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:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 03, 1996
Andrew M. Rudoff, Boulder, CO (US);
Timothy P. Haley, Lafayette, CO (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
A bootstrap system for a computer with peripheral devices has a first level boot firmware program and a second level boot program loaded from disk by the first level program. The second level boot program contains a device tree constructed according to IEEE-1275 (Open Firmware) standards, describing currently known peripheral devices and computer resource allocations. The device tree is modifiable during boot operations to incorporate information about additional devices. The second level boot program scans I/O buses for additional devices not included in the current device tree and loads drivers only for the additional devices. The second level boot program further allows a user to enter information into the device tree. The second level boot program is preferably implemented under DOS emulation, and may be developed in a DOS-based code development environment and ported to the computer.