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. 13, 2001
Filed:
May. 28, 1997
Richard A. Bellin, Jr., Marlboro, NY (US);
Jeffrey P. Kubala, Poughquag, NY (US);
Ira G. Siegel, New Paltz, NY (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A method of replacing a current version of a program module with a replacement version of the module concurrently with the execution of the program on a computer system. While execution of the program is suspended, each address reference in the program to an entry point within the current version of the module is replaced with an address reference to the corresponding entry point within the replacement version of the module. After the address references have been replaced and before execution is resumed, a patch initialization routine is invoked to perform initialization functions such as storage allocation, table initialization and feature detection that are performed before execution of the concurrently applied patch. Execution of the program is resumed when each address reference to the current module has been replaced with one to the replacement module and the patch initialization routine has been performed. A bit vector is used to ensure that each initialization function is performed only once per instantiation of the program being patched. An available storage value indicates the amount of initially allocated storage remaining available after performing an initialization function involving storage allocation.