Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP

Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Terry Ping-Chung Lee

Derek Steven Schumacher

XinLai Yu

Ram Krishan Kaul

Yi Liu

Santosh Ananth Rao

Martin Goldstein

Shiva R Dasari

Daniel Nathan Cripe

Dong Wei

Rajeev Grover

Carey Huscroft

Vijay Vishwanath Hegde

Thanh Minh Pham

Kenneth J Geer

James Lawrence Marsh

A technique includes detecting a presence of a hardware security module in a computer. The hardware security module performs trusted computing base measurements in response to the boot of the computer. The technique includes detecting an intention to change firmware of the computer and regulating providing a message warning about an impact of the change based on the determination. The regulation includes determining whether an operating system of the computer binds operations to the trusted computing base measurements and allowing communication of the message based on the determination.

Regulating messages warning about impacts of firmware changes

Examples disclosed herein relate to selecting and loading firmware volumes. A computing device is booted to a state where the computing device is capable of accessing a memory available to multiple other computing devices. The memory includes multiple firmware volumes. In one example, at least one firmware volume is selected based on a hardware configuration or hardware components of the computing device. The selected firmware volumes are loaded.

Selecting and loading firmware volumes based on license

In one example, reclaiming obsolete regions includes a memory organized in aligned memory blocks and storing valid variables in valid regions and obsolete variables in the obsolete regions. A memory includes a buffer region to cache the memory. A controller can search the buffer region for the obsolete regions and pair with respective valid regions and determine if start addresses of the obsolete regions are memory aligned and if not aligned, to write a small portion content of a first valid region to the start address of the aligned memory block, and to write any remaining respective valid region beginning at the start address of the aligned memory block and in multiples of the aligned memory block. Upon completion of a writing, moved respective valid regions begin at the starting address of the obsolete regions and new obsolete regions begin at end addresses of the moved respective valid regions.

Aligned variable reclamation

A method for extensible firmware abstraction includes creating a null library and adding null library dependencies to the null library's build file. The null library is associated with a shared firmware module that depends on the null library dependencies for successful execution. A computer processor executes the build file, null library, and shared firmware module to impose the null library dependencies on execution of the shared firmware module.

Extensible firmware abstraction

A system includes a memory buffer to cache a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory stores a plurality of valid and obsolete variables in a plurality of valid and obsolete regions, respectively. The system further includes a journal region to track movement of valid variables and valid regions within the memory buffer utilizing alternating pairs of structure pointers to indicate at least portions of the plurality of valid and obsolete regions indicative of from where and to where the valid variables move during a write event.

Non-volatile memory write mechanism

Examples disclosed herein relate to updating a commit list to indicate data to be written to a firmware interface (FI) variable repository. Examples include storing target data in a variable repository cache of system management memory of a computing device during a given SMM event, updating a commit list, during the given SMM event, to indicate that the target data is to be written to the FI variable repository, and ending the given SMM event without at least some portion of the target data being written to the FI variable repository during the given SMM event.

Updating a commit list to indicate data to be written to a firmware interface variable repository

A computer system has extensible firmware interface firmware. The EFI firmware loads incomplete virtual boot data from a resource manager and then completes the boot data. The completed boot data is used to find an operating-system image to boot. The complete virtual boot data is transferred to the resource manager.

Computer system for booting a system image by associating incomplete identifiers to complete identifiers via querying storage locations according to priority level where the querying is self adjusting

A method of allocating memory in a memory unit includes creating a data structure containing a list of all available memory segments; and assigning a bias to each available memory segment. The bias indicates how to allocate that available memory segment in response to a resource request wherein the resource request is for a new entry in the memory unit that will be fragmented with at least two fragments of the new entry in the memory unit at being at different locations in the memory unit, the bias for an available memory segment comprising an indication of where within the new fragmented entry to be made in the memory unit a corresponding available memory segment should be used.

Method of allocating memory

A computer system provides an extensible firmware interface with a pre-start configuration phase. This permits configuring a device prior to beginning a start phase for the device.

Extensible firmware interface with pre-start configuration phase for computers

A computer includes an extensible firmware interface with a storage device enumeration function that performs storage device enumeration operations in parallel.

Growing community of inventors

Antelope, CA, United States of America

Terry Ping-Chung Lee