Patents by Inventor William D. Leara

William D. Leara 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).

  • Publication number: 20240135484
    Abstract: An information handling system sets, in response to a power event, a discrete graphics processing unit to transmit graphics data to an external display monitor and an internal display panel. In response to determining that a hybrid graphics mode is enabled and that a video driver has been loaded, the system switches a source of the graphics data to the internal display panel from the discrete graphics processing unit to an integrated graphics processing unit while keeping the discrete graphics processing unit to provide the graphics data to the external display monitor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 23, 2022
    Publication date: April 25, 2024
    Inventors: Ken Nicholas, Ivan Guerra, William D. Leara, Ahsan Habib
  • Patent number: 11816491
    Abstract: A method for configuring a peripheral bus of an information handling system performs, as part of a boot sequence, an initial configuration of a chipset setting pertaining to the bus based on a descriptor stored in a nonvolatile storage resource. After an operating system is loaded, a controller detects a peripheral device connecting to the bus and responds by performing a runtime configuration of the chipset setting based on capability information obtained from the peripheral device. The peripheral bus may comprise a USB pipe and a USB-C type connector, wherein the peripheral device is detected by a USB power delivery (PD) controller based on configuration channel (CC) pins of the USB-C connector. The PD controller may signal the chipset and send the device’s capability information to the chipset. The PD controller may assert a PMCALERT# signal of the chipset’s and send the capability information via a system management link (SMLink1).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Chien-Yi Juan, Rong-Yu Wang, Jui-Hsing Chiu
  • Patent number: 11762414
    Abstract: Methods and systems for managing the operation of data processing systems are disclosed. A data processing system may provide computer implemented services. The computer implemented services may be provided with various components operably connected to one another. The data processing system may proactively identify and attempt to remediate mismatches between communication rates of the components and the operable connections between the components. The mismatches may be identified based on electrical widths and clock speeds supported by the operable connections and components.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Terry L. Matula
  • Publication number: 20230251684
    Abstract: Methods and systems for managing the operation of data processing systems are disclosed. A data processing system may provide computer implemented services. The computer implemented services may be provided with various components operably connected to one another. The data processing system may proactively identify and attempt to remediate mismatches between communication rates of the components and the operable connections between the components. The mismatches may be identified based on electrical widths and clock speeds supported by the operable connections and components.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 9, 2022
    Publication date: August 10, 2023
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Terry L. Matula
  • Publication number: 20230018849
    Abstract: A method for configuring a peripheral bus of an information handling system performs, as part of a boot sequence, an initial configuration of a chipset setting pertaining to the bus based on a descriptor stored in a nonvolatile storage resource. After an operating system is loaded, a controller detects a peripheral device connecting to the bus and responds by performing a runtime configuration of the chipset setting based on capability information obtained from the peripheral device. The peripheral bus may comprise a USB pipe and a USB-C type connector, wherein the peripheral device is detected by a USB power delivery (PD) controller based on configuration channel (CC) pins of the USB-C connector. The PD controller may signal the chipset and send the device's capability information to the chipset. The PD controller may assert a PMCALERT# signal of the chipset's and send the capability information via a system management link (SMLink1) .
