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US 6,553,441 B1Granted
Method and apparatus for using serial bus for PC management
Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorsChi-Lie Wang, Eric Davis
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A serial bus with pre-defined protocol may be used on the NIC to provide PC management functions. While these functions may be used with the PC powered up, they may further perform valuable tasks while the PC is powered down. With these new added functions, centralized control may be achieved which will lower the administrative cost and serve better for distributed computing.
Claims14
A network interface card, comprising:
- a PCI bus interface for controlling data exchange between the network interface card and a PCI host, the PCI bus interface using a main power source and a PCI clock signal;
- and
- a serial bus interface for controlling data exchange between the network interface card and a serial host, the serial bus interface capable of allowing the serial host to access resources on the network interface card when the main power source is unavailable.
A method for using a serial bus to access resources on a network interface card, the method comprising:
- providing a serial bus interface for controlling data exchange between the network interface card and a serial host, the serial bus interface capable of allowing the serial host to access resources on the network interface card when a main power source is unavailable;
- providing an auxiliary power source to the serial bus interface when the main power source is unavailable;
- providing an ASIC clock signal to the serial bus interface when a PCI clock signal is unavailable;
- detecting an access addressed to the network interface card from the serial host;
- and
- servicing the access between the network interface card and the serial host.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.