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:
Nov. 11, 2008
Filed:
Aug. 03, 2006
Christopher G. Peak, San Jose, CA (US);
Martin Scheinberg, Morganville, NJ (US);
Joseph Sokol, Jr., San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher G. Peak, San Jose, CA (US);
Martin Scheinberg, Morganville, NJ (US);
Joseph Sokol, Jr., San Jose, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that uses an M-bit operating system (OS) kernel to support N-bit user processes. During operation, the system receives an exception. Note that the exception can be any event that needs to be handled by executing OS kernel code. Specifically, the exception can be a hardware interrupt, a software interrupt, an asynchronous interrupt, a synchronous interrupt, a signal, a trap, or a system call. Next, the system handles the exception by first switching the processor to the M-bit mode, and then executing M-bit OS kernel code which is designed to handle the exception. Note that the processor may primarily be designed to operate in the N-bit mode; the M-bit mode may primarily be provided for backward compatibility reasons.