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:
Oct. 19, 2010
Filed:
May. 31, 2006
Andy Miga, Olympia, WA (US);
Vincent J. Zimmer, Federal Way, WA (US);
Michael A. Rothman, Puyallup, WA (US);
Andy Miga, Olympia, WA (US);
Vincent J. Zimmer, Federal Way, WA (US);
Michael A. Rothman, Puyallup, WA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A method and apparatus is described herein for executing firmware tasks during OS runtime. A thread slices execution time among entries in a control structure, such as process control block (PCB), maintained by an OS kernel. An entry in the control structure includes a reference to a firmware task, such as a system management operation, a BIOS task, and/or and EFI task. Based on that entry, the thread allocates an amount of execution time either directly to the firmware task or to a kernel mode driver to perform the firmware task.