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.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 25, 1996
Filed:
Jul. 14, 1993
Eric Schieve, Austin, TX (US);
Richard Finch, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
Disclosed are a system and method for loading diagnostic routines for execution in a computer system. The method comprises the steps of (1) executing a boot loading routine stored in non-volatile memory within the computer system, the boot loading routine providing an environment in lieu of an operating system of the computer system within which to execute diagnostic routines, the boot loading routine including a decompression routine, (2) decompressing a compressed diagnostic routine stored in the non-volatile memory into video random access memory (RAM) and (3) executing the decompressed diagnostic routine under control of the boot loading routine. The present invention, in its preferred embodiment, allows relatively large diagnostic routines to be stored in electrically erasable programmable read only memory ('EEPROM') and decompressed, as required, into video RAM for execution, without requiring the computer's operating system to function.