Distributed program relocation for a computer system

• US 7,058,930 B2
• Filed: 08/19/2002
• Issued: 06/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Electric Works Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Asahi Matsushita Electric Works Ltd. (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Howard, Michael L., Coffin, Stephen C.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN BA, HOANG VU A
• Application Number:
  US10/223,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20030005158A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 717/136, 717162-178, 709/212, 709/224, 710/22, 710/26, 713/200, 719/331, 370/455, 380/242, 714/8
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/54 Link editing before load time

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for preparing program code for a first computer, wherein the systems and methods are implemented on a second computer. The systems include a relocating module that is adapted to relocate program code by modifying locations in the program code identified by location data. The modifications made by the relocating module are based on a memory address. The systems operate on program code for the first computer, where the program code is stored on the second computer. The relocating module is provided the memory address that identifies a memory location in the first computer. The memory address is suitable as a basis for modifying the program code. The relocating module is also provided with location data that identifies locations in the program code to be adjusted based on the memory address.

Claims

1. A system embodied in a computer-readable storage medium for preparing program code for an embedded microcontroller wherein the system is executable by a host computer and not executable by the embedded microcontroller, the system comprising:

relocatable microcontroller program code executable by the embedded microcontroller;

a memory address identifying a memory location in the embedded microcontroller with an area sufficient to store the relocatable microcontroller program code;

a relocation table identifying addresses in the relocatable microcontroller program code to be adjusted based on the memory address; and

a relocating module executable by the host computer and not executable by the embedded microcontroller, the relocating module adapted to relocate the relocatable microcontroller program code to the area by modifying the addresses in the relocatable microcontroller program code identified by the relocation table, the modifications being based on the memory address.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising information regarding memory usage of the embedded microcontroller from which the memory address is derived.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the relocation table further comprises a plurality of offset addresses.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory address is obtained from the embedded microcontroller.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a communication module at the host computer for obtaining the memory address and for communicating the relocatable microcontroller program code to the embedded microcontroller.