IES930174A2 - Computer initialisation - Google Patents

Abstract

A computer system (PC 10) needs to be configured with a keyboard driver 16, a codepage 17 for generating graphic characters for display, and a country table 18 defining various parameters (e.g. date and currency conventions); these together form an operating environment 19. A wide variety of environments are possible, depending on the country and language of the user. The computer includes a part number 35 which includes language and country identifiers, and the computer is coupled to a host fileserver 36 which reads the part number, analyses it for country and language codes, selects the appropriate keyboard driver, codepage, and country table, and sets the configuration files 27 in the computer accordingly. The computer is thereby configured automatically.

Description

COMPUTER INITIALISATION θΐΈΝ TO PUBLIC INSPECTION UNDER LODGED SECTION 28 AND PULE 23 JNL. No...7.77.*?........OF ppa-713 The present invention relates to data processing systems, and more specifically to computers of the type generally known as personal computers, as contrasted with mainframes and minis.

A personal computer - indeed, any general-purpose computer has input, output, storage, and data processing capabilities. The primary direct input device is a keyboard, and the primary direct output device is a display screen; the primary storage devices are hard and soft disc drives.

To use a personal computer for a simple task such as word processing, the computer must also be loaded with an application program - in this example, a word processing program. Alphanumeric characters are stored at the application level as numeric values using a conventional code known as ASCII which relates characters and numeric values. This application program must interface with the input, output and storage devices .

If the computer is intended for use in a variety of countries, this interfacing involves significant complications.

Different countries have slightly different keyboard layouts; for example, the standard English keyboard is known as qwerty from the first six keys on the first character row, while the French keyboard is known as azerty for the same keys. The interfacing between the IE 930174 - 2 keyboard and the application program is therefore normally done by means of a table look-up process, using a keyboard driver which converts the signals (scan codes) from the keyboard into ASCII.

Interfacing is also required between the application program and the display screen. As noted above, the application program operated on ASCII codes. However, information has to be displayed on the display screen in the form of graphic representation of characters. The interfacing between the application program and the display screen is performed by a screen driver table, which converts the ASCII codes into graphic characters which appear on the screen. This interfacing is also done by means of a table look-up process, using a codepage table which defines the graphic character (as, eg, an 8x8 matrix) for each ASCII code.

Different countries have slightly different sets of characters; for example, the standard English keyboard has a sign where the standard US keyboard has a $ sign; these different character sets for different countries are reflected in slightly different versions or dialects of ASCII. The appropriate codepage table is therefore required to achieve the correct conversions from the particular version of ASCII into graphic characters.

In addition to the alphanumeric characters involved in word processing, there are other conventions which differ from country to country, such as the conventions for writing dates, the symbols used for currency, the convention for writing currency amounts, etc. Some of these can be dealt with in the same way as for the IE 930174 - 3 characters discussed above. Others have to be made available to the appropriate programs. Such programs may e.g. include a word processing program (which may e.g. incorporate a calendar, and so need information on the arithmetic and representation of dates), spreadsheets (which may similarly need to deal with dates, and may also need to deal with a currency), and financial programs. This language information is normally provided in the form of a country (or language) table containing a list of the various items of information about the conventions used in that (natural) language. This stored code information is used by the application programs as parameters controlling their operation.

It will be realised that many combinations of keyboard drivers, codepages, and country table are possible. Any particular customer will in general require a particular such combination.

One major market for computers is those customers who are not technically sophisticated. Computers are therefore generally sold as systems, i.e. the computer itself (the hardware) together with a substantial suite of software. On the other hand, computer suppliers normally want to supply computer systems which are as general as possible, partly for their own convenience and partly so that the user is not limited in the manner in which they can use the system. It is therefore standard practice to supply a computer system with a number of different keyboard drivers, codepages, and country tables.

It is of course necessary for the appropriate combination of these keyboard drivers, codepages, and IE 930174 - 4 country tables to be selected when the system is to be used. In general, a particular combination will be used repeatedly. It is therefore standard practice to provide an operating system which can be set (configured) to select the required combination automatically whenever the system is started up. This means that the user will automatically have the appropriate combination provided at the start of each session, while the fact that all the keyboard drivers, codepages, and country tables are included in the system allows them to change the combination if necessary, either for some particular occasion or generally.

For this, the system must first be set up to select the required combination; a procedure known as initialising. Since this is done just once when the sys tem is first being installed and re-configured (changing the required combination) is done very rarely, many users will be unfamiliar with the details of procedure.

Faulty configuration is therefore not uncommon, and results in customer inconvenience and dissatisfaction and in advice and servicing costs.

Configuration can be performed by dealers who supply the systems, but the ability and willingness of dealers to determine the precise requirements of the individual customers and to perform the configuration correctly is very variable. The configuration can be performed by the computer manufacturer, but this is prone to error and involves complications in the relationship between the manufacturer, the dealer, and the customer.

The main object of the present invention is to provide an improved technique for configuring computer systems.

