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. 03, 1997
Filed:
Feb. 17, 1995
Kenneth L Jeffries, Leander, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A system and method for automatically assigning addresses to agents on a system management bus in a computer system without requiring user intervention, i.e., without requiring the user to manually or programmatically set physical or logical switches. The computer system includes a system management bus which preferably uses the I.sup.2 C serial protocol. The bus includes at least one SMB master and a plurality of slaves for performing desired monitoring and control functions in the computer system. According to the present invention, the SMB master assigns unique addresses to each of the SMB slaves automatically and without user intervention. This provides a simpler, more efficient, and less error prone method for assigning addresses to SMB agents. In addition, the system of the present invention automatically assigns unique addresses to new devices inserted on the bus while the bus is operating and thus allows for hot pluggable devices.