RAPID ACCESS TO DATA ON A POWERED DOWN PERSONAL COMPUTER

• US 20110087643A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pablo Salazar, Peter D. Hunt, Valiuddin Ali
• Original Assignee: Pablo Salazar, Peter D. Hunt, Valiuddin Ali
• Inventors: Hunt, Peter D., Ali, Valiuddin, Salazar, Pablo
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,301 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3203 Power management, i.e. event-based initiation of a power-saving mode
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4418 Suspend and resume; Hibernate and awake
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments provide rapid access to information stored on a personal computing device even though the personal computing device is powered off or otherwise in a low-power consumption state such as a sleep state or hibernation state. An software component gathers user data in a location such as a non-volatile memory associated with a host computer. A browser component accesses the stored data and makes it available to the user when the host computer is powered down or otherwise in a state of low power consumption.

Claims

1. A system for providing access to data, comprising:

a component on a host system to collect user data if an application program is executing in an operating system on the host system and store the user data in a file; and

a User Interface to output the user data stored in the file if the operating system is not executed on the host system.

2. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the User interface is activated by pressing a key without powering the host system on or awakening it from the state of reduced power consumption.

3. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the component is to collect a plurality of types of user data and store the user data of each type in a different file.

4. The system set forth in claim 3 wherein the system is adapted to process the stored user data using a style sheet.

5. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the application program does not access the file.

6. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the user data is PIM (personal information management data.

7. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the user interface is executed from a BIOS.

8. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein prior to the user interface output the data the system is powered off or in a state of low power consumption.

9. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the user data is stored on the storage device in at least one of a HTML or xml format.

10. The system set forth in claim 1 wherein the user interface is a browser.

11. A computer system that is adapted to execute an application program and to be placed in a powered off state and at least one state of reduced power consumption, the computer system comprising:

a component that is adapted to execute on the computer system and to collect user data if the application program is executing in an operating system on the computer system and store the user data in a file; and

a user interface independent of the operating system that is adapted output the user data stored in the file if prior to output the user date the computer system is in the powered off state or in the at least one state of reduced power consumption.

12. The computer system set forth in claim 11 wherein the user interface is adapted to read the user information from the file without powering the computer system on or awakening it from the at least one state of reduced power consumption.

13. The computer system set forth in claim 11 wherein the component is adapted to collect a plurality of types of user data and store the user data of each type in a different file.

14. The computer system set forth in claim 13 wherein the system is adapted to process the file using a style sheet.

15. A method for providing access to data in a host system, comprising the acts of:

storing in a file, using a component, user data generated from an application program executing in an operating system;

reading the user data in the file with a browser without executing the operating system; and

outputting the user data on a user interface without executing the operating system.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising reading the file from the storage device without powering the host system on or awakening it from the state of reduced power consumption.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising processing the file with a style sheet.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the file is stored on the storage device in at least one of HTML or XML format.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein prior to the output of user data on the user interface the host system is in an off state or a state of reduced power consumption.

20. The method of claim 15 wherein only the browser and the component access the file.