Patents by Inventor Brian I. Hastings

Brian I. Hastings 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).

  • Switch for sharing a peripheral device
    Patent number: 5307462
    Abstract: Disclosed is a switch that allows a peripheral device, such as a printer, to be shared by multiple computer systems. The switch connects to each of the computer systems, and also to the peripheral device being shared. The switch stores the current state of the peripheral device for each to the computer systems, so that when a particular system requests access to the peripheral device, the switch can restore the state of the peripheral device to the last state established by the system requesting usage. Therefore, the system requesting usage need not know that other systems may have used the peripheral device in the interim.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: April 26, 1994
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company
    Inventor: Brian I. Hastings