Patent ID: 6202070
Filing Date: 2001-03-13
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for manufacturing computers with pre-installed software, comprising the actions of:(a.) in a first software engineering group, creating a first respective structured database containing references to software objects to be pre-installed with a structure of associations which allows duplicate files to be referenced and removed from said server, and storing said software objects on a first respective server according to database said references;(b.) isolating said structured database and files into separate database structures and servers by:referencing and eliminating any duplicate files existing between the isolated and structured servers; referencing and eliminating any duplicate reference existing between the isolated and structured databases; updating any references that have been modified; and creating a catalog containing said added or updated references;(c.) repeating steps (a.)-(b.) one or more times for multiple software generating groups with separate respective structured databases and separate respective servers;(d.) merging all said isolated structured database and associated server files into a master isolated database and master isolated server by, for each isolated structured database and associated server:referencing and eliminating any duplicate files existing between the isolated and master servers; referencing said catalog structure to perform, update, insert and duplicate eliminating operations for each entry in said catalog, wherein a full database comparison is avoided; and updating any references that have been modified;(e.) repeating the merging actions of step (d.) for each isolated structured database and associated server files; and(f.) manufacturing computers with said software preinstalled from said master isolated database and master isolated server; whereby each software object is stored only once in said master isolated server and each software object reference in the master database is unique.