System for automatic hardware identification and configuration where instance values are unique within the computer system and resource requirement conflicts are resolved by modifying resource settings
First Claim
1. A automatic identification system in a computer system having a plurality of hardware instances located on hardware devices in the computer system, the computer system including a plurality of physical slots each configured to connect to a hardware device and referenced by a slot number, the system comprising:
- means for assigning a hardware instance value to each of the plurality of hardware instances, said hardware instance value being unique within the computer system and based upon the physical slot number of the physical slot to which the hardware device is connected, said means configured to assign said unique hardware instance regardless of a quantity of physical slots that are assigned a slot number that is not unique within the computer system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automatic identification system in a computer system having a plurality of hardware instances located on hardware devices in the computer system. The computer system includes a plurality of physical slots each configured to receive a hardware device and referenced by a slot number. The system comprises means for assigning a hardware instance value to each of the plurality of hardware instances, the hardware instance value being unique within the computer system when two or more of the plurality of physical slots are assigned a slot number that is not unique within the computer system. Advantageously, the hardware instance value is unique within the computer system when two or more of the plurality of hardware instances are located on one of the hardware devices or when one or more of the hardware devices is installed in an expansion chassis coupled to the computer system. The hardware instance value is also unique within the computer system when one of the hardware devices includes one or more of the hardware instances coupled to an I/O bus within the hardware device or when one or more of the hardware devices is installed on a system board in the computer system. In one embodiment of the invention, the hardware instance value is a hardware instance number. In another embodiment, the hardware instance value is a hardware instance name that is easily identifiable by the user.
138 Citations
61 Claims
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1. A automatic identification system in a computer system having a plurality of hardware instances located on hardware devices in the computer system, the computer system including a plurality of physical slots each configured to connect to a hardware device and referenced by a slot number, the system comprising:
means for assigning a hardware instance value to each of the plurality of hardware instances, said hardware instance value being unique within the computer system and based upon the physical slot number of the physical slot to which the hardware device is connected, said means configured to assign said unique hardware instance regardless of a quantity of physical slots that are assigned a slot number that is not unique within the computer system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. An identification and configuration system in a computer system having a hardware instance and a plurality of drivers capable of supporting the hardware instance, the hardware instance including a plurality of resource settings, the system comprising:
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means for determining a relative capability of each of the plurality of drivers to support the hardware instance; means for selecting an optimal driver having a capability to support the hardware instance than is greater than a capability of other drivers to support the instance; and means for resolving conflicts between a resource setting of the hardware instance and a resource setting of another hardware instance, wherein, for each identified resource setting conflict, said means for resolving either modifies the resource setting in the hardware instance to a non-conflicting setting or, if unable to do so, prevents loading of the selected optimal driver. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An automatic identification and configuration system in a computer system having a plurality of hardware instances located on hardware devices in the computer system, the computer system including a plurality of physical slots each configured to receive a hardware device and referenced by a slot number, and a plurality of drivers capable of supporting the hardware instances, the system comprising:
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means for assigning a hardware instance value to each of the plurality of hardware instances, said hardware instance value being unique within the computer system; means for determining a relative capability of each of the plurality of drivers to support the hardware instance; means for selecting an optimal driver having a capability to support the hardware instance that is greater than a capability of other drivers to support the hardware instance; means for resolving conflicts between a resource setting of the hardware instance and a resource setting of another hardware instance, wherein, for each identified resource setting conflict, said means for resolving either modifies the resource setting in the first hardware configuration information to a non-conflicting setting or, if unable to do so, prevents loading of the selected optimal driver; and means for installing said optimal driver. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A hardware identification and configuration system in a general purpose computer system including a first hardware device having first hardware configuration information and a second hardware device having second hardware configuration information, the system comprising:
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an identification mechanism configured to obtain said first and second hardware configuration information; and a configuration mechanism configured to resolve a conflict between said first and second hardware configuration information, wherein said conflict is a conflict between resource requirements of said first and second hardware configuration information and wherein, for each identified resource setting conflict, said configuration mechanism for resolving modifies the resource setting in the first hardware configuration information to a non-conflicting setting. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A method for automatically identifying and configuring a plurality of hardware instances on a computer system, the method comprising the following steps:
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a) uniquely identifying each of the plurality of hardware instances; b) selecting an optimal driver with the highest relative capability from a plurality of drivers configured to support each of the plurality of hardware instances; c) resolving a conflict between a resource requirement setting of a first hardware instance and a resource requirement setting of a second hardware instance, including the steps of, 1) determining that the conflict exists, and 2) attempting to modifying a resource requirement setting in the first hardware instance to a non-conflicting setting when a conflict is identified in step
1); andd) if the resourd requirement setting is a non-conflicting setting, loading said selected optimal driver into a run-time memory of the computer system, otherwise, avoid loading of the selected optimal driver. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A computer readable medium encoded with a program that, when executed on a computer system, performs a method for automatically identifying and configuring a plurality of hardware instances on the computer system, the method comprising steps of:
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a) uniquely identifying each of the plurality of hardware instances; b) selecting an optimal driver with the highest relative capability from a plurality of drivers configured to support each of the plurality of hardware instances; c) resolving a conflict between a resource requirement setting of a first hardware instance and a resource requirement setting of a second hardware instance, including the steps of, 1) determining that the conflict exists, and 2) attempting to modifying a resource requirement setting in the first hardware instance to a non-conflicting setting when a conflict is identified in step
1); andd) if the resource requirement setting is a non-conflicting setting, loading said selected optimal driver into a run-time memory of the computer system, otherwise, avoid loading of the selected optimal driver. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56)
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57. A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having a computer program logic thereon for enabling a processor in a computer system to automatically identify and configure hardware in a general purpose computer system, the computer system including a first hardware device having first hardware configuration information and a second hardware device having second hardware configuration information, the computer program product comprising:
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an identification mechanism configured to obtain said first and second hardware configuration information; and a configuration mechanism configured to resolve a conflict between said first and second hardware configuration information, wherein said conflict is a conflict between resource requirements of said first and second hardware configuration information and wherein, for each identified resource setting conflict, said configuration mechanism for resolving modifies the resource setting in the first hardware configuration information to a non-conflicting setting. - View Dependent Claims (58, 59, 60, 61)
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Specification