Method and system for a self-booting Ethernet controller
AssigneeBroadcom Corporation
InventorsKelly Yu, Takashi Tomita, Jonathan F. Lee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Certain embodiments for a self-booting Ethernet controller chip (NAC) may comprise a processor within the NAC that determines whether legacy boot code is present in memory external to the NAC. If legacy boot code is present in the external memory, the NAC may boot from the legacy boot code. If the legacy boot code is not present in the external memory, the processor may boot the NAC from the self-boot code in the ROM within the NAC. The processor may also read network configuration data from the external memory. The network configuration data may be stored, for example, in a NVRAM. The processor may copy the network configuration data from the NVRAM to a RAM within the NAC while booting.
Claims24
A method, the method comprising:
- in a communication device comprising a network adapter chip:
- determining from within said network adapter chip, whether legacy boot code for booting said network adapter chip is present in a memory, wherein said memory is located external to said network adapter chip and located within said communication device;
- and
- if said legacy boot code is not present in said memory external to said network adapter chip, booting said network adapter chip from boot code in a ROM within said network adapter chip.
A system, the system comprising:
- one or more circuits in a communication device, said one or more circuits comprising a network adapter chip and a memory, wherein said one or more circuits enable determination, from within said network adapter chip, of whether legacy boot code for booting said network adapter chip is present in said memory, wherein said memory is located external to said network adapter chip and located within said communication device;
- and
- if said legacy boot code is not present in said memory external to said network adapter chip, said one or more circuits enable booting of said network adapter chip from boot code in a ROM within said network adapter chip.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.