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:
Sep. 30, 1997
Filed:
Jan. 16, 1997
Dale A Mack, Boise, ID (US);
William E Egbert, Boise, ID (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a process for loading an off-board program into a computer peripheral apparatus connected to a host computer via a standard interface port. Random access memory of the peripheral apparatus is used by the host computer. The process includes the steps of: applying power to the apparatus, initializing the apparatus to achieve minimal operational conditions, polling the interface port for a signal indicative of a host computer to peripheral apparatus program download request. Upon receiving the download request, the peripheral apparatus configures the random access memory to receive the program via the interface port, then provides a signal indicative of readiness to receive the program. The program can then be downloaded from the host, received in the random access memory, and run. If the download request is not recognized, the apparatus is fully initialized to its normal state of readiness for receiving common commands from the host computer. Substantially the same process can be used for upgrading other programmable memories of computer peripheral apparatus.