Patent ID: 8365159

Claim:
An information storage and retrieval system comprising a computer readable medium having computer readable program code disposed therein to update code in an article of manufacture while that article of manufacture remains operational, said article of manufacture further comprising one or more processors and existing code, wherein said one or more processors use said existing code to operate said article of manufacture, and wherein said existing code includes a Concurrent Code Load having (N) phases, wherein said Concurrent Code Load comprises a function call to a Temporal Coupling File, the computer readable program code comprising a series of computer readable program steps to effect: operating said information storage and retrieval system using said existing code; receiving a code update image comprising said Temporal Coupling File; executing an (i)th phase of said Concurrent Code Load, wherein (i) is greater than or equal to 1 and less than or equal to (N), and wherein (i) is initially set to 1; determining if said (i)th phase of said Concurrent Code Load invokes said Temporal Coupling File; operative if said (i)th phase of said Concurrent Code Load invokes said Temporal Coupling File, reading instructions for said (i)th phase of said Concurrent Code Load from said Temporal Coupling File, and executing said instructions, such that said existing code can invoke elements of said code update where that code update was not written when said existing code was created and installed; completing said (i)th phase of said Concurrent Code Load; ascertaining if (i) equals (N); operative if (i) equals (N), operating said information storage and retrieval system using said code update.