Systems and methods for accelerated loading of operating systems and application programs

• US 8,090,936 B2
• Filed: 10/19/2006
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Realtime Data LLC (Realtime Data Compression Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fallon, James J., Buck, John, Pickel, Paul F., McErlain, Stephen J.
• Primary Examiner(s): SURYAWANSHI, SURESH
• Application Number:
  US11/551,204
• Publication Number:
  US 20070083746A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,902 Days
• Field of Search: 713/2
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/24 Resetting means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0658 Controller construction arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0676 Magnetic disk device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4401 Bootstrapping security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4408 Boot device selection
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/30 Compression speech analysis-synthesis for redundancy reduction G10L19/00; for image communication H04N; Expansion; Suppression of unnecessary data, e.g. redundancy reduction

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing accelerated loading of operating system and application programs. In one aspect, a method for providing accelerated loading of an operating system comprises the steps of: maintaining a list of boot data; preloading the boot data upon initialization of the computer system; and servicing requests for boot data from the computer system using the preloaded boot data. In a preferred embodiment, the boot data is retrieved from a boot device and stored in a cache memory device. In another aspect, a method for accelerated loading of an operating system comprises updating the list of boot data during the boot process, wherein updating comprises adding to the list any boot data requested by the computer system not previously stored in the list and/or removing from the list any boot data previously stored in the list and not requested by the computer system.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

maintaining a list of boot data used for booting a computer system, wherein at least a portion of said boot data is compressed by a data compression engine to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form, and stored in compressed form on a boot device;

initializing a central processing unit of said computer system;

preloading said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form from said boot device to a memory;

accessing and decompressing said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form from said memory; and

utilizing said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data to boot said computer system, wherein said at least a portion of said boot data is decompressed by said data compression engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an operating system of said computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an application program of said computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said decompressed at least a portion of said boot data comprises program code associated with an application program and an operating system of said computer system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said preloading is performed by a data storage controller connected to said boot device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the list of boot data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein Huffman encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein Lempel-Ziv encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in said compressed form.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of encoders are utilized to provide said at least a portion of compressed data in compressed form.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said data in compressed form.

11. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a non-volatile memory device for storing logic code associated with the processor, wherein said logic code comprises instructions executable by the processor for maintaining a list of boot data used for booting the host system, at least a portion of said boot data is stored in compressed form in said non-volatile memory device, said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form is preloaded into said memory, and said preloaded at least a portion of boot data in compressed form is decompressed and utilized to boot said computer system; and

a data compression engine for providing said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form by compressing said at least a portion of said boot data and decompressing said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form to provide said decompressed at least a portion of boot data.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said logic code further comprises program instructions executable by said processor for maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein said logic code further comprises program instructions executable by said processor for maintaining a list of application data associated with an application program, and wherein said application data is preloaded upon launching the application program and utilized by said computer system.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein Huffman encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein Lempel-Ziv encoding is utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of encoders are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration are utilized to provide said at least a portion of said boot data in compressed form.

18. A method of preloading an operating system for booting a computer system comprising:

storing substantially all of the operating system in compressed form on a boot device;

preloading a first portion of the substantially all of the operating system from said boot device to a memory;

accessing and decompressing the first portion from the memory using a data compression engine;

utilizing the decompressed first portion to partially boot said computer system;

responsive to a request, locating a second portion of the substantially all of the operating system using a boot data list and preloading the second portion from the boot device to the memory;

accessing and decompressing the second portion from the memory using the data compression engine; and

utilizing the decompressed second portion to further partially boot said computer system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the preloading is performed by a data storage controller connected to the boot device.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising updating the boot data list.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein Huffman encoding is utilized to obtain the substantially all of the operating system in compressed form.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein Lempel-Ziv encoding is utilized to obtain the substantially all of the operating system in compressed form.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein a plurality of encoders are utilized to obtain the substantially all of the operating system in compressed form.

24. The method of claim 18, wherein a plurality of encoders in a parallel configuration are utilized to obtain the substantially all of the operating system in compressed form.