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:
Feb. 09, 1999

Filed:

Mar. 13, 1996
Applicant:
Inventors:

Min Eig Lee, Stevensville, MI (US);

Jiming Sun, St. Joseph, MI (US);

Assignee:

Packard Bell NEC, Sacramento, CA (US);

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
39518204 ; 31518211 ; 311 402 ; 311 102 ;
Abstract

A memory system includes a flash ROM for storing the instructions for the BIOS, as well as a flash recovery ROM and a utility for programming both flash ROMs. The memory system also provides for flash disaster recovery in order to enable reprogramming of the BIOS ROM during a condition when the data in the BIOS ROM is found to be corrupt. In particular, the flash recovery ROM is provided with a hardware protected block. Sufficient BIOS instructions (e.g., initialization functions) are provided in the protected area of the flash recovery ROM in order to enable the BIOS ROM to be reprogrammed by way of a flash recovery utility when the BIOS ROM becomes corrupt.


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