant associated with the pre-processing directive with the string is provided.

System, method and computer program product for replacing a constant in a code segment

A computer-implemented method for compiling ASL (ACPI Source Language) code into AML (ACPI machine language) code. The method includes accessing an ASL program. A preprocessor is executed to process the ASL program and to insert support for at least one non-native programming construct. The ASL program is then processed using an ASL compiler to compile the ASL program into a resulting AML program.

ACPI preprocessor

Methods for using advanced configuration and power interface (ACPI) namespaces are provided. One such method comprises: providing an ACPI namespace that includes a first ACPI functional routine and a device tree lacking at least the first ACPI functional routine; and preventing a driver from being associated with the first ACPI functional routine. Systems also are provided.

Systems and methods for protecting advanced configuration and power interface code from driver attachment

The firmware interface table (FIT) of IA-64 instruction set is used to populate the hardware component namespace using SSDT data, where the SSDT data describes components in the system. At boot-up time all hardware components are discovered. The ACPI sub-system, in the system firmware, consumes the data set-up and loads the SSDTs from the FIT to create the namespace for the active system components. There is one FIT type indicating an SSDT entry, and the sub-type is indicated using the FIT version field.

System and method for using a firmware interface table to dynamically load multiple ACPI SSDT tables

The firmware interface table (FIT) of IA-64 instruction set is used to populate the hardware component namespace using secondary system description table (SSDT) data, where the SSDT data describes components in the system. At boot-up time all hardware components are discovered. The Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) sub-system, in the system firmware, consumes the data set-up and loads the SSDTs from the FIT to create the namespace for the active system components.

System and method for using a firmware interface table to dynamically load an ACPI SSDT

A system and method for using memory mapped I/O (MMIO) to manage system devices is provided. A parent device in the ACPI namespace uses (MMIO) to identify the memory addresses of its children devices. An existing, but unused, construct of ACPI is used to pass the MMIO information through the operating system (OS) to the device drivers, enabling memory to be reserved by a device, and also remain hidden to the OS. The vendor defined resource data type for long information, also known as the 'vendor-long' descriptor, is used to pass the appropriate information through the OS.

System and method for using a vendor-long descriptor in ACPI for the chipset registers

A system and method for supporting multiple operating systems with mutually exclusive requirements on a single computer system, or platform. The operating system sets an ACPI variable to identify the operating system running on the platform. The system firmware automatically comes up with a common set of functionality to satisfy all operating systems that can run on the platform. The ACPI interpreter reads the OS identifying variable upon boot-up and uses it in conditional code that depends on the operating system to fully define the operation of the system component.

System and method for using an operating system defined field in ACPI support multiple operating systems

A method of passing a location of a data interface. The method involves storing a first pointer in an architected location for locating information related to a system firmware read only memory (ROM). A portion of memory is allocated for a data structure that is an interface for handing off system component information. A second pointer is stored in a memory location pointed to by the first pointer. The second pointer points to the data structure.

Method and system for providing a location of a data interface

The present system and method allows for a memory location, typically a system event register, present in a processor to be accessed as either big or little endian mode, depending on an operating system (OS) accessible bit for endian selection. The OS type is determined at boot time.

System and method for operating in endian independent mode

A system and method for using memory mapped I/O (MMIO) to manage system devices is provided. A parent device in the ACPI namespace uses (MMIO) to identify the memory addresses of its children devices. An existing, but unused, construct of ACPI is used to pass the MMIO information through the operating system (OS) to the device drivers, enabling memory to be reserved by a device, and also remain hidden to the OS. The vendor defined resource data type for long information, also known as the &ldquo;vendor-long&rdquo; descriptor, is used to pass the appropriate information through the OS.

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Roseville, CA, United States of America

Shiraz Ali Qureshi