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2021
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Applicant: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: William D. LEARA, Chien-Yi JUAN, Rong-Yu WANG, Jui-Hsing CHIU
  • Patent number: 11436020
    Abstract: Systems and methods disclosed herein provide a novel solution for PCIe port bifurcation. Unlike conventional client systems, which rely on resistors, jumpers or DIP switches, the disclosed systems and methods enable PCIe ports to be configured in accordance with a plurality of user-selectable PCIe bifurcation settings provided within a boot setup menu. When an “Auto” setting is selected in the boot setup menu, the disclosed systems and methods enable PCIe ports to be: (a) configured in accordance with the bifurcation requirements of the PCIe adapter card(s) connected to the PCIe ports, and (b) automatically reconfigured when bifurcation requirements change. Unlike conventional server systems, which require the user to enter BIOS setup and manually change the PCIe bifurcation settings provided in the BIOS setup menu, the systems and methods disclosed herein enable PCIe ports to be automatically reconfigured, when bifurcation requirements change, without user intervention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2022
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Chien Yi Juan, Che Nan Cheng, William D. Leara
  • Patent number: 11423148
    Abstract: Discovery of unique identifiers in firmware can be prevented. During the boot process on a computing system, and after the firmware has generated firmware tables containing unique identifiers, an anonymizer module of the firmware can generate an anonymized version of the firmware tables and cause the anonymized version of the firmware tables, rather than the original, system-unique firmware tables, to be accessible after the operating system is loaded. In this way, once the operating system is loaded, when a module attempts to read the firmware tables, the read will be performed against the anonymized version of the firmware tables thereby preventing the module from obtaining any of the computing system's unique identifiers. A copy of the firmware tables may be maintained separately from the anonymized version of the firmware tables to enable authorized utilities to obtain the computing system's unique identifiers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Richard M. Tonry
  • Publication number: 20220027165
    Abstract: Systems and methods disclosed herein provide a novel solution for PCIe port bifurcation. Unlike conventional client systems, which rely on resistors, jumpers or DIP switches, the disclosed systems and methods enable PCIe ports to be configured in accordance with a plurality of user-selectable PCIe bifurcation settings provided within a boot setup menu. When an “Auto” setting is selected in the boot setup menu, the disclosed systems and methods enable PCIe ports to be: (a) configured in accordance with the bifurcation requirements of the PCIe adapter card(s) connected to the PCIe ports, and (b) automatically reconfigured when bifurcation requirements change. Unlike conventional server systems, which require the user to enter BIOS setup and manually change the PCIe bifurcation settings provided in the BIOS setup menu, the systems and methods disclosed herein enable PCIe ports to be automatically reconfigured, when bifurcation requirements change, without user intervention.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 21, 2020
    Publication date: January 27, 2022
    Inventors: Chien Yi Juan, Che Nan Cheng, William D. Leara
  • Publication number: 20220004637
    Abstract: Discovery of unique identifiers in firmware can be prevented. During the boot process on a computing system, and after the firmware has generated firmware tables containing unique identifiers, an anonymizer module of the firmware can generate an anonymized version of the firmware tables and cause the anonymized version of the firmware tables, rather than the original, system-unique firmware tables, to be accessible after the operating system is loaded. In this way, once the operating system is loaded, when a module attempts to read the firmware tables, the read will be performed against the anonymized version of the firmware tables thereby preventing the module from obtaining any of the computing system's unique identifiers. A copy of the firmware tables may be maintained separately from the anonymized version of the firmware tables to enable authorized utilities to obtain the computing system's unique identifiers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Richard M. Tonry
  • Patent number: 10496509
    Abstract: Systems and methods that may be implemented to monitor and record (store) information related to environmental conditions, operating conditions and/or events to which a battery-powered information handling system has been exposed while the battery powered information handling system is not powered. In one embodiment this stored environmental, system operating and/or event information may be made available to one or more system programmable integrated circuits at a following system restart or operating system (OS) boot. Such stored information may be used, for example, to determine one or more actions during a subsequent system restart or OS reboot, and/or to better enable root cause analysis of no-POST (power on self-test) type failures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: Rick C. Thompson, William D. Leara, Nikhil M. Vichare
  • Patent number: 10402169
    Abstract: A method and system for generating a secure random seed uses chemical processes in a battery of an information handling system as an entropy source for randomness. The secure random seed may be used by a pseudo-random number generator to create a secure pseudorandom bit stream usable to generate secure encryption keys.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Dell Products L.P.
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Richard Christopher Thompson, Nikhil Manohar Vichare
  • Publication number: 20190238329
    Abstract: A method and system for generating a secure random seed uses chemical processes in a battery of an information handling system as an entropy source for randomness. The secure random seed may be used by a pseudo-random number generator to create a secure pseudorandom bit stream usable to generate secure encryption keys.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2017
    Publication date: August 1, 2019
    Inventors: William D. Leara, Richard Christopher Thompson, Nikhil Manohar Vichare
  • Publication number: 20180246552
    Abstract: Systems and methods that may be implemented to monitor and record (store) information related to environmental conditions, operating conditions and/or events to which a battery-powered information handling system has been exposed while the battery powered information handling system is not powered. In one embodiment this stored environmental, system operating and/or event information may be made available to one or more system programmable integrated circuits at a following system restart or operating system (OS) boot. Such stored information may be used, for example, to determine one or more actions during a subsequent system restart or OS reboot, and/or to better enable root cause analysis of no-POST (power on self-test) type failures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2017
    Publication date: August 30, 2018
    Inventors: Rick C. Thompson, William D. Leara, Nikhil M. Vichare