Flexible bootstrap code architecture

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9411601-B2
Application number	US-201314128116-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 29, 2013
Priority date	Oct 29, 2013
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to flexible bootstrap code architecture. A device may comprise equipment for operating the device and an operating system (OS) for operating the equipment. A boot module may also be included in the device to execute boot operations. At least one flexible boot (FB) module in the boot module may interact with the equipment and/or OS during the boot operations to cause the boot operations to become device-specific. An example boot module may comprise a plurality of FB modules. An example FB module may verify a device/chipset identification and may control the boot operations based on the identification. Other example FB modules may select resources to load based on an OS type, may provide a boot configuration table location for use in OS runtime boot configuration or may load variables from a preload variable directory for use in configuring boot operations.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A device, comprising:
equipment to provide functionality in the device;
an operating system (OS) to facilitate operation of the equipment; and
boot circuitry to:
determine, following activation of the device, if the boot circuitry includes at least one flexible boot (FB) circuit;
if it is determined that the boot circuitry includes at least one FB circuit, cause the at least one FB circuit to interact with at least one of the equipment or the OS, generate device-specific boot operations based on the interaction and perform the device-specific boot operations; and
perform default boot operations if it is determined that the boot circuitry does not include at least one FB circuit.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one FB circuit operates based on bytecode included in the boot circuitry, the bytecode being interpreted during the boot operation.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one FB circuit being to generate device-specific boot operations based on the interaction comprises the at least one FB circuit being to cause the boot operations to be aborted if at least one of a device identification or a chipset identification is not recognized.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one FB circuit being to generate device-specific boot operations based on the interaction comprises the at least one FB circuit being to cause a particular kernel to be loaded in the device during the boot operation based on a word length associated with the OS.

5. The device of claim 4 , wherein the word length is sensed based on calculating the size of a natural integer during the boot operations.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one FB circuit being to interact with at least one of the equipment or the OS comprises the at least one FB circuit being to sense boot variables existing in a particular directory in the device.

7. The device of claim 6 , wherein the at least one FB circuit being to generate device-specific boot operations based on the interaction comprises the at least one FB circuit being to cause at least one of data to be copied from the boot circuitry to the boot variables or data to be copied to the boot circuitry from the boot variables prior to loading the OS in the device.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one FB circuit being to generate device-specific boot operations based on the interaction comprises the at least one FB circuit being to make information in the boot circuitry accessible to at least one of the equipment or the OS by causing a physical address to be written to a non-volatile variable in a memory in the device, the physical address indicating the location of a configuration table associated with the boot circuitry in the memory.

9. The device of claim 8 , wherein the OS comprises an application program interface to allow the OS to access the contents of the non-volatile variable in the memory.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the boot circuitry is configured based on the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) specification.

11. A method, comprising:
initiating boot operations in a device comprising at least equipment, an operating system (OS) and boot circuitry;
determining if the boot circuitry includes at least one flexible boot (FB) circuit to interact with at least one of the equipment or the OS during the boot operations; and
performing default boot operations or device-specific boot operations based on the determination if the boot circuitry includes at least one FB circuit.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing the boot operations to be aborted if at least one of a device identification or a chipset identification sensed from the equipment is not recognized.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing a particular kernel to be loaded in the device during the boot operation based on a word length associated with the OS.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the word length is sensed based on calculating the size of a natural integer during the boot operations.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein interacting with at least one of the equipment or the OS during the boot operations comprises sensing boot variables existing in a particular directory in the device.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing at least one of data to be copied from the boot circuitry to the boot variables or data to be copied to the boot circuitry from the boot variables prior to loading the OS in the device.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises making information in the boot circuitry accessible to at least one of the equipment or the OS by causing a physical address to be written to a non-volatile variable in a memory in the device, the physical address indicating the location of a configuration table associated with the boot circuitry in the memory.

18. At least one machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon, individually or in combination, instructions that when executed by one or more processors result in the following operations comprising:
initiating boot operations in a device comprising at least equipment, an operating system (OS) and boot circuitry;
determining if the boot circuitry includes at least one flexible boot (FB) circuit to interact with at least one of the equipment or the OS during the boot operations; and
performing default boot operations or device-specific boot operations based on the determination if the boot circuitry includes at least one FB circuit.

19. The medium of claim 18 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing the boot operations to be aborted if at least one of a device identification or a chipset identification sensed from the equipment is not recognized.

20. The medium of claim 18 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing a particular kernel to be loaded in the device during the boot operation based on a word length associated with the OS.

21. The medium of claim 20 , wherein the word length is sensed based on calculating the size of a natural integer during the boot operations.

22. The medium of claim 18 , wherein interacting with at least one of the equipment or the OS during the boot operations comprises sensing boot variables existing in a particular directory in the device.

23. The medium of claim 22 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises causing at least one of data to be copied from the boot circuitry to the boot variables or data to be copied to the boot circuitry from the boot variables prior to loading the OS in the device.

24. The medium of claim 18 , wherein performing device-specific boot operations comprises making information in the boot circuitry accessible to at least one of the equipment or the OS by causing a physical address to be written to a non-volatile variable in a memory in the device, the physical address indicating the location of a configuration table associated with the boot circuitry in the memory.

Assignees

• Zimmer Vincent J
• Anvin H P
• Rothman Michael A
• Estrada David C
• Yoke Nicholas J
• Selvaraje Gopinatth
• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Zimmer Vincent J
• Anvin H P
• Rothman Michael A
• Estrada David C
• Yoke Nicholas J
• Selvaraje Gopinatth

Classifications

• G06F9/4403 Primary

  Processor initialisation · CPC title

• G06F9/4401 Primary

  Bootstrapping (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• G06F9/441

  Multiboot arrangements, i.e. selecting an operating system to be loaded · CPC title