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:
Jun. 08, 2010
Filed:
Apr. 17, 2006
Bi-chong Wang, Austin, TX (US);
Wuxian Wu, Round Rock, TX (US);
Bi-Chong Wang, Austin, TX (US);
Wuxian Wu, Round Rock, TX (US);
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
System and methods for preventing an operating-system scheduler in a computer system from crashing as a result of an uncleared periodic interrupt are disclosed. A periodic interrupt is generated using a real-time clock (RTC) residing on a chipset. A flag indicating a periodic interrupt is entered into a status register associated with the RTC in firmware residing on the CMOS chip, if the status register indicates no periodic interrupt has been pending. An interrupt handler associated with the RTC attempts to handle the periodic interrupt, if pending. If the periodic interrupt is pending after a preset interval of time elapses, a basic-input-output system (BIOS) residing on a memory unit coupled to the chipset generates a system-management interrupt (SMI). If the periodic interrupt is pending after the preset interval of time elapses, a firmware SMI handler residing on the memory unit clears the pending periodic interrupts from the status register. A scheduler timer associated with the operating system is updated.