Fast initialization of medical device system having multiple operating systems

A method comprising:

• interrupting a first operating system executing on a microprocessor-based medical device system when an application associated with a second non-executing operating system is selected for execution on the system;
• retrieving a captured memory image and a captured state data structure associated with the second operating system from image storage, wherein the captured state data structure includes values of microprocessor registers in a captured state;
• storing the retrieved memory image in volatile memory;
• transferring system control to the second operating system;
• retrieving a captured memory image and a captured state data structure associated with the first operating system from an image storage medium;
• storing the retrieved memory image in volatile memory;
• and
• transferring system control to the first operating system.

A system comprising:

• a communication circuit;
• a microprocessor coupled to the communication circuit, the microprocessor having registers, and the microprocessor operable to execute instruction code associated with at least first and second operating systems, where only one operating system executes at a time, a portion of the executable code for communicating with a medical device;
• a volatile system memory in communication with the microprocessor, the volatile system memory to store executable code, including code of an executing operating system;
• a nonvolatile memory to store executable startup code;
• nonvolatile image storage to store at least one captured state image, wherein the captured state image includes an image of memory and microprocessor registers in a captured state, the captured state associated with a non-executing operating system;
• and
• a system transition routine to transition between the executing and the non-executing operating systems when an application to be run on the microprocessor requires the non-executing operating system, wherein the system transition routine includes code to cause the microprocessor to execute instructions in system management mode (SMM) to convert contents of volatile memory and microprocessor registers to a captured state in accordance with the non-executing operating system captured state image stored in the nonvolatile image storage.

A system comprising:

• a communication circuit;
• a microprocessor coupled to the communication circuit, the microprocessor having registers, and the microprocessor operable to execute instruction code associated with at least a first operating system and a second operating system, where only one operating system executes at a time, a portion of the instruction code executed to communicate with a medical device;
• a volatile system memory in communication with the microprocessor, the volatile system memory to store executable code, including code of an executing operating system;
• a nonvolatile memory to store executable startup code;
• nonvolatile image storage to store a plurality of captured state images, wherein a captured state image includes an image of memory and microprocessor registers in a captured state, the captured state associated with one of the plurality of operating systems;
• a direct memory access (DMA) controller operable to store information in the volatile system memory and retrieve information from the nonvolatile system memory, the DMA controller operable to interpret the contents of a RAM bitmap and a zero bitmap;
• and
• a system transition routine to transition the system between an executing operating system and a non-executing operating system when an application to be run on the microprocessor requires the non-executing operating system, the transition routine including:
• a DMA controller initialization routine to load the Ram bitmap and the zero bitmap into the DMA controller and start a DMA operation, the DMA operation to convert content of volatile memory to a captured state in accordance with the non-executing operating system captured state image stored in the nonvolatile image storage;
• a operating system switching routine to convert content of microprocessor registers and to transition control of the system to the non-executing operating system;
• and
• a system capture routine to create captured state images of volatile system memory and store the captured state images on the nonvolatile image storage.