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:
Feb. 08, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 13, 1997
Stefan Ott, Munich, DE;
VLSI Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention comprises a system for efficiently using non-volatile memory in an embedded system. The system of the present invention includes an embedded system having a processor, a volatile memory, and a non-volatile memory. A decompression algorithm is stored in the non-volatile memory along with a main program. When the embedded system is powered up, the decompression algorithm is executed by the processor. The decompression algorithm operates on compressed software stored in the non-volatile memory. The compressed software includes data needed to initialize the main program. After the operation of the algorithm, the decompressed software is loaded into the volatile memory, thereby initializing the main program. Since the software for initializing the main program is stored in non-volatile memory in a compressed state, and since the decompression algorithm is compact, the present invention efficiently utilizes non-volatile memory space.