Patents by Inventor Bruce John SHERWIN, JR.

Bruce John SHERWIN, JR. 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).

  • Firmware emulated watchdog timer controlled using native CPU operations
    Patent number: 11520648
    Abstract: Implementing a firmware watchdog timer. A system presents a data structure over a bus which exposes, to software executing at a central processing unit (CPU), a hardware resource that is associated with a watchdog timer, attribute(s) of the watchdog timer, and (iii) commands available to the software executing at the CPU for managing the watchdog timer via one or more native CPU instructions that target the hardware resource. The system listens on the bus for a data value written to the hardware resource (i.e., by a native CPU operation issued by the software executing at the CPU), and identifies a particular command for managing the watchdog timer based on the data value written. Based on identifying the particular command, the system performs at least one of: initializing the watchdog timer, starting the watchdog timer, resetting the watchdog timer, or stopping the watchdog timer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Bruce John Sherwin, Jr., Neeraj Ladkani, Jason Stewart Wohlgemuth, James Anthony Schwartz, Jr.
  • FIRMWARE EMULATED WATCHDOG TIMER CONTROLLED USING NATIVE CPU OPERATIONS
    Publication number: 20220100596
    Abstract: Implementing a firmware watchdog timer. A system presents a data structure over a bus which exposes, to software executing at a central processing unit (CPU), a hardware resource that is associated with a watchdog timer, attribute(s) of the watchdog timer, and (iii) commands available to the software executing at the CPU for managing the watchdog timer via one or more native CPU instructions that target the hardware resource. The system listens on the bus for a data value written to the hardware resource (i.e., by a native CPU operation issued by the software executing at the CPU), and identifies a particular command for managing the watchdog timer based on the data value written. Based on identifying the particular command, the system performs at least one of: initializing the watchdog timer, starting the watchdog timer, resetting the watchdog timer, or stopping the watchdog timer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 25, 2020
    Publication date: March 31, 2022
    Inventors: Bruce John SHERWIN, JR., Neeraj LADKANI, Jason Stewart WOHLGEMUTH, James Anthony SCHWARTZ, JR.