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. 01, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 15, 1995
LaVaughn Watts, Temple, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A computer system and method provides a user the ability to restore operation to a previous state from a non-volatile semiconductor memory. The computer system includes flash EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) or another non-volatile semiconductor memory for storing hardware configuration and other state information prior to a system power-down. The configuration information is used at power up to reconfigure devices coupled to the processor, such as a hard disk drive controller, video controller, sound card, and so on. Remaining memory in the computer system can be restored either from a hard disk drive (or other mass storage device), or from flash memory. The flash memory may be combined with fast semiconductor memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in a module, such that the necessary amount of non-volatile memory may be added whenever fast semiconductor memory is added.