Appeal No. 1999-0080
Application No. 08/558,929
The portion of Sherer relied upon by the examiner is columns 4 and 5, which
state in relevant part
[i]ndividual elements 16, 18, 20, 22 represent different encoded operating
system segments forming a part of the operating system program, but each
optimized for a specific microprocessor 30 (of a type yet to be identified),
and program element 24 represents an encoded operating system segment
which operates equally well with all of the types of microprocessor 30.
Included is a program element 26 which is useful to identify the type of
microprocessor. This program element 26 may be a set of instructions which
executes uniquely with each of the types of microprocessors and which
returns a flag of some value which identifies the type of microprocessor. It
may be executable code comprising a series of tests which selectively
eliminates microprocessor types as choices without resulting in an abortive
attempt at execution of instructions.
The process according to the invention starts by loading all of the program
elements 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 of the operating system from a mass
storage system 14 into system memory 28 (Step A, FIG. 1).
The program element 26 is then executed by the microprocessor 30 as the
test for the type of the microprocessor 30 in use (Step B). With each test, a
flag signal 32 is returned to the program module as a parameter for use in
further execution of the program element 26 until the type of microprocessor
in use is uniquely identified.
Once the type of microprocessor is identified, the program element 26 then
identifies which portions 34 of itself are still needed and which portions 36,
38, of itself are no longer needed (FIG. 3), and the memory locations
corresponding to those unneeded portions 36, 38 are released or freed for
use by other programs (Step C). In order to compact the storage of the
needed portion 34, the needed portion 34 may be relocated within the
memory 28 (Step D and FIG. 4). Pointers to the needed portions 34 are
reset (Step E), and other portions of the operating system (if any) can be
loaded (Step F).
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