US Patent No: 6,708,283

Number of patents in Portfolio can not be more than 2000

System and method for operating a system with redundant peripheral bus controllers

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Abstract

The inventive system essentially hides redundant paths to the peripheral devices from the operating system, by reporting a single "virtual" path to the peripheral busses over PCI bus 0. The virtual path includes at least a virtual peripheral bus controller and a virtual video controller. The system also tells the operating system that the real controllers are on another PCI bus on an opposite side of a PCI-to-PCI bridge connected also to PCI bus 0. An I/O system manager selects one of the actual paths, which may, but need not, be connected to PCI bus 0, to handle communications with the peripheral devices. The I/O system manager maintains the controllers on the unselected path in an off-line or standby mode, in case of a failure of one or more of the controllers on the selected path. If a failure occurs, the I/O system manager performs a fail-over operation to change the selection of controllers, and the peripheral devices continue to operate in the same manner on the peripheral busses. The operating system does not respond to the controller failure by declaring a system failure, however, because the operating system continues to look to the virtual path, with its virtual controllers, as a valid path to the peripheral devices. The system also allows hot swapping of PCI bridges, through FET isolation of the unselected controllers. The devices on the PCI bus and the peripheral busses may also be hot swapped through selective FET isolation.

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First Claim

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Patent Owner(s)

Patent OwnerAddressTotal Patents
STRATUS TECHNOLOGIES BERMUDA LTD.HAMILTON48

International Classification(s)

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  • [Patents Count]

Inventor(s)

Inventor Name Address # of filed Patents Total Citations
Alden, Andrew Leominster, MA 2 54
Dolaty, Mohsen Acton, MA 1 35
Edwards, Jr John W Clinton, MA 4 49
Kement, Michael W North Boro, MA 3 44
MacLeod, John R Cambridge, MA 1 35
Nelvin, Robert E Derry, NH 1 35
Tetreault, Mark D Northborough, MA 6 180

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Patent Citation Ranking

Forward Cites

Patent Info (Count) # Cites Year
 
APPLE INC. (21)
8,117,651 Method and system for authenticating an accessory 3 2006
7,895,378 Method and system for allowing a media player to transfer digital audio to an accessory 0 2006
8,095,716 Method and system for communicating capability information from an accessory to a media player 2 2008
7,949,810 Techniques for transferring data between a media player and an accessory having a tuner 0 2008
7,853,746 Interface system for enabling data communication between a multi-communication device and other devices 17 2008
8,238,811 Cross-transport authentication 0 2009
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8,082,376 Communication between an accessory and a media player with multiple protocol versions 1 2009
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8,208,853 Accessory device authentication 0 2009
8,006,019 Method and system for transferring stored data between a media player and an accessory 0 2009
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8,171,195 Media player communication with an accessory using a display remote lingo 0 2010
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