Determining computer information from processor properties

• US 7,904,460 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Armour, David J., Kalki, Jagadeesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): HOLLAND, SHERYL L
• Application Number:
  US12/107,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: 707/747
• US Class Current: 707/747
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9014 hash tables
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Described is a technology by which directly ascertainable properties of a processor are collected, and used as a key to access other information about the processor, such as age-related information maintained in a separate lookup table. If a matching entry is not found, the property information may be added to an unknown list and/or used to dynamically update the lookup table. A data structure such as a record comprises a set of fields including fields containing data representative of properties of a processor, a key value determined from the data in at least some of the fields and an identifier that identifies the processor relative to other processors of other computing devices. The fields may include manufacturer data, brand identifier data, cache information, normalized processor speed data, mobile chip information and/or CPU model data.

Claims

1. In a computing environment having a computer-based system, a method comprising,

using a processing unit, collecting properties of a processor;

storing the collected properties in a data structure containing information related to the processor, wherein the data structure comprises information related to the processor includes creation date information that is indexed by a key determined from a combination of at least some of the properties, wherein the properties for a given processor include a hash value representative of at least two other properties,

accessing the data structure based upon at least some of the properties to access other information with respect to the processor, wherein using data based upon the properties to access other information with respect to the processor comprises looking up a creation date based upon the properties, and associating the creation date with the processor, and,

determining an approximate age of the computer-based system based upon the creation date of the processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein using the data based upon the properties to access other information comprises hashing at least some of the properties into a key for use in accessing a lookup table.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, normalizing at least one of the properties into part of the data that is based upon the properties.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein using the data based upon the properties to access other information comprises generating a key for use in accessing a lookup table, and further comprising, adding information with respect to the processor to an unknown list if the key does not have an entry in the table.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein using the data based upon the properties to access other information comprises generating a key for use in accessing a lookup table, and further comprising, determining whether the processor is likely a new processor if the key does not have an entry in the table, and if so, updating the lookup table with a new entry corresponding to this key.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising, associating the key with the data based upon the properties.

7. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

a computer comprising a processing unit, the computer further comprising;

a data structure containing information related to a processor, wherein the data structure comprises information related to the processor includes creation date information that is indexed by a key determined from a combination of at least some of the properties; and

a processor determination mechanism coupled to the data structure, the processor determination mechanism configured to collect properties for a given processor, and to access the data structure based on at least some of those properties to obtain at least some of the information related to that given processor, wherein the properties for the given processor include a hash value representative of at least two other properties.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the data structure comprises a lookup table.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the data structure information related to the processor includes processor creation date information, processor recall information, processor compatibility information, or processor clocking information, or any combination of processor creation date information, processor recall information, processor compatibility information, or processor clocking information.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the properties for the given processor include a property related to a manufacturer of the processor, a property related to a brand identifier for the processor, a property related to processor cache information, a property related to normalized processor speed data, a property related to mobile chip data or a property related to a name of a CPU model, or any combination of properties related to a manufacturer of the processor, a brand identifier for the processor, processor cache information, normalized processor speed data, mobile chip data or a name of the CPU model.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the properties for the given processor include an identifier that identifies the processor relative to other processors of other computing devices in the computing environment.

12. One or more computer-readable storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that perform acts comprising:

using a processing unit, collecting properties of a processor;

storing the collected properties in a data structure containing information related to the processor, wherein the data structure comprises information related to the processor includes creation date information that is indexed by a key determined from a combination of at least some of the properties, wherein the properties for a given processor include a hash value representative of at least two other properties,

accessing the data structure based upon at least some of the properties to access other information with respect to the processor, wherein using data based upon the properties to access other information with respect to the processor comprises looking up a creation date based upon the properties, and associating the creation date with the processor, and,

determining an approximate age of the computer-based system based upon the creation date of the processor.

13. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 12 wherein the key value comprises a hash of data from at least two fields containing the data representative of the properties of the processor.

14. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 12 wherein when accessed, the information with respect to the processor is maintained in another field of the data structure.

15. The one or more computer-readable storage media of claim 12 wherein the set of fields include data related to a manufacturer of the processor, data related to a brand identifier for the processor, data related to processor cache information, data related to normalized processor speed data, data related to mobile chip information or data related to a name of a CPU model, or any combination of a manufacturer of the processor, a brand identifier for the processor, processor cache information, normalized processor speed data, mobile chip data or a name of the CPU model.