The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.

The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.

Date of Patent:
Sep. 07, 1993

Filed:

Oct. 05, 1990
Applicant:
Inventors:

Steven A Tague, Tyngsboro, MA (US);

William E Woods, Natick, MA (US);

Assignee:

Bull HN Information Systems Inc., Billerica, MA (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G11C / ; G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
371 161 ; 371 511 ;
Abstract

A method and apparatus pertaining to a firmware control unit for detecting when such control unit is not behaving properly. The control unit is organized to include in each location of the unit's control store, to which control is not expected to transfer, a predetermined type of pattern containing an address specifying the address of that location, a suitable tag identifying the probable reason for the unexplained jump, and a transfer of control to the appropriate entry point in a reporting firmware routine within the control store. The reporting firmware routine has a number of entry points for collecting all the executions of unexpected locations and for storing the appropriate address and tag information in a predetermined register file for later referencing by an unusual event (UEV) handler routine.


Find Patent Forward Citations

Loading…