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:
Oct. 27, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 14, 1994
John J Pearce, Del Valle, TX (US);
Charles Zeller, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
A computer system having a central processing unit ('CPU'), a main memory divisible into allocable units, a secondary storage unit and an operating system for allocating the allocable units to tasks for use thereby is provided with a suspend circuit for creating an optimized compressed image of data in the main memory. In a first embodiment, the suspend circuit comprises: (1) a circuit for initiating execution of a reducing task on the CPU, the reducing task requesting the operating system to allocate unallocated ones of the allocable units to the reducing task, (2) a circuit for storing a bit pattern in the allocable units allocated to the reducing task, the bit pattern chosen to optimize performance of a data compression process and (3) a circuit for executing the data compression process to store a compressed image of the main memory in the secondary storage unit, the bit pattern allowing a size of the compressed image to be reduced and a time required to compress and store the compressed image to be minimized. In a second embodiment, the unallocated allocable units are neither compression-optimized, compressed nor stored. Rather, the reducing task creates a record of all allocated units and the data compression process acts on only those allocated units identified in the record.