Storing a driver for controlling a memory

• US 8,131,917 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2011
• Issued: 03/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Cornwell, Michael J., Dudte, Christopher P., Norum, Carl
• Primary Examiner(s): YU, JAE UN
• Application Number:
  US13/207,192
• Publication Number:
  US 20110296092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 209 Days
• Field of Search: 711/103, 711/105, 711/154, 711/165, 713/1, 719/327
• US Class Current: 711/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

Systems and techniques for accessing a memory, such as a NAND or NOR flash memory, involve storing an operating application for a computing device in a first memory and storing a driver containing software operable to control the first memory in a second memory that is independently accessible from the first memory. By storing the driver in a second memory that is independently accessible from the first memory, changes to the driver and/or the first memory can be made without altering the operating application.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing an operating application for a computing device in a first memory; and

storing a driver for the first memory in a second memory that is independently accessible relative to the first memory, wherein the driver includes software operable to control access to the first memory subsequent to execution of a boot sequence for the computing device, wherein a capacity of the second memory is less than a capacity of the first memory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first memory comprises a NAND flash memory.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the second memory comprises a NOR flash memory.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising loading the driver from the NOR flash memory in response to a start up of the computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing the driver to load the operating application.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the driver is executed from the second memory.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

loading the driver into a third memory; and

executing the driver from the third memory.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the third memory is a random access memory.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing the driver from the second memory using execution in place techniques.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing the driver for accessing user data stored on the first memory.

11. An article comprising a machine-readable medium storing instructions for causing data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

accessing a driver stored in a first memory, the driver containing software operable to control access to user data subsequent to execution of a boot sequence for the data processing apparatus, the user data stored in a second memory that is independently accessible relative to the first memory; and

executing the driver directly from the first memory.

12. The article of claim 11, wherein executing the driver allows a processor to access an application stored in the second memory.

13. The article of claim 12, wherein accessing the application includes loading the application into a random access memory.

14. The article of claim 12, wherein accessing the application includes executing the application directly from the second memory.

15. The article of claim 12, wherein the operations further comprise at least one of loading an operating system or executing an MP3 playback application in response to access of the application.

16. The article of claim 11, wherein the first memory comprises a NOR flash.

17. The article of claim 11, wherein the second memory comprises a NAND flash.

18. A system comprising:

a first flash memory storing an operating application;

a second flash memory, independently accessible relative to the first flash memory, storing a driver operable to control access to user data stored on the first flash memory subsequent to executing a boot sequence that includes loading the operating application from the first flash memory;

a host processor operable to execute the driver stored in the second flash memory to load the operating application from the first flash memory.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the host processor is operable to load the driver from the second flash memory into a random access memory prior to executing the driver.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the host processor is operable to execute the driver directly from the second flash memory using execution in place.