System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS

Details System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS

1999-12-10

2002-11-26

Heckler, Thomas M. (Department: 2185)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support

Digital data processing system initialization or configuration

Loading initialization program

Reexamination Certificate

active

06487656

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to multimedia. In particular, the invention relates to a system and method for providing functionalities to a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, if additional functionalities are being added to the system BIOS, significant changes have to be implemented. In particular, the system BIOS code has to be significantly revised.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide additional functionalities to system BIOS without having to significantly alter the system BIOS code. There is also a further need in the industry to provide and display system device information simply and efficiently.
In addition, information regarding system devices such as processor performance information and memory size information, is traditionally displayed in textual format. Such system device information is typically determined at the time of manufacture. During the boot process, the system device information determined at the time of manufacture is detected and/or retrieved by the system BIOS and displayed in textual format. Such information is difficult to view as the user has to sort through lines of text to locate the desired information.
There is thus a further need in the industry to provide and display system device information simply and efficiently.
SUMMARY
The present invention is a method and apparatus to provide functionalities to a system BIOS. The method comprises interfacing an interface module to the system BIOS, and receiving a request from the system BIOS to perform a task. System device information associated with the task is received from the system BIOS. The interface module translates the system device information to provide translated information. The translated information is then transferred to a corresponding module.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5121345 (1992-06-01), Lentz
patent: 5128995 (1992-07-01), Arnold et al.
patent: 5131089 (1992-07-01), Cole
patent: 5142680 (1992-08-01), Ottman et al.
patent: 5146568 (1992-09-01), Flaherty et al.
patent: 5214695 (1993-05-01), Arnold et al.
patent: 5274816 (1993-12-01), Oka
patent: 5280627 (1994-01-01), Flaherty et al.
patent: 5307497 (1994-04-01), Feigenbaum et al.
patent: 5325532 (1994-06-01), Crosswy et al.
patent: 5379431 (1995-01-01), Lemon et al.
patent: 5381549 (1995-01-01), Tamura
patent: 5418918 (1995-05-01), Vander Kamp et al.
patent: 5444850 (1995-08-01), Chang
patent: 5448741 (1995-09-01), Oka
patent: 5452454 (1995-09-01), Basu
patent: 5463766 (1995-10-01), Schieve et al.
patent: 5469573 (1995-11-01), McGill, III et al.
patent: 5504905 (1996-04-01), Cleary et al.
patent: 5522076 (1996-05-01), Dewa et al.
patent: 5526523 (1996-06-01), Straub et al.
patent: 5542082 (1996-07-01), Solhjell
patent: 5581740 (1996-12-01), Jones
patent: 5586327 (1996-12-01), Bealkowski et al.
patent: 5594903 (1997-01-01), Bunnell et al.
patent: 5604890 (1997-02-01), Miller
patent: 5652868 (1997-07-01), Williams
patent: 5652886 (1997-07-01), Tulpule et al.
patent: 5664194 (1997-09-01), Paulsen
patent: 5680547 (1997-10-01), Chang
patent: 5692190 (1997-11-01), Williams
patent: 5694583 (1997-12-01), Williams et al.
patent: 5694600 (1997-12-01), Khenson et al.
patent: 5701477 (1997-12-01), Chejlava, Jr.
patent: 5715456 (1998-02-01), Bennett et al.
patent: 5717930 (1998-02-01), Imai et al.
patent: 5727213 (1998-03-01), Vander Kamp et al.
patent: 5732268 (1998-03-01), Bizzarri
patent: 5748957 (1998-05-01), Klein
patent: 5754853 (1998-05-01), Pearce
patent: 5764593 (1998-06-01), Turpin et al.
patent: 5781758 (1998-07-01), Morley
patent: 5790849 (1998-08-01), Crocker et al.
patent: 5796984 (1998-08-01), Pearce et al.
patent: 5802363 (1998-09-01), Williams et al.
patent: 5805880 (1998-09-01), Pearce et al.
patent: 5805882 (1998-09-01), Cooper et al.
patent: 5815706 (1998-09-01), Stewart et al.
patent: 5819063 (1998-10-01), Dahl et al.
patent: 5828888 (1998-10-01), Kozaki et al.
patent: 5832251 (1998-11-01), Takahashi
patent: 5842011 (1998-11-01), Basu
patent: 5854905 (1998-12-01), Garney
patent: 5864698 (1999-01-01), Krau et al.
patent: 5887164 (1999-03-01), Gupta
patent: 5901310 (1999-05-01), Rahman et al.
patent: 5907679 (1999-05-01), Hoang et al.
patent: 6367007 (2002-04-01), Do
patent: 6374338 (2002-04-01), Garrey
patent: 6401202 (2002-06-01), Abgrall

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2950646