Pre-Grant Publication Number: 20070162625
Please help the USPTO examine the application by evaluating the relevance of the publicly submitted prior art to the patent application.
Peer-to-Patent forwards the Top 10 most relevant prior art submissions and their annotations to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Review this prior art and click on the thumbs up (or down) to indicate whether this submission should be forwarded to the USPTO.
If you login then you can add an annotation by typing in the box at the bottom of the screen to comment on the relevance of the prior art to the claims of the patent application.
Review this prior art and click on the thumbs up (or down) to indicate whether this submission should be forwarded to the USPTO.
If you login then you can add an annotation by typing in the box at the bottom of the screen to comment on the relevance of the prior art to the claims of the patent application.
Prior Art Detail
Summary / Description
| Summary / Description | Methods and systems consistent with the present invention utilize a unique hardware address of a first network device to determine and locate an appropriate driver software for controlling the network device. Once the driver software has been located, it is installed on a network server, or other network device, capable of controlling the first network device. This method operates automatically, absent user intervention, each time a new device enters a network. |
Basic Information
| Type of Prior Art | Issued Patents - US |
| Country | United States of America |
| Patent/Application # | 6772420 |
| Kind Code | United States (US) - United STATES Patent - A |
| Patentee Name | Sun Microsystems, Inc. |
| Relevant Pages, Columns, or Lines | Pages 1-7 |
| URL | |
| Filing Date | October 26, 1999 |
| Additional Information | |
Notes / To Do
| Notes | |
Excerpt
Excerpt Methods and systems consistent with the present invention utilize a unique hardware address of a first network device to determine and locate an appropriate driver software for controlling the network device. Once the driver software has been located, it is installed on a network server, or other network device, capable of controlling the first network device. This method operates automatically, absent user intervention, each time a new device enters a network.
1. An automated method in a data processing system for determining an appropriate driver software for a network device, comprising:
receiving a hardware address of a first network device;
examining a portion of the hardware address;
ascertaining a manufacturer of the first network device by accessing a table that stores a list of manufacturers and link-layer addresses assigned to each, determining a range of numbers in the list within which the portion of the hardware address falls, and matching the range with a corresponding manufacturer;
obtaining a first network device type based on the hardware address and the manufacturer of the first network device; and
determining an appropriate driver software for controlling the first network device based on the first network device type.
2. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving a media access control address of the first network device.
3. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes extracting a portion of a dynamic host configuration protocol address.
4. The automated method of claim 1, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving a link-layer address of the first network device.
5. The automated method of claim 1, further including the step of determining a storage location of the driver software.
6. The automated method of claim 5, further including the step of downloading the driver software from a remote location
8. A system for determining an appropriate driver software for a network device on a network, comprising:
a network server connected via a network to the network device and including a driver installation system that: observes a hardware address of a network device; examines a portion of the hardware address; ascertains a manufacturer of the network device by accessing a table that stores a list of manufacturers and link-layer addresses assigned to each, determining a range of numbers in the list within which the portion of the hardware address falls, and matching the range with a corresponding manufacturer; obtains a network device type based on the hardware address and the manufacturer of the device; and determines an appropriate driver software for controlling the network device based on the network device type; and
at least one processor for executing the driver installation system.
|
Relevance
Claims
1
A method of delivering a device driver to an operating system executing on a computer platform, the method comprising:
during booting of the operating system, identifying a first device for which a device driver is needed;
requesting the device driver from a service processor installed on the computer platform, wherein the service processor comprises a storage configured to store one or more device drivers; and
delivering the device driver to the operating system without intervention by a user.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
7
The method of Claim 1, wherein said delivering comprises:
loading the device driver.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
8
A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of delivering a device driver to an operating system executing on a computer platform, without user intervention, the method comprising:
during booting of the operating system, identifying a first device for which a device driver is needed;
requesting the device driver from a service processor installed on the computer platform, wherein the service processor comprises a storage configured to store one or more device drivers; and
delivering the device driver to the operating system without intervention by a user.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
9
A service processor for a computer platform, wherein the service processor is configured to monitor operation of one or more components of the computer platform, the service processor comprising:
a memory configured to store multiple device drivers for driving operation of one or more devices of the computer platform;
wherein the multiple device drivers include multiple versions of a first device driver, each said version being configured for a different operating system.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
14
A computer platform configured to deliver a device driver to an operating system executing on the platform, the computer platform comprising:
a first operating system configured to support one or more application programs; and
a service processor configured to monitor operation of one or more components of the platform, the service processor comprising:
a storage configured to store one or more device drivers for driving operation of a first device installed in the computer platform.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
17
The computer platform of Claim 14, wherein the one or more device drivers comprise multiple drivers for the first device, each of the multiple drivers being configured for a different operating system.
Relevance
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Identifying driver from a storage bank and dynamically loading without user intervention.
Claim Chart
All
20
The computer platform of Claim 14, wherein the first device is one of:
a communication interface;
a storage device;
an input device; and
an output device.
Relevance
See referenced patent.
See referenced patent.
Claim Chart
All
0 days left
