Patents by Inventor Andrew Thornton
Andrew Thornton has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20070266389Abstract: The launching of a hypervisor after there is already a running operating system. The operating system itself may launch the hypervisor. The running operating system may be used instead of the hypervisor to discover the physical resources running on the computing system. Other operating systems or operating system instances may be launched after the hypervisor is operational.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 15, 2006Publication date: November 15, 2007Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Shuvabrata Ganguly, Andrew Thornton, John Wiederhirn, Kenneth Ray
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Publication number: 20070200356Abstract: A latch has a latch bolt mounted on a rack and a top gear which engages the rack. The top gear can be driven by an idle gear which is disengageable from a drop gear which in turn is engaged with a lockable drive gear upon rotation of a cam disc. Initial rotation of the cam disc disengages the drop gear. Further rotation of the cam disc moves the top gear so as to permit the rack to move the bolt to the unlatched position. The latch can be operated from one side by the rotation of a lock plug in the drive. The other side of the latch has a turnhandle on the cam disc which unlatches the latch even when the drive gear is locked from the outside.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 23, 2007Publication date: August 30, 2007Applicant: Southco, Inc.Inventors: Andrew Thornton, Jack O'Byrne
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Publication number: 20070118743Abstract: Communication of information via an in-band channel using a trusted configuration space is provided. The introduction of using a trusted configuration space associated with a computer bus system, such as PCI Express® (PCIe™), for example, enables the design of trusted computing platforms capable of providing compliant devices with assurance that their trusted configuration registers can only be accessed by software running in the trusted software environment. Establishing device trust in the software that initiates trusted configuration requests makes it possible to secure and control access to certain secret, sensitive, or personally-identifiable information these devices may contain (e.g., a uniquely-identifying public key, as described above or certificate which the device provides for revocation purposes).Type: ApplicationFiled: November 23, 2005Publication date: May 24, 2007Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Andrew Thornton, John Paff, John Wiederhirn, Lonny McMichael
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Publication number: 20060248528Abstract: Systems and methods are provided, whereby partitions may become enlightened and discover the presence of a hypervisor. Several techniques of hypervisor discovery are discussed, such as detecting the presence of virtual processor registers (e.g. model specific registers or special-purpose registers) or the presence of virtual hardware devices. Upon discovery, information (code and/or data) may be injected in a partition by the hypervisor, whereby such injection allows the partition to call the hypervisor. Moreover, the hypervisor may present a versioning mechanism that allows the partition to match up the version of the hypervisor to its virtual devices. Next, once code and/or data is injected, calling conventions are established that allow the partition and the hypervisor to communicate, so that the hypervisor may perform some operations on behalf of the partition.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 29, 2005Publication date: November 2, 2006Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Adrian Oney, Andrew Thornton, Eric Traut, Nathan Lewis
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Publication number: 20060202999Abstract: A attempt is made to modify the graphics address remap table (GART). The attempt is intercepted in order to determine if the modification will result in an aperture memory address mapping to a region of trusted memory. If it is determined that the GART modification will not result in a mapping to a portion of trusted memory, then the GART modification is allowed. If it is determined that the GART modification will result in a mapping to a portion of trusted memory, then the modification is not allowed and an alarm is raised in the system.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 10, 2005Publication date: September 14, 2006Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventor: Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20060200663Abstract: A machine readable description of a new feature of a processor is provided by a processor vendor. Control code executing on a processor, such as a traditional operating system kernel, a partitioning kernel, or the like can be programmed to receive the description of the feature and to use information provided by the description to detect, enable and manage operation of the new feature.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 4, 2005Publication date: September 7, 2006Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventor: Andrew Thornton
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Patent number: 7080531Abstract: The present invention relates to a latch having a button pawl shaft for attaching two panels together at two different points. The shaft of the latch has bezels in which the shaft rotates connected to one of the panels. The shaft has pawls at both ends which engage a keeper on a second panel and disengage and clear the keeper when a force is applied to the button on the shaft thereby rotating the shaft. A precompressed torsion spring provides a force on the button at all times. When a user presses on the button thereby rotating the shaft such that the pawls disengage with keepers the spring will rotate the shaft and button back to the same position as that prior to the user applying a force on the button.Type: GrantFiled: July 1, 2003Date of Patent: July 25, 2006Assignee: Southco, IncInventors: Fabrice Vitry, Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20060138263Abstract: A foodstuff crusher/blender comprises a hollow body defining a closed elongate cavity, an access device, such as complementary screwthreads on respective ends of two portions of the body, enabling the introduction and removal of foodstuff into and from the cavity and a crushing/blending ball for accommodation in the cavity. The cavity is of circular shape along its length in transverse cross-section. One end of the cavity is of substantially part-spherical shape with a diameter not substantially greater than that of the ball whilst the other end of the cavity is of substantially part-spherical shape with a diameter substantially greater than that of the ball. The diameter of the cavity increases progressively over at least a part of the distance between the two ends of the cavity.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 8, 2005Publication date: June 29, 2006Applicants: WILLIAM LEVENE LIMITED, FRESH CRUSH LIMITEDInventors: Andrew Thornton, Jamie Oliver