IE 930174 - 5 Accordingly the present invention provides a method of automatically configuring a computer system comprising: a computer; for each of a plurality of environmental aspects, a set of environmental aspect files each of which defines a different group of parameters for that aspect; and initialisation files settable to select a particular operating environment comprising a file for each environmental aspect, the method comprising: providing in the computer system a part number having a plurality of components which together identify the intended environment of the system; and connecting the computer system to a host which reads the part number, selects, from each of the sets of environmental aspect files, a file in accordance with the contents of an associated component of the part number to generate an operating environment, and sets that operating environment into the initialisation files in the system.

Preferably the sets of environmental aspect files include a set of keyboard driver files, a set of codepage files, and a set of country table files.

IE 930174 - 6 A computer system to which the method can be applied, and a host for applying it, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the drawing, which is a block diagram of the computer system and host.

The computer system 10 comprises a keyboard 11, a processor unit 12, a screen display device 13, and a memory 14 (comprising a hard disc drive 21 and a floppy disc drive 22). In normal operation, the processor unit will contain an application program 15, such as a word processor. The keyboard 11 will be coupled to the application program 15 via a keyboard driver table 16, and the application program 15 will be coupled to the screen 13 via a codepage table 17. (There will normally be a screen driver, not shown, functionally located between the codepage table 17 and the screen 13). In addition, the application program 15 is coupled to a country table 18. The three tables 16 to 18 together form an operating environment 19.

The processor unit 11 will also contain an operating system 25, which performs a variety of system control functions. When the system is started up, the operating system is self-starting (i.e. loads itself). A set of keyboard drivers, codepages, and screen drivers are permanently stored in the memory 14, as shown at 26.

Once the operating system 25 has loaded itself, it then uses configuration files 27 (which form part of the operating system) to load the appropriate operating environment 19 (i.e. keyboard driver, codepage, and country table) for the application programs.

The configuration files 27 must of course be initialised with the appropriate set of keyboard drivers, codepages and country tables.

IE 930174 - 7 The system 10 includes part number storage means 35 which are set by the computer manufacturer to contain a part number chosen to identify the intended environment of the system, including a destination country and an operating language.

To initialise the configuration files, the system 10 is coupled to a host 36, which may e.g. be a fileserver. The host 36 includes processing unit 37, a keyboard driver list 38 which contains a table of languages against keyboard driver IDs (identifiers), a codepage list 39 which contains a table of languages against codepage IDs, and a country list 40 which contains a table of countries against country table IDs (identifiers).

The host 36 reads the contents of the part number storage means 35. (The part number storage means 35 is shown as being connected directly to the host 36, but in practice all communication between the system 10 and the host 36 will normally be over a single parallel bus). This part number is then analysed (parsed) by the processor 37 into country and language. The language portion of the part number is used to look up a keyboard driver ID from table 38 and a codepage ID from table 39, and the country portion of the part number is then used to look up a country list ID from table 40. The processor 37 then writes these IDs into the configuration files 25 in the operating system 20, and forces the resulting file to be written into the memory 14.

The process of configuring the computer system 10 is thus automated. The computer system has its initial configuration potentially defined as soon as the part number is entered into the part number storage means 35.

IE 930174 - 8 The actual initialisation is performed when the computer system is connected to the host 36, which may be done at any convenient time and place (or indeed not done at all, if e.g. the customer indicates that they do not want the system initialised for them). It is however convenient for the part number to be entered into the computer during manufacture.

More specifically, the normal manufacturing procedure includes a 'burn-in' or soak test which is performed once the hardware has been assembled, and which is followed by hard disc formatting and then installation of the basic programs. Burn-in consists of running the system continuously with a test program for an extended period (some days) to test the operation of the system. The hard disc drive 21 is then formatted, and a diagnostic floppy disc is then inserted into the floppy disc drive 22.

The diagnostic disc in the drive 22 includes a storage region 35, forming a part number storage means and in which the part number is stored, and a batch program 41. When the computer 10 is rebooted, this batch program logs the computer into the file server 36, which thereupon takes over full control of the computer. In particular, it runs an installation control program which analyses the part number and enters the appropriate keyboard driver, codepage, and country table files into the computer 10 as described above.

The keyboard driver, codepage, and country table files may conveniently be stored in the fileserver in compressed (zip) form, and decompressed (unzipped) as they are passed from the fileserver to the computer system.

Claims (5)

1. A method of automatically configuring a computer system comprising: a computer; for each of a plurality of environmental aspects, a set of environmental aspect files each of which defines a 10 different group of parameters for that aspect; and initialisation files settable to select a particular operating environment comprising a file for each environmental aspect, 15 the method comprising: providing in the computer system a part number having a plurality of components which together identify the intended environment of the system; and connecting the 20 computer system to a host which reads the part number, selects, from each of the sets of environmental aspect 25 files, a file in accordance with the contents of an associated component of the part number to generate an operating environment, and sets that operating environment into the initialisation 30 files in the system.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the sets of environmental aspect files include a set of keyboard driver files, a set of codepage files, and a set of 35 country table files. IE 930174 - 10

3. A method according to either previous claim wherein the part number is stored on a diagnostic disc which is inserted into the computer system and which also carries a batch program which, when the computer is started up, 5 transfers control to the host.

4. A method according to any previous claim wherein the host stores the environmental aspect files in a compressed form and decompresses the selected ones in 10 transferring them to the computer system.

5. A method of automatically configuring a computer system substantially as hereinbefore described.