Hardware cross-emulation using personas
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An emulation apparatus for communicating with at least one external device, the emulation apparatus comprising:
- a communication interface for connecting to the at least one external device;
a persona selection interface for enabling a user to select between a persona of the apparatus and a persona of one of the at least one external device;
storage coupled to the persona emulation engine to store at least one locally stored copy of a persona defining the at least one external device, the persona to be received from one of the at least one external device and a persona server, wherein the persona comprises information sufficient to emulate operations of the at least one external device on the emulation apparatus; and
a persona emulation engine of the emulation apparatus, coupled to the communication interface and the persona selection interface, for booting the emulation apparatus with the persona selected by the user, wherein after booting, the emulation apparatus is to operate as the selected external device.
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for a device to boot as though it were another device. The various devices have published personas describing their operation. A persona selection interface enables a user to select a remote device as which the local device should reboot. Updated personas can be retrieved from the remote devices themselves, or from a persona server. If the emulated operation requires a resource not locally available, the local device negotiates with the remote device to share the remote resource, and failing that, the local device emulates the resource.
16 Citations
27 Claims
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1. An emulation apparatus for communicating with at least one external device, the emulation apparatus comprising:
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a communication interface for connecting to the at least one external device; a persona selection interface for enabling a user to select between a persona of the apparatus and a persona of one of the at least one external device; storage coupled to the persona emulation engine to store at least one locally stored copy of a persona defining the at least one external device, the persona to be received from one of the at least one external device and a persona server, wherein the persona comprises information sufficient to emulate operations of the at least one external device on the emulation apparatus; and a persona emulation engine of the emulation apparatus, coupled to the communication interface and the persona selection interface, for booting the emulation apparatus with the persona selected by the user, wherein after booting, the emulation apparatus is to operate as the selected external device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 27)
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11. An apparatus comprising:
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a processor, the processor to execute a persona emulation engine for emulating personas of a plurality of external devices; storage coupled to the processor for storing a plurality of locally stored copies of remote personas of respective external devices, each remote persona defining the respective external device and comprising information sufficient to emulate operations of the at respective external device on the apparatus; a display; means, coupled to the processor and the storage, for presenting a persona selection interface on the display, the persona selection interface including identifiers of the external devices, the means enabling a user to select between a persona of the apparatus and the external devices; and means for booting the apparatus using the locally stored copy of the remote persona of an external device selected by the user via the persona selection interface, wherein each remote persona comprises information sufficient for the apparatus to operate as the respective external device after booting, wherein the means for booting further comprises the persona emulation engine of the apparatus, coupled to the means for presenting a persona selection interface, for booting the apparatus with the persona selected by the user, wherein after booting, the apparatus is to operate as the selected external device. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of operating an apparatus, the method comprising:
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the apparatus presenting a persona selection interface to a user, the persona selection interface identifying a plurality of external devices; receiving from the user a selection of one of the external devices; checking whether an updated persona is available for the selected external device; and if an updated persona is available, retrieving the updated persona from the selected external device, prior to rebooting, and rebooting being with the undated persona; and rebooting the apparatus with one of the a persona of the selected external device or the updated persona of the selected external device, wherein upon rebooting, the apparatus is to operate as the selected external device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. A method of operating an apparatus, comprising:
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the apparatus presenting a persona selection interface to a user, the persona selection interface identifying a plurality of external devices; receiving from the user a selection of one of the external devices; setting a boot sequence indicator; and copying a BIOS and a driver portion of the selected external device'"'"'s persona; rebooting the apparatus with a persona of the selected external device, wherein upon rebooting, the apparatus is to operate as the selected external device; if an emulated operation of the selected external device requires a hardware resource, (A) if the hardware resource is available locally within the apparatus, using the locally available hardware resource, (B) if the hardware resource is not locally available, (i) negotiating with the selected external device and responsive to the negotiating, (a) if the selected external device will share the hardware resource, using the hardware device of the selected external device, and (b) if the selected external device will not share the hardware resource, locally emulating operation of the hardware resource.
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22. A system comprising:
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a communication network; and coupled to the communication network, a plurality of persona equipped devices, each including, (a) a common data interface, (b) an interface emulation file, (c) a persona selection interface, (d) storage for locally storing copies of remote personas of at least some of the other persona equipped devices, (e) a processor, (f) a communication interface, (g) a persona emulation engine, wherein upon rebooting, each persona equipped device is to operate as a selected other persona equipped device using a locally stored copy of a remote persona corresponding to the selected persona equipped device. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24)
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25. A machine accessible storage medium having instructions stored therein which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:
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present a persona selection interface to a user, the persona selection interface identifying a plurality of external devices; receive from the user a selection of one of the external devices; check whether an updated persona is available for the selected external device, and if an updated persona is available, retrieve the updated persona from the selected external device, prior to rebooting, and use the updated persona in a reboot; and reboot the machine with one of the a persona of the selected external device or the updated persona of the selected external device, wherein upon rebooting, the machine is to operate as the selected external device. - View Dependent Claims (26)
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Specification