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US 7,254,744 B2Granted
BIOS for saving and restoring operational state in the absence of AC power
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsRobert A. Dunstan, Larry D. Selseth, Dan H. Nowlin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system is provided with a basic input/output system (BIOS) with the ability to intervene, when a suspend process is initiated in response to an AC failure condition to place the system in a suspended to memory state, to initiate a number of data transfer operations to save a persistent copy of an operational state of the system. The BIOS is further equipped to check one or more times whether the data transfer operations are completed, and causing a processor of the system to operate in a reduced power consumption mode at least one time period while the BIOS is not performing the checking.
Claims7
In an apparatus, a method of operation comprising:
- a basic input/output system (BIOS) commencing a cold start reset process on re-application of AC power to the apparatus while the apparatus is in an un-powered state;
- the BIOS determining as part of the cold start reset process, whether a persistent storage of the apparatus comprises a valid saved operational state of the apparatus;
- the BIOS, as part of the cold start reset process, further automatically re-marking the valid saved operational state of the apparatus as invalid, if the persistent storage is determined to have a valid saved operational state of the apparatus;
- the BIOS, as part of the cold start reset process, further automatically initiating a plurality of data transfer operations to transfer the saved operational state of the apparatus from the persistent storage to a memory of the apparatus to restore the saved operational state of the apparatus from the persistent storage to a memory of the apparatus;
- and
- on completion of the data transfer operations, the BIOS setting up an immediate wake event to immediately wake the apparatus, and placing the apparatus in a suspended to memory state, resulting in the set up immediate wake event immediately waking the apparatus and causing the cold start reset process to be continued as a resume process, wherein the resume process eventually leads the apparatus to start operation in an active state, continued from the restored operational state of the apparatus.
3 more elements
A system comprising:
- a memory;
- a persistent storage to store at least a saved operational state of the system;
- and
- a basic I/O system (BIOS) equipped to be operationally coupled to the memory and the persistent storage, to perform, as part of a cold start reset process commenced in response to re-application of AC power to the system while the system is in an un-powered state, determining whether the persistent storage comprises a valid saved operational state of the system, marking the valid saved operational state of the system as invalid upon determining existence of the valid saved operational state of the system in the persistent storage, before or substantially concurrent with commencing restoration of the saved operational state of the system from the persistent storage to the memory, initiaing a plurality of data transfer operations to restore the saved operational state of the system from the persistent storage to the memory, and on completion of the data transfer operations, setting up a wake event to wake the system, and place the system in a suspended to memory state, resulting in the set up wake event immediately waking the system and causing the cold start reset process to continue as a resume process, wherein the resume process eventually leads the system to start operation in an active state, continued from the restored operational state of the system.
1 more element
An article of manufacture comprising:
- a storage medium;
- a plurality of programming instructions stored therein, implementing a basic I/O system (BIOS) equipped to
- determine as part of a cold start reset process of an apparatus initiated in response to re-application of AC to the apparatus while the apparatus is in an un-powered state, whether a persistent storage of the apparatus comprises a valid saved operational state of the apparatus,
- marke the valid saved operational state of the apparatus as invalid before or substantially concurrent with commencing restoration of the saved operational state of the apparatus from the persistent storage to a memory of the apparatus,
- initiate a plurality of data transfer operations to restore the saved operational state of the system from the persistent storage to the memory, and
- on completion of the data transfer operations, set up a wake event to wake the system, and place the system in a suspended to memory state, resulting in the set up wake event immediately waking the system and causing the cold start reset process to continue as a resume process, wherein the resume process eventually leads the system to start operation in an active state, continued from the restored operational state of the system.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.