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Remote booting of an operating system by a network

  • US 5,577,210 A
  • Filed: 06/16/1993
  • Issued: 11/19/1996
  • Est. Priority Date: 10/17/1991
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A method for remote booting by a server of at least one terminal, wherein said terminal includes a volatile memory, at least one processor, a telecommunications card enabling connection to the server by a network, said server being provided with telecommunication means and memory means of sufficient capacity to store a communications protocol, an operating system for the terminal stored in an image file, a server operating system, and applications programs, wherein said method comprises the steps of remote loading said terminal with a startup program, and transforming a first interruption produced by the terminal when the terminal is powered up into a request for reading the image file stored in the server;

  • wherein said step of remote loading said terminal with a startup program includes loading a file allocation table (FAT) into the volatile memory to define a diskette number, a head number, a track number, a track sector number, and a file name for said terminal files, and loading a sector description table (SDT) into the volatile memory to establish a correspondence between said terminal files and a diskette number, a track number, a track sector number, and chapter numbers of the image file of the server;

    and further wherein the step of remote loading of the startup program comprises the steps of loading a startup (BOOT) sector into the volatile memory, starting the execution of said startup program, wherein the execution of said startup program includes file request interruptions for requesting access to nonexistent terminal files of nonexistent magnetic peripherals of the terminal, and transforming said file request interruptions into requests for reading a corresponding image file in the server; and

    said method further including the step of providing an emulation program for transformation of the file request interruptions, and storing said emulation program in a nonvolatile memory of the telecommunications card.

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