Abstract:
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for converting, through add-on hardware and code, any of a variety of types and vintages of general purpose personal, laptop, or notebook computers to be an efficient, secure, dedicated system which run independently of the host system&#39;s resident operating system.

Description:
This application is the non-provisional counterpart of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/571,507 filed on May 17, 2004. This application claims the benefit and priority to U.S. Provisional 60/571,507, said provisional application being incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. 

   FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
   The present invention relates to an add-on modification to a personal, laptop, or notebook computer system that converts that system from a general purpose, stand-alone system with networking capabilities to a dedicated, secure, networking interface that by-passes the system&#39;s resident operating system and hard drive. 
   BACKGROUND 
   With the technical lifetime of a present day personal, laptop, or notebook computer being only three to five years, there is a tremendous waste as these obsolete systems are discarded. This results in, not only a monetary loss for the user, but also represents an environmental concern. 
   Generally, there has been little done toward extending the useful life of a computer system. In some cases, performance may be enhanced to extend the system&#39;s life. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,801, “Motherboard assembly which has a single socket that can accept a single integrated circuit package or multiple integrated circuit packages”, by D. Dent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,610,801, “Motherboard assembly which has a single socket that can accept a single integrated circuit package or multiple integrated circuit packages”, by G. Begis, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,692, “Socket with in-socket embedded integrated circuit”, by K. Jaff, pluggable replacement or co-processor chips are taught. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,757 “SIMM/DIMM memory module” by Timothy Jay Dell et al. al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,762, “Expandable memory having plural memory cards for distributively storing system data”, by Brian W. Curran, et al. storage capacity is enhanced through memory add-on cards. There has not been, however, ways to override or capture the system from its resident operating system. One could possibly upgrade to a more advanced operating system as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,201, “Changing page size in storage media of computer system”, by Mark Gregory Manges, et al. but this is usually costly as upgrades in the system&#39;s hardware is desirable to take advantage of the new operating system&#39;s features. What is more likely to happen is that the user will replace the entire system at a comparable cost to the operating system and hardware upgrade. 
   There are other problems with using conventional systems to interface with a network such as the World Wide Web Internet. One such problem is exposing the system to destructive or nuisance viruses or pop-ups. A second problem is the susceptibility to system clogging E-mail Spam. A third problem is the vulnerability of the user&#39;s data security and the user&#39;s privacy. A fourth problem is the instability of today&#39;s complex operating systems resulting in irrecoverable, “fatal”, errors which require the system to be restarted, its hard drive scanned for errors, the fixing of the errors, and the loss of any unsaved data. 
   SUMMARY 
   It is the objective of the present invention, therefore, to overcome all the problems and shortcomings discussed above involving the use of conventional personal, laptop or notebook computer systems and their interface to a network. 
   It is a further objective to provide a personal, laptop, or notebook computer system as an interface to a network that is independent of and by-passes the system&#39;s resident operating system. 
   It is a further objective to substitute a non-persistent storage for the system&#39;s hard drive to alleviate or eliminate problems of Spam, viruses, and privacy/security resulting from connection to the network. 
   Finally, it is an objective of the present invention to allow a user to salvage his current, obsolete or near obsolete personal, laptop, or notebook computer system and to continue its use as a high performing, more user friendly, and more secure network interface. 
   These objectives are achieved by introducing to the user&#39;s personal, laptop, or notebook system an inexpensive, easy-to-install, add-on card that, after installation, will “hijack” the system sometime during the system&#39;s boot-up operation, preferably during the time of ROM Scan, take control of the system, and utilize the system&#39;s I/O, CPU, RAM, and bus architecture to provide, along with its own storage system, the interface to the network. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       FIG. 1  shows a PCI adapter card as described by this invention. 
       FIG. 2  shows the PCI adapter card positioned to be inserted into a host PC system board. 
       FIG. 3  shows a flow chart illustrating the steps involved in the invention for the PCI adapter card to take control of the host system. 
       FIG. 4  shows the configuration of the Boot ROM portion of the adapter card designed for most desktop PC&#39;s. 
       FIG. 5  shows the configuration of the Boot ROM portion of the adapter card for notebook/laptop PC&#39;s. 
       FIG. 6  shows, pictorially, the installation steps involved for implementing the present invention. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1  shows a PCI adapter card  10  of the present invention, which is designed to be plugged into the system board of a host PC to be converted to an interne appliance. Once plugged in, and the PC is powered on, the PC will begin its boot-up routine. When the system is in its power-on-self-test ROM scan subroutine, it will detect and turn over control to the PCI adapter&#39;s ROM  20 . Operating code programmed into ROM  20  will then take control of the host system. The ROM  20  may be read mostly memory. The ROM  20  may be in the form of a pluggable compact flash, CF, module  30  for flexibility and future updates through vendor exchange, downloading, etc. Also the ROM  20  may be in the form of dongle, CD-ROM or disk. 
