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:
Nov. 07, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 02, 1998
Jonathan Firooz, Loveland, CO (US);
J Robert Sims, III, Fort Collins, CO (US);
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of automatically configuring a computer peripheral device as a primary device or as a secondary device. There are four possible cases: (1) no other device present, (2) legacy primary device present, (3) legacy secondary device present and (4) second unconfigured device present. Each unconfigured device determines whether there are any legacy devices already installed and whether there is another unconfigured device installed without requiring any changes to the host operating system software. Unconfigured devices assert a signal after reset with a first timing that is dependent on an electronically readable identification on the device. For case (4), the first device to detect the signal becomes the secondary device. In case of a tie, unconfigured devices continue to assert the signal with a second timing that is dependent on the electronically readable identification on the device. A device that detects the signal being present at the end of the second timing configures itself as a secondary device. A device that does not detect the signal being present at the end of the second timing configures itself as a primary device.