Controller having a restart engine configured to initiate a controller restart cycle upon receipt of a timeout signal from a watchdog timer
First Claim
1. A controller coupled to a host processor, the host processor being configured to execute a software program, the controller comprising:
- a nonvolatile memory;
a context data save engine adapted to selectively save the context of the software program to the nonvolatile memory;
a context data recovery engine adapted to recover the saved context from the nonvolatile memory, the software program being adapted to resume its execution in the host processor from the recovered saved context upon software program boot up subsequent to a restart engine-initiated controller restart cycle;
a watchdog timer, the watchdog timer being configured to timeout and generate an alert signal unless periodically reset; and
a restart engine configured to initiate a controller restart cycle upon receiving the alert signal;
wherein the software program is divided into a plurality of selected execution sequences, each of the execution sequences comprising a checkpoint at which the context of execution of the program is saved to the non-volatile memory and the watchdog timer is reset to a pre-selected timeout value that is sufficiently large to avoid the watchdog timer lapsing before the software program reaches the next checkpoint through normal execution.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An electronic controller for conducting trusted lightweight e-commerce transactions. A trusted transactional cache and the associated transactional protocol allow e-commerce transactions to be committed to a remote server extremely quickly and with little network overhead. The end-to-end transactions are completed is just a few seconds or less. The invention operates equally well on robust private networks as on unpredictable Internet or wireless networks. The transaction is automatically completed following a temporary communication failure with the central site or following a temporary local controller failure. The invention can advantageously be used in embedded Internet products such as fixed or mobile Internet kiosks, transactional terminals, and Internet Appliances.
39 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A controller coupled to a host processor, the host processor being configured to execute a software program, the controller comprising:
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a nonvolatile memory; a context data save engine adapted to selectively save the context of the software program to the nonvolatile memory; a context data recovery engine adapted to recover the saved context from the nonvolatile memory, the software program being adapted to resume its execution in the host processor from the recovered saved context upon software program boot up subsequent to a restart engine-initiated controller restart cycle; a watchdog timer, the watchdog timer being configured to timeout and generate an alert signal unless periodically reset; and a restart engine configured to initiate a controller restart cycle upon receiving the alert signal; wherein the software program is divided into a plurality of selected execution sequences, each of the execution sequences comprising a checkpoint at which the context of execution of the program is saved to the non-volatile memory and the watchdog timer is reset to a pre-selected timeout value that is sufficiently large to avoid the watchdog timer lapsing before the software program reaches the next checkpoint through normal execution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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Specification