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. 31, 2000
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1998
Jiangang Ding, San Jose, CA (US);
Kamran Mostafavi, Daly City, CA (US);
Phillip Pham, Milpitas, CA (US);
Kai Xu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A mechanism that automatically configures the manner in which interrupt signals are shared in order to avoid system failures and improves the system performance is herein disclosed. The mechanism executes as part of the system BIOS during system initialization or reset. The mechanism utilizes information found in the configuration register space to determine the characteristics of the device. The device characteristics are used to determine which devices share IRQ signals. In this manner, devices that cause system failures due to sharing interrupt signals are not assigned a common interrupt signal thereby minimizing system failures and improving the overall system performance.