US 10,592,253 B2 · Technologies for pre-memory phase initialization of a computing device

Abstract

Technologies for pre-memory phase initialization include a computing device having a processor with a cache memory. The computing device may determine whether a temporary memory different from the cache memory of the processor is present for temporary memory access prior to initialization of a main memory of the computing device. In response to determining that temporary memory is present, a portion of the basic input/output instructions may be copied from a non-volatile memory of the computing device to the temporary memory for execution prior to initialization of the main memory. The computing device may also initialize a portion of the cache memory of the processor as Cache as RAM for temporary memory access prior to initialization of the main memory in response to determining that temporary memory is not present. After initialization, the main memory may be configured for subsequent memory access. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A compute device for pre-memory phase initialization, the computing device comprising:

a processor having cache memory and an embedded dynamic random-access memory different from the cache memory;
a main memory;
and
a non-volatile memory having stored therein basic input/output system instructions;
and
wherein the non-volatile memory further includes a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the compute device to:
detect the presence of the embedded dynamic random-access memory for memory access prior to initialization of the main memory,
initialize, in response to detection of the embedded dynamic random-access memory as temporary random-access memory for the memory access prior to initialization of the main memory,
copy basic input/output system instructions from the non-volatile memory to the embedded dynamic random-access memory for execution, and
execute the copied basic input/output system instructions from the embedded dynamic random-access memory to boot a component of the compute device.

7 more elements

One or more non-transitory, machine-readable media comprising a plurality of instructions stored thereon that in response to being executed by a compute device, cause the compute device to:

execute basic input/output system instructions in response to a startup of the computing device;
detect the presence of an embedded dynamic random-access memory of a processor of the compute device for memory access prior to initialization of a main memory of the computing device, wherein the embedded dynamic random-access memory is different from a cache memory of the processor;
initialize, in response to detection of the embedded dynamic random-access memory, the embedded dynamic random-access memory as temporary random-access memory for the memory access prior to initialization of the main memory;
copy the basic input/output system instructions from a non-volatile memory of the compute device to the embedded dynamic random-access memory for execution;
and
execute the copied basic input/output system instructions from the embedded dynamic random-access memory to boot a component of the computing device.

3 more elements

A method for pre-memory phase initialization of a compute device, the method comprising:

detecting, by the compute device, presence of an embedded dynamic random-access memory of a processor of the compute device for memory access prior to initialization of a main memory of the compute device, wherein the embedded dynamic random-access memory is different from a cache memory of the processor;
wherein in response to embedded dynamic random-access memory:
(i) initializing, by the compute device, the embedded dynamic random-access memory as temporary random-access memory for the memory access prior to initialization of the main memory, (ii) copying, by the compute device, basic input/output system instructions from a non-volatile memory of the compute device to the embedded dynamic random-access memory, and (iii) executing, by the compute device, the copied basic input/output system instructions from the embedded dynamic random-access memory to boot a component of the computing device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Technologies for pre-memory phase initialization of a computing device

Life of this patent

Technologies for pre-memory phase initialization of a computing device

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18