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:
Aug. 28, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1999
Jerome T. Hartlaub, New Brighton, MN (US);
Earle T. Roberts, Maple Grove, MN (US);
David C. Ullestad, Maple Grove, MN (US);
Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN (US);
Abstract
In a medical treatment device implanted within the body of a patient, a system and method for organizing storage of the device's firmware in ROM, RAM, and EEPROM such that a ROM-based system is implemented initially using pointers stored in RAM, which RAM-based pointers point to ROM-based functions. When revisions to the functionality of the treatment device are desired, code is downlinked via an external programmer and telemetry to link to RAM, and one or more pointers, as appropriate, which pointers point to the downlinked code in RAM, are downlinked to RAM. In this manner, revisions to the firmware of an implanted medical treatment device can be downlinked to the device thereby eliminating the need to explant the device in certain circumstances. The amount of code placed in ROM is maximized, with only pointers to functions and new or revised code segments stored in RAM as needed.