SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ACCELERATED LOADING OF OPERATING SYSTEMS AND APPLICATION PROGRAMS

• US 20070083746A1
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Buck, John, Fallon, James, McErlain, Stephen, Pickel, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,090,936 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0676 Magnetic disk device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4408 Boot device selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing accelerated loading of operating system and application programs upon system boot or application launch. In one aspect, a method for providing accelerated loading of an operating system comprises the steps of: maintaining a list of boot data used for booting a computer system; preloading the boot data upon initialization of the computer system; and servicing requests for boot data from the computer system using the preloaded boot data. The boot data may comprise program code associated with an operating system of the computer system, an application program, and a combination thereof. In a preferred embodiment, the boot data is retrieved from a boot device and stored in a cache memory device. In another aspect, the method for accelerated loading of an operating system comprises updating the list of boot data during the boot process, wherein updating comprises adding to the list any boot data requested by the computer system not previously stored in the list and/or removing from the list any boot data previously stored in the list and not requested by the computer system. In yet another aspect, the boot data is stored in a compressed format on the boot device and the preloaded boot data is decompressed prior to transmitting the preloaded boot data to the requesting system. In another aspect, a method for providing accelerated launching of an application program comprises the steps of: maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program; preloading the application data upon launching the application program; and servicing requests for application data from a computer system using the preloaded application data.

Claims

1-16. -16. (canceled)

17. A method comprising:

maintaining a list of boot data used for booting a computer system, wherein at least a portion of said boot data is stored in compressed form on a boot device;

initializing a central processing unit of said computer system;

preloading said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form from said boot device, prior to completion of the initialization of the central processing unit, to a memory;

accessing and decompressing said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form from said memory; and

utilizing said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data to boot said computer system, wherein said at least a portion of said boot data is compressed, to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form, and decompressed by a data compression engine.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an operating system of said computer system.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an application program of said computer system.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an application program and an operating system of said computer system.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein said preloading is performed by a data storage controller connected to said boot device.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising updating the list of boot data.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein Huffman encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein Lempel-Ziv encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein a plurality of encoders are utilized to provide said at least a portion of compressed data in compressed form.

26. The method of claim 17, wherein a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said data in compressed form.

27. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a non-volatile memory device for storing logic code associated with the processor, wherein said logic code comprises instructions executable by the processor for maintaining a list of boot data used for booting the host system, at least a portion of said boot data is stored in compressed form in said non-volatile memory device, said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form is preloaded into said memory prior to completion of the initialization of the central processing unit, and said preloaded at least a portion of boot data in compressed form is decompressed and utilized to boot said computer system; and

a data compression engine for providing said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form by compressing said at least a portion of said boot data and decompressing said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form to provide said decompressed at least a portion of boot data.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said logic code further comprises program instructions executable by said processor for maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein said logic code further comprises program instructions executable by said processor for maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program, and wherein said application data is preloaded upon launching the application program and utilized by said computer system.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein Huffman encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

31. The system of claim 27, wherein Lempel-Ziv encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein a plurality of encoders are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.