Hardware cross-emulation using personas

• US 20020171679A1
• Filed: 05/17/2001
• Published: 11/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Clapper, Edward O.
• Granted Patent: US 7,373,495 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4416 Network booting; Remote initial program loading [RIPL]

Abstract

An apparatus and method for a device to boot as though it were another device. The various devices have published personas describing their operation. A persona selection interface enables a user to select a remote device as which the local device should reboot. Updated personas can be retrieved from the remote devices themselves, or from a persona server. If the emulated operation requires a resource not locally available, the local device negotiates with the remote device to share the remote resource, and failing that, the local device emulates the resource.

Claims

1. An apparatus for communicating with an external device, the apparatus comprising:

a communication interface for connecting to the external device;

a persona selection interface for enabling a user to select between a persona of the apparatus and a persona of the external device; and

a persona emulation engine, coupled to the communication interface and the persona selection interface, for booting the apparatus with the persona selected by the user.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

storage, coupled to the persona emulation engine, capable of storing local copies of the persona of the external device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:

stored in the storage, respective local copies of at least one persona of at least one external device.

4. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:

a processor coupled to the persona emulation engine; and

stored in the storage, a plurality of boot sequences for execution by the processor in response to the persona selected by the user.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a persona enumerator for determining whether other persona equipped external devices are coupled to the communication interface.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the persona enumerator comprises:

means for sending a ping to previously-seen external devices over the communication interface.

7. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the persona enumerator comprises:

means for sending a global inquiry to elicit identifying responses from external devices over the communication interface.

8. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the persona enumerator comprises:

means for announcing the apparatus'"'"'s presence to external devices over the communication interface.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

a data format converter; and

a hardware format.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

an interface emulation file coupled to the persona selection interface.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:

means, responsive to the apparatus having been booted as an external device which includes a resource not provided by the apparatus, for accessing that resource over the communication interface.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the persona selection interface comprises:

a plurality of controls each identifying a respective one of the external devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the persona selection interface comprises:

an indication that a specified external device is not available.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the persona selection interface comprises:

an indication that a published persona of a specified external device has expired.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the persona selection interface comprises:

an indication that a specified external device has announced the availability of a remote persona that is newer than a copy of its remote persona presently stored by the apparatus.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the persona selection interface comprises:

a plurality of graphical user interface buttons each corresponding to a respective external device.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

if no persona is available for the selected external device, receiving another selection from the user.

20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

checking whether an updated persona is available for the selected external device; and

if an updated persona is available,

retrieving the updated persona prior to rebooting, and

the rebooting being with the updated persona.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the retrieving comprises:

receiving the updated persona from the selected external device.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein the retrieving comprises:

receiving the updated persona from a persona server.

23. The method of claim 18 further comprising, prior to rebooting:

setting a boot sequence indicator; and

copying a BIOS and a driver portion of the selected external device'"'"'s persona.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising, after rebooting:

if an emulated operation of the selected external device requires a hardware resource,

(A) if the hardware resource is available locally within the apparatus, using the locally available hardware resource,

(B) if the hardware resource is not locally available,

(i) negotiating with the selected external device and responsive to the negotiating,

(a) if the selected external device will share the hardware resource, using the hardware device of the selected external device, and

(b) if the selected external device will not share the hardware resource, locally emulating operation of the hardware resource.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein each of the persona equipped devices further comprises:

a persona overlay controller;

an emulation negotiator;

a data format converter; and

a hardware format; and

a plurality of boot sequences.

27. The system of claim 25 further comprising:

a persona server coupled to the network for providing updated personas of emulated devices to emulating devices of the plurality of persona equipped devices.

29. The machine accessible medium of claim 28 further including therein instructions which, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

check whether an updated persona is available for the selected external device; and

if an updated persona is available,

retrieve the updated persona prior to rebooting, and

use the updated persona in the reboot.

30. The machine accessible medium of claim 28 further including therein instructions which, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

if an emulated operation of the selected external device requires a hardware resource,

(A) if the hardware resource is available locally within the apparatus, use the locally available hardware resource, and

(B) if the hardware resource is not locally available,

(i) negotiate with the selected external device and

(a) if the selected external device will share the hardware resource, use the hardware device of the selected external device, and

(b) if the selected external device will not share the hardware resource, locally emulate operation of the hardware resource.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

storage storing a plurality of locally stored copies of remote personas of respective external devices;

a display;

means, coupled to the processor and the storage, for presenting a persona selection interface on the display, the persona selection interface including identifiers of the external devices; and

means for booting the apparatus using the locally stored copy of the remote persona of an external device selected by a user via the persona selection interface.

18. A method of operating an apparatus, the method comprising:

presenting a persona selection interface to a user, the persona selection interface identifying a plurality of external devices;

receiving from the user a selection of one of the external devices;

rebooting the apparatus with a persona of the selected external device.

25. A system comprising:

a communication network; and

coupled to the communication network, a plurality of persona equipped devices, each including,

(a) a common data interface,

(b) an interface emulation file,

(c) a persona selection interface,

(d) storage for locally storing copies of remote personas of at least some of the other persona equipped devices,

(e) a processor,

(f) a communication interface,

(g) a persona emulation engine.

28. A machine accessible medium including therein instructions which, when executed by the machine, cause the machine to:

present a persona selection interface to a user, the persona selection interface identifying a plurality of external devices;

receive from the user a selection of one of the external devices; and

reboot the apparatus with a persona of the selected external device.