System and method for logging hardware usage data, and uses for such logged hardware usage data

• US 20060075286A1
• Filed: 10/06/2004
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Hodge, Hunt, Stephens, Gary L.
• Granted Patent: US 7,451,064 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2268 Logging of test results

Abstract

According to at least one embodiment, a system comprises at least one computer system having a Basic Input/Output System (“BIOS”). The system further comprises means for collecting, via the BIOS, data about usage of at least one hardware component of the at least one computer system. According to at least one embodiment, a method comprises harvesting, from each of a plurality of computer systems, logged data regarding usage of hardware components of the computer systems. The method further comprises generating usage profile for the plurality of computer systems based at least in part on the harvested logged data.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

means for collecting, via a basic input/output system (BIOS) of at least one computer system, data about usage of at least one hardware component of said at least one computer system.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting uses system management mode (SMM) commands for collecting at least a portion of said data.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting uses General Purpose Digital Input/Output (GPIO) signal for collecting at least a portion of said data.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting collects said data about at least one usage selected from the group consisting of:

number of closures of a lid of said at least one computer system, number of power downs of said at least one computer system, number of times said at least one computer system was docked to a docking station, number of times an external monitored coupled to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times an external keyboard was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of times an external mouse was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) insertions to the at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA removals from the at least one computer system, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned off, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on alternating current (AC) power, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on direct current (DC) power, maximum temperature reached by a central processor unit (CPU) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said CPU of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a hard-disk drive (HDD) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said HDD of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a battery of said at least one computer system, and duration of time of said battery of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting collects direct hardware usage data.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein said direct hardware usage data comprises data about at least one hardware usage selected from the group consisting of:

number of closures of a lid of said at least one computer system, number of power downs of said at least one computer system, number of times said at least one computer system was docked to a docking station, number of times an external monitored coupled to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times an external keyboard was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of times an external mouse was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) insertions to the at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA removals from the at least one computer system, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned off, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on alternating current (AC) power, and number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on direct current (DC) power.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting collects indirect hardware usage data.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said indirect hardware usage data comprises data about at least one hardware usage selected from the group consisting of:

maximum temperature reached by a central processor unit (CPU) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said CPU of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a hard-disk drive (HDD) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said HDD of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a battery of said at least one computer system, and duration of time of said battery of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature.

9. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

means for collecting, via operating system calls, data about usage of at least one hardware component of said at least one computer system.

10. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

means for at least temporarily communicatively coupling to said at least one computer system and retrieving said collected data.

11. The system of claim 10 further comprising:

means for generating a usage profile for said at least one computer system based at least in part on said retrieved collected data.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for collecting further comprises:

means for generating a usage profile, wherein the generating means receives the usage data of said at least one hardware component and processes said received data to generate a usage profile for the at least one computer system.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said means for generating a usage profile computes an average of the hardware usage data of a plurality of computer systems.

14. The system of claim 1 further comprising a means for generating a usage profile for a plurality of computer systems.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of computer systems comprise all computer systems of a particular model.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the plurality of computer systems comprise all computers of a given business organization.

17. A method comprising:

collecting, via basic input/output system (BIOS) of at least one computer system, data about usage of at least one hardware component of the at least one computer system; and

logging the hardware usage data to non-volatile memory of said at least one computer system.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said collecting comprises:

using system management mode (SMM) commands to collect said data.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein said collecting comprises:

using General Purpose Digital Input/Output (GPIO) signal to collect said data.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein said collecting comprises:

collecting direct hardware usage data.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said collecting direct hardware usage data comprises collecting at least one selected from the group consisting of:

number of closures of a lid of said at least one computer system, number of power downs of said at least one computer system, number of times said at least one computer system was docked to a docking station, number of times an external monitored coupled to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times an external keyboard was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of times an external mouse was coupled to said at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) insertions to the at least one computer system, number of PCMCIA removals from the at least one computer system, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned on, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was turned off, number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on alternating current (AC) power, and number of times a wireless communication link to said at least one computer system was utilized while said at least one computer system operated on direct current (DC) power.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein said collecting comprises:

collecting indirect hardware usage data.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein said collecting indirect hardware usage data comprises collecting at least one selected from the group consisting of:

maximum temperature reached by a central processor unit (CPU) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said CPU of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a hard-disk drive (HDD) of said at least one computer system, duration of time of said HDD of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature, maximum temperature reached by a battery of said at least one computer system, and duration of time of said battery of said at least one computer system spent at said maximum temperature.

24. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

collecting, via operating system calls, data about usage of at least one hardware component of said at least one computer system.

25. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving from said at least one computer system said collected data; and

generating a usage profile for said at least one computer system based at least in part on said received collected data.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein said at least one computer system comprises a plurality of computer systems, and wherein said generating comprises:

generating a usage profile for said plurality of computer systems.

27. The method of claim 26 wherein said generating a usage profile comprises:

computing an average of the hardware usage data of the plurality of computer systems.

28. A system comprising:

at least one processor;

Basic Input/Output System (BIOS);

non-volatile data storage; and

hardware usage logging mechanism implemented in said BIOS that is operable to log data to said non-volatile data storage about user-triggered hardware events of said system.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein said hardware usage logging mechanism uses system management mode (SMM) commands to log at least a portion of said data.

30. The system of claim 28 wherein said hardware usage logging mechanism uses at least one General Purpose Digital Input/Output (GPIO) signal to log at least a portion of said data.

31. The system of claim 28 wherein said hardware usage logging mechanism logs direct hardware usage data.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein said hardware usage logging mechanism further logs indirect hardware usage data.

33. The system of claim 28 further comprising:

a communication interface for at least temporarily communicatively coupling to a processor-based device to communicate said logged data to said processor-based device.

34. Computer-executable software code stored to computer-readable medium comprising:

code for receiving logged data regarding usage of hardware components of a plurality of computer systems; and

code for generating a usage profile for the plurality of computer systems based at least in part on the received logged data.

35. The computer-executable software code of claim 34 wherein said logged data comprises direct hardware usage data.

36. The computer-executable software code of claim 34 wherein said logged data comprises indirect hardware usage data.

37. The computer-executable software code of claim 34 wherein said logged data comprises data logged by each of said plurality of computer systems for their respective hardware usage, and wherein said code for generating a usage profile for said plurality of computer systems comprises:

code for processing said received data to generate a usage profile for the plurality of computer systems.

38. The computer-executable software code of claim 37 wherein said code for processing comprises:

code for computing an average of the hardware usage data of the plurality of computer systems.

39. A method comprising:

harvesting, from each of a plurality of computer systems, logged data regarding usage of hardware components of said computer systems; and

generating usage profile for the plurality of computer systems based at least in part on the harvested logged data.

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising:

logging, via BIOS of each of said plurality of computer systems, said logged data regarding said usage of hardware components of each respective computer system.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein said logging comprises:

using system management mode (SMM) commands to log said data.

42. The method of claim 39 wherein said logged data comprises direct hardware usage data.

43. The method of claim 39 wherein said logged data comprises indirect hardware usage data.

44. The method of claim 39 wherein said plurality of computer systems comprise all computer systems of a particular model.

45. The method of claim 39 wherein the plurality of computer systems comprise all computers of a given business organization.