Computer operating system using compressed ROM image in RAM

Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000

United States of America Patent

PATENT NO 6434695
SERIAL NO

09220160

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ATTORNEY / AGENT: (SPONSORED)

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Abstract

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A low-level portion of the operating system of a computer system is separated from an intermediate-level portion of the operating system. The low-level portion, including hardware-specific code, is stored in a relatively small read-only memory (ROM), while at least part of the intermediate-level portion is stored as a compressed ROM image on a disk or other mass storage device, which may be located remotely from the computer system. Upon power-up or reset of the computer system, the code in the ROM is executed to read the compressed ROM image into random access memory (RAM) of the computer system. The compressed image is then decompressed and executed as part of the boot sequence. Once decompressed, the portion of RAM storing the intermediate-level code is write-protected in the memory map, and the code in boot ROM is deleted from the memory map. Memory space in RAM that is allocated to the intermediate-level code but not used is returned to the operating system for use as part of system RAM.

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Patent Owner(s)

  • APPLE INC.

International Classification(s)

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Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Esfahani, Cameron J Sunnyvale, CA 6 421
Galcher, William M Mt. View, CA 2 224
Hochsprung, Ronald Los Gatos, CA 5 308
Resch, Paul M Santa Clara, CA 7 566

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