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Patent number: 7052053Abstract: A load floor latch for securing a first closure member to a second closure member. The latch is opened by actuating a handle and a pawl supported on the housing is pivoted away from a keeper on the second closure member by the actuation of the pawl by the handle which is biased to the closed position. The pawl is biased to the closed position. The pawl projects through an opening on the latch housing and also has a pawl projection which is guided during pivoting of the pawl by a portion of the exterior surface of the housing of the latch.Type: GrantFiled: September 11, 2004Date of Patent: May 30, 2006Assignee: Southco, Inc.Inventors: Matthew Hall, Paul Soldo, Kevin A. McCloskey, David Milne, Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20050198596Abstract: A method and system that enables customized computer machines to be more readily developed by removing the function of resource translation out of the hardware abstraction layer (HAL). A machine manufacturer describes a machine in firmware, such as accordance with the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification, using ACPI machine language (AML). Operating system components such as a Plug and Play (PnP) manager in the kernel, in conjunction with an ACPI driver, interpret the description information and locate resources (bus bridges) for which translation is needed. For any arbitrary bus architecture or CPU to PCI bridge implementation that can be expressed, e.g., in ACPI firmware, the invention provides a translator external to the HAL. In one implementation, a PnP driver communicates with the ACPI driver and various drivers in driver stacks via I/O request packets (IRPs) to look for resource translators.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 25, 2005Publication date: September 8, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jacob Oshins, Stephane Plante, Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20050172134Abstract: A method is provided for a processor of a computing device to obtain a trusted identification of a hardware peripheral of the computing device, for the computing device and the peripheral to derive a set of shared keys, and for the processor to send trusted data to the peripheral.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 4, 2004Publication date: August 4, 2005Inventors: Andrew Thornton, John Paff, Marcus Peinado, Thekkthalackal Kurien
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Publication number: 20050099019Abstract: The present invention relates to a load floor latch for securing a first closure member to a second closure member. When the first and second closure members are fastened, the latch is opened by actuating a handle and a pawl supported on the housing is rotated away from a keeper on the second closure member by the actuation of the pawl by the handle.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 11, 2004Publication date: May 12, 2005Inventors: Matthew Hall, Paul Soldo, Kevin McCloskey, David Milne, Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20050015525Abstract: A system and method to facilitate communication between an associated bus, such as employs a standard bus protocol, and a connector to which a removable SFF device can be attached. A desired operating mode is selected based on the device attached at the connector, such as either to pass the protocol between the bus and device generally unchanged or to implement suitable protocol conversion for such communication. Thus, by configuring the SFF device to appear as device currently supported by the bus, the SFF device can operate at the connector with native operating system support.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 16, 2004Publication date: January 20, 2005Applicant: Microsoft CorporationInventors: Jeremy Cahill, Andrew Thornton, Jonathan Smith
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Publication number: 20050010818Abstract: The present invention provides for trusted side-band communications between components in a computer system, so that use of the system bus may be avoided. Two components may be connected by means other than a bus (e.g., an infrared port, a wire, an unused pin, etc.), whereby these components may communicate without the use of the system bus. The non-bus communication channel may be referred to as “side-band.” The side-band channel may be used to communicate information that might identify the user's hardware (e.g., a public key) or other information that the user may not want to be easily intercepted by the public at large. Communication over the side-band channel may also be used to verify that the participants in a communication are within a defined positional relationship to each other.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 16, 2004Publication date: January 13, 2005Inventors: John Paff, Marcus Peinado, Thekkthalackal Kurien, Bryan Willman, Paul England, Andrew Thornton
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Publication number: 20040118171Abstract: The present invention relates to a latch having a button pawl shaft for attaching two panels together at two different points. The shaft of the latch has bezels in which the shaft rotates connected to one of the panels. The shaft has pawls at both ends which engage a keeper on a second panel and disengage and clear the keeper when a force is applied to the button on the shaft thereby rotating the shaft. A precompressed torsion spring provides a force on the button at all times. When a user presses on the button thereby rotating the shaft such that the pawls disengage with keepers the spring will rotate the shaft and button back to the same position as that prior to the user applying a force on the button.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 1, 2003Publication date: June 24, 2004Inventors: Fabrice Vitry, Andrew Thornton
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Patent number: 6533765Abstract: An absorbent article, such as a diaper, containing cuffs with a skin care composition disposed thereon. The skin care composition disposed on the cuffs is transferable to the wearer's skin by normal contact and/or wearer motion and/or body heat. The cuffs are at least partially assembled using an oil resistant adhesive that is both material friendly and process friendly.Type: GrantFiled: March 15, 2000Date of Patent: March 18, 2003Assignee: The Procter & Gamble CompanyInventors: Ted Lee Blaney, Mark Andrew Thornton