Method and apparatus for initializing a device
AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorsPeter W. Madany, Graham Hamilton, Alan G. Bishop
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system is provided for rebooting a computer having a volatile memory device capable of storing operating information. The system reboots the computer using the operating information stored in the memory device if the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information. The computer reboots the computer by reloading the operating information into the memory device if the memory device does not contain a valid copy of the operating information. The system determines whether the memory device contains a valid copy of the operating information by calculating a checksum for the operating information stored in the memory device and compares the checksum to a previously calculated checksum.
Claims25
A method for rebooting a computer having a volatile memory device to store operating information, said method comprising:
- rebooting said computer using said operating information stored in said volatile memory device and releasing memory regions allocated by a boot ROM memory manager in said computer to allow reassignment of the released memory regions if said volatile memory device contains a valid copy of said operating information;
- and
- reloading said operating information into said volatile memory device if said memory device does not contain a valid copy of said operating information.
An apparatus for rebooting a computer having a volatile memory device capable of storing operating information, comprising:
- a mechanism configured to reboot said computer using said operating information stored in said volatile memory device and a boot ROM memory manager in said computer configured to assign memory regions, the assigned memory regions released during reboot to allow reassignment of the released memory regions when said memory device contains a valid copy of said operating information;
- and
- a mechanism configured to reboot said computer by reloading said operating information into said volatile memory device if said memory device does not contain a valid copy of said operating information.
A computer software product including a medium readable by a processor, the medium having stored thereon:
- a first sequence of instructions which causes a reboot of said computer using operating information stored in a volatile memory device in said computer and causes a boot ROM memory manager to release memory location assigned by the boot ROM memory manager during the reboot process when said volatile memory device contains a valid copy of said operating information;
- and
- a second sequence of instructions which causes a reboot of said computer by reloading said operating information into said volatile memory device if said volatile memory device does not contain a valid copy of said operating information.
A reboot procedure comprising:
- receiving a log out signal from a user;
- warm booting a computer system in response to the log out signal when a processor determines that a checksum value for a memory region which stores an operating system matches a checksum value of current data stored in a volatile memory device;
- and
- cold booting the computer system in response to the log out signal when the processor determines that the checksum value for the memory region which stores an operating system does not match the checksum value of current data stored in the volatile memory device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.