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:
Feb. 18, 1998
Applicant:
Inventor:
Masayo Yamaki, Tokyo, JP;
Assignee:
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Kawasaki, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/40 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 9/40 ;
Abstract
When a BIOS driver call request is generated in an environment of an OS operating in a protect mode, an IN or OUT instruction is executed to cause an I/O trap SMI generator to generate an I/O trap SMI. The mode of a CPU is switched from the protect mode to an SMM in accordance with the I/O trap SMI. In the SMM, the BIOS driver is executed. When the process of the BIOS driver is completed, the mode of the CPU is returned from the SMM to the protect mode, thereby shifting control to the OS. The BIOS can be directly called in the protect mode without building a routine for switching the CPU operating mode in the OS or application program operating in the protect mode.