Patent ID: 8082438

Claim:
A personal computing system comprising: a CPU; a system memory system coupled to the CPU; a High Definition Audio (HDA) controller coupled to the system memory; an HDA bus coupled to the HDA controller; and a codec coupled to the HDA bus, wherein the codec includes a programmable processor; a set of HDA general purpose (GP) registers configured to temporarily store data that is communicated between the HDA bus and the codec; and a further set of registers accessible by the programmable processor, coupled to the HDA GP registers, and configured to temporarily store data that is communicated between the HDA bus and the codec; wherein the programmable processor within the codec is configured to boot in at least a first mode from boot program instructions that are stored in the system memory and are transferred by the HDA controller over the HDA bus to the codec: wherein the HDA GP registers and the processor-accessible registers within the codec temporarily store the boot program instructions during transfer of the boot program instruction to the codec; and wherein the HDA GP registers and the processor-accessible registers within the codec also communicate status and control information associated with data including the boot program instructions, that is communicated between the HDA bus and the codec.