US5793979A — System for allocating the resources of a computer…

Claim 1

Independent Claim 181 words

In a system having a plurality of resources, each resource having a plurality of resource elements, a method for allocating said resource elements of said resources for use by devices of a computer system, said method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said resource elements of a selected one of said resources that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) determining for said selected device whether a particular one of said appropriate resource elements is available for use by a selected one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element is not available for use by said selected device, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element is available for use by said selected device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; (e) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices; and (f) repeating steps a-e for each of said remaining resources.

Claim 2

Dependent Claim 181 words

In a system having a plurality of resources, each resource having a plurality of resource elements, a method for allocating said resource elements of said resources for use by devices of a computer system, said method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said resource elements of a selected one of said resources that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) determining for said selected device whether a particular one of said appropriate resource elements is available for use by a selected one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element is not available for use by said selected device, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element is available for use by said selected device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; (e) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices; and (f) repeating steps a-e for each of said remaining resources.

Claim 3

Independent Claim 207 words

A method for allocating a plurality of elements of a resource for use by devices of a computer system, said method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been assigned for use by another device, then examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices; (e) if said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-d; (f) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been reserved for use by another one of said device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; and (g) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices.

Claim 4

Independent Claim 207 words

A method for allocating a plurality of elements of a resource for use by devices of a computer system, said method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been assigned for use by another device, then examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices; (e) if said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-d; (f) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been reserved for use by another one of said device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; and (g) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices.

Claim 5

Independent Claim 125 words

A system having a plurality of resources, each resource having a plurality of elements, for allocating elements of said resources for use by devices of a computer system, said system comprising: for each resource, means responsive to at least one possible configuration of said resource elements, each possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating said devices with said computer system, for determining whether a particular one of said appropriate resource elements for a selected one of said devices is available for use by said selected device; and means for assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device in response to determining that said particular appropriate resource element is available for use by said selected device.

Claim 6

Independent Claim 125 words

A system having a plurality of resources, each resource having a plurality of elements, for allocating elements of said resources for use by devices of a computer system, said system comprising: for each resource, means responsive to at least one possible configuration of said resource elements, each possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating said devices with said computer system, for determining whether a particular one of said appropriate resource elements for a selected one of said devices is available for use by said selected device; and means for assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device in response to determining that said particular appropriate resource element is available for use by said selected device.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 40 words

The method of claim 1, wherein said step of determining whether said particular appropriate resource element is available comprises the step of examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 41 words

The method of claim 4, wherein said step of determining whether said particular appropriate resource element is available further comprises the step of examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 37 words

The method of claim 5, wherein said particular appropriate resource element is assigned for use by said selected device only if said particular appropriate resource element is neither assigned nor reserved for another one of said devices.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 62 words

The system of claim 3, wherein said determining means comprises: means for examining whether a particular one of said appropriate resource elements has been assigned for use by another one of said devices, said examining means further operative to determine whether said particular appropriate resource element for said selected device has been reserved for use by said another one of said devices.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 44 words

The system of claim 3, wherein each device includes device information having a device identification code that uniquely identifies the corresponding device and logical configuration data that supplies configuration requirements comprising the resource elements appropriate for operating the corresponding device with the computer system.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 70 words

The system of claim 8, wherein the logical configuration data comprises computer resource requirement information and computer resource constraint information, said computer resource requirement information defining certain resources of said computer system that are necessary for operation of said corresponding device with said computer system, and said computer constraint information defining particular ones of said resource elements which are necessary for operation of said corresponding device with said computer system.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 37 words

The system of claim 8 further comprising means for calculating at least one possible configuration of the resource elements based on the device identification code and the logical configuration data for the devices of the computer system.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 82 words

The system of claim 8, wherein the determining means determines whether the particular appropriate resource element is available without manual intervention by analyzing whether the devices require a potential conflicting use of the particular appropriate resource element for operation with the computer system and, if at least two of said devices require use of said particular appropriate resource element for operation with said computer system, then the determining means attempts to resolve the potential conflicting use of the particular appropriate resource element.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 41 words

The system of claim 7, wherein the assigning means assigns said particular appropriate resource element to said selected device in the event that said particular appropriate resource element is neither assigned nor reserved for use by another one of the devices.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 227 words

A computer-readable medium on which is stored a computer program for allocating a plurality of elements of a resource for use by devices of a computer system without manual intervention, the computer program comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been assigned for use by another device, then examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices; (e) if said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-d; (f) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been reserved for use by another one of said device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; and (g) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 227 words

A computer-readable medium on which is stored a computer program for allocating a plurality of elements of a resource for use by devices of a computer system without manual intervention, the computer program comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer, perform the steps of: (a) obtaining a possible configuration of said resource elements, said possible configuration defining said elements of said resource that are appropriate for operating a selected one of said devices with said computer system; (b) examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices; (c) if said particular appropriate resource element has been assigned for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-b; (d) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been assigned for use by another device, then examining whether said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices; (e) if said particular appropriate resource element has been reserved for use by another one of said devices, then repeating steps a-d; (f) if said particular appropriate resource element has not been reserved for use by another one of said device, then assigning said particular appropriate resource element for use by said selected device; and (g) repeating steps a-d until said appropriate resource elements have been assigned to remaining ones of said devices.

Claim 18

Dependent Claim 134 words

In a computer having a plurality of resources, an apparatus for allocating elements of the resources for use by devices of the computer without manual intervention, comprising: a configuration manager that develops a list of device configurations for each of the resources, each device configuration defining a requirement for one of the resource elements of one of the resources to support the operation of a corresponding one of the devices with the computer, and an arbitrator, responsive to the list of device configurations, for each of the resources, that determines whether the resource elements are available to satisfy the resource element requirements defined by the device configurations, wherein the arbitrator allocates the available resource elements in the event that resource elements are available to satisfy the resource element requirements defined by the device configurations.

Claim 19

Dependent Claim 134 words

In a computer having a plurality of resources, an apparatus for allocating elements of the resources for use by devices of the computer without manual intervention, comprising: a configuration manager that develops a list of device configurations for each of the resources, each device configuration defining a requirement for one of the resource elements of one of the resources to support the operation of a corresponding one of the devices with the computer, and an arbitrator, responsive to the list of device configurations, for each of the resources, that determines whether the resource elements are available to satisfy the resource element requirements defined by the device configurations, wherein the arbitrator allocates the available resource elements in the event that resource elements are available to satisfy the resource element requirements defined by the device configurations.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 44 words

The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the arbitrator sends to the configuration manager an error message representing configuration failure in the event that the arbitrator fails to determine that resource elements are available to satisfy the resource element requirements defined by the device configurations.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 49 words

The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the resource elements include nonreserved resource elements and reserved resource elements, the reserved resource elements representing a set of the resource elements that are held in reserve for possible use by selected devices, and the nonreserved resource elements representing the remaining resource elements.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 29 words

The method of claim 2, wherein the possible configuration of said resource elements is calculated based upon a device identification code and logical configuration data for the selected device.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 30 words

The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the possible configuration of said resource elements is calculated based upon a device identification code and logical configuration data for the selected device.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2001-08-10	2002-02-09	2002-08-11	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2005-08-10	2006-02-09	2006-08-11	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2009-08-10	2010-02-09	2010-08-11	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

System for allocating the resources of a computer system

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