System and method for providing functionalities to system BIOS

• US 6,487,656 B1
• Filed: 12/10/1999
• Issued: 11/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Kinglite Holdings Inc.
• Original Assignee: Phoenix Technologies Limited (Pharaoh Acquisition LLC)
• Inventors: Kim, Myungseok, Jystad, Glenn E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Heckler, Thomas M.
• Application Number:
  US09/459,060
• Time in Patent Office: 1,082 Days
• Field of Search: 713/1, 713/2
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4403 Processor initialisation

Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus to provide functionalities to a system BIOS. The method comprises interfacing an interface module to the system BIOS, and receiving a request from the system BIOS to perform a task. System device information associated with the task is received from the system BIOS. The interface module translates the system device information to provide translated information. The translated information is then transferred to a corresponding module.

Claims

1. A method to provide functionalities to a system BIOS, comprising:

interfacing an interface module to the system BIOS;

receiving a request from the system BIOS to perform a task;

receiving the system device information associated with the task from system BIOS;

translating, by the interface module, the system device information to provide translated information; and

transferring the translated information to a corresponding module.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing by the corresponding module, the task associated with the transferred translated information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein performing the task assocaited with the transferred translated information comprises:

retrieving a template corresponding to a graphic object from a storage;

generating a graphic attribute from the template, the graphic attribute characterizing the graphic object; and

generating an image from the graphic object according to the graphic attribute.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the graphic attribute includes a location of the graphic object, a position of display, a size, a zone, a graphic primitive set, an animation primitive set, and a sound set.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the graphic object is one of a banner, a logo, an advertisement item, and a textual item.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

initializing a graphic controller to set a display environment; and

writing the image to a display buffer associated with a graphic controller.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein generating the image comprises:

retrieving the graphic object from the storage based on the graphic attribute; and

transforming the graphic object to the image based on the graphic attribute.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the zone includes a graphic zone, a textual zone, and an animation zone.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage is a non-volatile writable memory.

10. A computer program product comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer program code embodied therein to provide functionalities to a system BIOS, the computer program product having;

computer readable program code to interface an interface module to the system BIOS;

computer readable program code to receive a request from system BIOS to perform a task;

computer readable program code to receive the system device information associated with the task from system BIOS;

computer readable program code to translate the system device information to provide translated information; and

computer readable program code to transfer the translated information to a corresponding module.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

computer readable program code to cause the corresponding module to perform a task associated with the transferred translated information.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program code to cause the corresponding module to perform a task associated with the transferred translated information comprises:

computer readable program code to retrieve a template corresponding to a graphic object from a storage;

computer readable program code to generate a graphic attribute from the template, the graphic attribute characterizing the graphic object; and

computer readable program code to generate an image from the graphic object according to the graphic attribute.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the graphic attribute includes a location of the graphic object, a position of display, a size, a zone, a graphic primitive set, an animation primitive set, and a sound set.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the graphic object is one of a banner, a logo, an advertisement item, and a textual item.

15. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising:

computer readable program code to initialize a graphic controller to set a display environment; and

computer readable program code to write the image to a display buffer associated with a graphic controller.

16. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program code to generate the image comprises:

computer readable program code to retrieve the graphic object from the storage based on the graphic attribute; and

computer readable program code to transform the graphic object to the image based on the graphic attribute.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the zone includes a graphic zone, a textual zone, and an animation zone.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the storage is a non-volatile writable memory.

19. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory containing program code to provide functionalities to system BIOS, the program code, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

interface an interface module to the system BIOS;

receive a request from the system BIOS to perform a task;

receive system device information associated with the task from system BIOS;

cause the interface module to translate the system device information to provide translated information; and

transfer the translated information to a corresponding module.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the program code further causes the processor to:

cause the corresponding module to perform the task associated with the transferred translated information.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the program code causes the processor to cause the corresponding module to perform the task associated with the transferred translated information by:

retrieving a template corresponding to a graphic object from a storage;

generating a graphic attribute from the template, the graphic attribute characterizing the graphic object; and

generating an image from the graphic object according to the graphic attribute.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the graphic attribute includes a location of the graphic object, a position of display, a size, a zone, a graphic primitive set, an animation primitive set, and a sound set.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the graphic object is one of a banner, a logo, an advertisement item, and a textual item.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the program code when executed by the processor further causes the processor to:

initialize a graphic controller to set a display environment; and

write the image to a display buffer associated with a graphic controller.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the program code causes the processor to generating the image by:

retrieving the graphic object from the storage based on the graphic attribute; and

transforming the graphic object to the image based on the graphic attribute.

26. The system of claim 22, wherein the zone indicates a graphic zone, a textual zone, and an animation zone.

27. The system of claim 22, wherein the storage is a non-volatile writable memory.