Communication with a handheld device during power up initialization of a system

• US 20050080956A1
• Filed: 10/09/2003
• Published: 04/14/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/31/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Brown, Andrew, Zaudtke, Stephen M., Hascall, Douglas R.
• Application Number:
  US10/682,349
• Publication Number:
  US 20050080956A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/72
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A system includes a storage to store code for performing power up initialization of the system, and an interface to communicate with a handheld computing device. The code is executable on a processor to communicate with the handheld computing device through the interface during power up initialization of the system.

Claims

1. A computer diagnostic system, comprising:

a computer with a communication port;

an I/O system that enables communication via the communication port during power up self test (POST) of the computer; and

a handheld device with a communication port configured to communicate with the computer via the computer communication port, the handheld device interfacing with the computer during POST.

2. The computer diagnostic system of claim 1, the I/O system comprising:

a system ROM including I/O code to enable communications with the handheld device when executed; and

a processor that executes the I/O code during POST upon power up of the computer.

3. The computer diagnostic system of claim 2, the I/O code enabling the handheld device to emulate at least one I/O device.

4. The computer diagnostic system of claim 3, the at least one I/O device including any one or more of a keyboard, a mouse, a disk drive and a monitor.

5. The computer diagnostic system of claim 1, further comprising:

the communication port of the computer comprising a serial port;

the handheld device communication port comprising a serial port; and

a serial cable coupled between the serial ports of the handheld device and the computer.

6. The computer diagnostic system of claim 1, further comprising:

the computer communication port comprising an infrared transceiver;

the handheld communication port comprising an infrared transceiver;

an I/O bus;

a microcontroller coupled to the I/O bus and the computer infrared transceiver; and

a memory coupled to the microcontroller.

7. The computer diagnostic system of claim 6, further comprising:

the microcontroller, the computer infrared transceiver and the memory receiving auxiliary power that provides power when the computer is powered down; and

the handheld device retrieving information from the memory while the computer is powered down.

8. A system comprising:

a storage to store code for performing power up initialization of the system;

an interface to communicate with a handheld computing device; and

a processor, the code executable on the processor to communicate with the handheld computing device through the interface during power up initialization of the system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the code is executable by the processor to enable the system to send commands to the handheld computing device and to receive commands from the handheld computing device through the interface during power up initialization of the system.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the code is executable by the processor to send commands to the handheld computing device to perform at least one of storing data and displaying information on the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system.

11. The system of claim 8, further comprising a disk drive and a video device, wherein the code is executable by the processor to initialize operations of the disk drive and the video drive.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the code is executable by the processor to receive commands from the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the code is executable by the processor to enable performance of at least one of the following functions by the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system:

keyboard functions, mouse functions, video functions, and disk drive functions.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the code is executable by the processor to output data through the interface to the handheld computing device for display by the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system.

15. The system of claim 8, wherein the code is executable by the processor to enable the handheld computing device to emulate input/output functions of the system during power up initialization of the system.

16. The system of claim 8, wherein the code is executable by the processor to receive diagnostic commands through the interface from the handheld computing device to perform diagnostics of the system during power up initialization of the system.

17. The system of claim 8, wherein the code comprises BIOS code, and wherein the code is executable to enable the handheld computing device to update the BIOS code during power up initialization of the system.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the storage comprises system memory, the system further comprising non-volatile memory to store the BIOS code, the BIOS code to be loaded from the non-volatile memory to system memory for execution by the processor.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the BIOS code in the non-volatile memory is updated by the handheld computing device.

20. A handheld device comprising:

a processor; and

an interface to communicate with a computer having code to perform power up initialization of the computer,

the processor to interact with the code in the computer to perform tasks in the computer during power up initialization of the computer.

21. The handheld device of claim 20, the processor to emulate input/output functions of the computer during power up initialization of the computer.

22. The handheld device of claim 20, the processor to emulate at least one of the following functions during power up initialization of the computer:

mouse functions, keyboard functions, storage functions, and display functions.

23. A method executable in a system, comprising:

storing code to perform power up initialization of the system; and

executing the code to communicate with a handheld computing device through an interface of the system during power up initialization of the system.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising receiving commands from the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising enabling performance of at least one of the following functions by the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system:

keyboard functions, mouse functions, video functions, and disk drive functions.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising enabling the handheld computing device to emulate input/output functions of the system during power up initialization of the system.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising receiving diagnostic commands through the interface from the handheld computing device to perform diagnostics of the system during power up initialization of the system.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising sending information to the handheld computing device through the interface for display by the handheld computing device during power up initialization of the system.

28. The method of clam 23, further comprising updating the code under command of the handheld computing device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein updating the code under command of the handheld computing device comprises updating BIOS code under command of the handheld computing device.