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:
Jan. 23, 2001
Filed:
Jan. 31, 1995
John J. Pearce, Del Valle, TX (US);
Dell USA, Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for optimizing the location of machine-dependent code is disclosed. In a departure from the art, code for implementing an applications program interface (API) or other machine dependent program is divided into a system management mode (SMM) portion and a non-SMM portion, depending on whether the code needs to be implemented in a secure environment or not, respectively. In a preferred embodiment, the non-SMM portion of the API maintains a BIOS jump table comprising an indexed array of function addresses, and the SMM portion of the API maintains a parallel, but nonidentical, SMM jump table. For each API function that is to be executed in SMM, that is, for each function that must be executed in a secure environment, the indexed BIOS jump table entry calls an SMM interface (SMI) function, which initiates SMM by generating a system management interrupt and accesses the parallel SMM jump table. The indexed SNM jump table entry is used to call the designated function, which is then executed in SMM.