Method and apparatus for effecting a soft reset in a processor d

Boots – shoes – and leggings

Patent

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

395775, 395575, 395275, 364240, 364280, G06F 1200

Patent

active

057846251

ABSTRACT:
A system and method for emulating the state of a soft reset within a processor device without requiring a dedicated soft reset external pin associated with said processor device. The novel system includes control circuitry coupled to a processor device for detecting a number of conditions used to cause the processor device to execute a soft reset. In processor devices that contain a write-back cache, the soft reset signal resets the configuration of the processor device and returns the processor to "real-address mode" addressing, but does not destroy the contents of the write-back cache (unlike a regular reset). Upon detecting a soft reset attempt, the novel system generates a System Management Interrupt (SMI) which is responded to by an interrupt handling routine also of the novel system. This interrupt handling routine contains a set of configuration data (stored in memory) that represents the expected state of the processor device after a soft reset. The interrupt handling routine copies this set of configuration data into the processor device and returns. By copying the set of configuration data into the processor device, a soft reset is effectively emulated without the need for a dedicated soft reset pin. The novel system advantageously reduces the overall pin count of the processor device, or, alternatively, allows an additional signal to be supplied over the dedicated pin that was used by the prior art to implement the soft reset signal.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5109506 (1992-04-01), Begun
patent: 5333307 (1994-07-01), Shirk et al.
patent: 5381530 (1995-01-01), Thayer et al.
patent: 5388242 (1995-02-01), Jewett
patent: 5410706 (1995-04-01), Farrand et al.
patent: 5465360 (1995-11-01), Miller et al.
patent: 5530879 (1996-06-01), Crump et al.
patent: 5555423 (1996-09-01), Grochowski et al.
patent: 5574943 (1996-11-01), Daftari
patent: 5596741 (1997-01-01), Thome
patent: 5603007 (1997-02-01), Yazdy et al.

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for the USA inventors and patents. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Method and apparatus for effecting a soft reset in a processor d does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Method and apparatus for effecting a soft reset in a processor d, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and apparatus for effecting a soft reset in a processor d will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1657487

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.