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. 12, 2000
Filed:
Oct. 21, 1998
Integrated Technology Express, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
A circuit and method are provided for initializing configuration registers in a bus bridge controller so that peripheral devices can acquire functionality prior to initialization by a normal system Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) routine. The initialization information is stored in a supplemental configuration Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM), separate from a conventional system BIOS ROM. In addition, the register configuration information is stored in a flexible format so that only certain devices are pre-configured, or that certain devices are initialized before others. The invention has particular usefulness in personal computing systems which include a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an ISA bus, and a system management bus (SMB) for providing access to the EEPROM.