Mechanism for enabling a program to be executed while the execution of an operating system is suspended
First Claim
1. A method implemented in a computer system, the computer system having an operating system executing thereon, the method comprising:
- allocating a portion of memory for exclusive use by an auxiliary program;
suspending execution of the operating system; and
executing the auxiliary program from the portion of a memory that allocated for exclusive use by the auxiliary program while execution of the operating system is suspended, the auxiliary program comprising a self-contained program that contains all components for operating the auxiliary program.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A mechanism is provided for enabling an auxiliary program to be executed in a computer system, after an operating system has been loaded and executed, without rebooting the computer system. This may be achieved by suspending execution of the operating system, executing the auxiliary program while execution of the operating system is suspended, and then resuming execution of the operating system. In suspending execution of the operating system, state information defining a current state of the computer system is saved. In resuming execution of the operating system, the saved state information is used to restore the computer system to the current state. No state information or data should be lost as a result of suspending and resuming execution of the operating system. From the viewpoint of the operating system and the applications (if any) executing within the environment provided by the operating system, execution of the auxiliary program is transparent.
101 Citations
39 Claims
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1. A method implemented in a computer system, the computer system having an operating system executing thereon, the method comprising:
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allocating a portion of memory for exclusive use by an auxiliary program; suspending execution of the operating system; and executing the auxiliary program from the portion of a memory that allocated for exclusive use by the auxiliary program while execution of the operating system is suspended, the auxiliary program comprising a self-contained program that contains all components for operating the auxiliary program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer system, comprising:
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a mechanism for allocating a portion of memory for exclusive use by an auxiliary program; a mechanism for causing execution of an operating system to be suspended; and a mechanism for causing an auxiliary program to be executed from the portion of memory that is allocated for exclusive use by the auxiliary program while execution of the operating system is suspended, the auxiliary program comprising a self-contained program that contains all components for operating the auxiliary program. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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39. (canceled)
Specification