   The PCI adapter card  10  of  FIG. 1  also contains a super video graphics adapter (SVGA)  40 , one or more video RAM (VRAM) modules  50 , a USB interface module  60 , a PCI/USB interface module  70 , a network interface module  80 , and an SND module  90 . 
   The PCI adapter card  10  of  FIG. 1  also contains external sockets, including, but not limited to, Sound In  100 , Sound Out  110 , Network  120 , Display  130 , and one or more USB sockets  140 . Also included are a Reset button  150  and a Status Indicator  160 . The PCI adapter card  10  also has a PCI bus connector  170 . 
     FIG. 2  shows the adapter card positioned above the host computer&#39;s system board  200  (not part of this invention). The host&#39;s system board  200  will include its CPU  210 , existing RAM  220 , and a PCI bus socket  230  which will accommodate the PCI bus connector  170 . 
     FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of the steps that occur when the host, with the adapter card plugged in, is powered on. In step  320  the system goes into its system board adapter diagnostics. Once in the system board adapter diagnostics, it enters the adapter diagnostics ROM Scan step  330 . 
   Normally, during ROM Scan, the system scans bus addresses, looking for ROM mounted on an adapter card. If ROM is found, the system allows ROM  20  to take over control of system to run the card&#39;s diagnostics. Typically, control is returned to the system at the end of card diagnostics as shown in step  340 . 
   In this invention, however, the PCI adapter card  10  “hijacks” the system and takes over its control by not releasing control of the system back to the host, before system control is passed to the host&#39;s operating system, OS. The PCI adapter card  10  then moves into its embedded application, such as, as illustrated in step  350 , a dedicated browser application, a preferred embodiment. Such an application may be Linux based so as to circumvent and be completely independent of the host&#39;s operating system. It may be decided, after entering into the application, to remain in the application or proceed to the OS load control where control is turned back over to the host and where the host routine will move into system auto configuration step  370  and on to loading of the operating system step  380 . Other embodiments of embedded applications that could reside in the card&#39;s ROM  20  include dedicated modem or network browsers, process control for home automation, print buffers, post script engines, virtual private networks, and firewalls. 
   An adapter according to the present invention may be designed for desktop PC, notebook/laptop PC, or wireless PC applications.  FIG. 4  shows a Boot ROM portion  400  of an adapter card. This configuration would apply to many existing PC&#39;s. Again, the card will be interconnected to the host through its PCI bus connector  410 , converts to USB through interface  420  which links, in turn, through a second interface  430 , to a CF flash module  440  seated in a socket  450 . Second interface  430  is a USB to CF flash interface. Also included is a 100/110 Ethernet port  460 . 
   A notebook/laptop Boot ROM portion  500  of the adapter card would be configured as illustrated in  FIG. 5 . Included are an M type ethernet connector  510 , an F type ethernet connector  520 , the compact flash section  530 , and a logic section  540 . 
   The adapter card  10  can be installed by anyone of minimal hardware skills. The steps for installation are illustrated in  FIG. 6 . In step  610  the card  10  and its software  1000  are removed from the shipping package. 
   In step  620 , after removing the cover (not shown) of the host computer  1010  and after removing the back slot cover  1020 , the card connector  1030  is inserted into the slot&#39;s mating connector  1040 . 
   Following this, in step  630  the peripheral plugs and connectors  180  are connected to their mating connectors or jacks  100 ,  110 ,  120 ,  130 , and  140  on the connecting edge of the card  20  at the back of the host computer  1010 . 
   The last step  640  is to turn on the power of the host  1010  which will cause the system to auto configure to the new application in step  650 . 
   In the preferred embodiment, the dedicated browser is implemented without persistent memory or read/write memory but instead uses a “golden” image of the application which is loaded into the read mostly storage from a known clean, virus free, source, such as, but not limited to a manufacturer&#39;s CD-ROM or a provider&#39;s clean source website. Thus, when the system is reset or powered on the next time, the “golden” image will be downloaded providing a self-healing browser. 
   Writing to storage will be limited, only allowable under certain circumstances. A user invoked manual pushbutton is provided (not shown) to prevent surreptitious writing to the read mostly storage by viruses. 
   While the present invention has been described in conjunction with specific embodiments, it will be understood that those skilled in the art, both now and in the future, will contemplate numerous modifications, alternatives, variations, improvements and enhancements. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such modifications, alternatives, variations, improvements and enhancements as fall within the spirit and broad scope of this invention and any appended claims.