Patent ID: 7203830

Claim:
A computing apparatus comprising: a display unit that is capable of generating video images; an input device; a non-persistent system memory; a persistent storage device comprising: at least one disk assembly for storing data including an operating system and programs having data files, the at least one disk assembly having a disk spin-up time; a controller in communication with the at least one disk assembly, the controller having a cache buffer for caching data from the at least one disk assembly; and a flash memory for storing static configuration data and dynamic configuration data, the flash memory in communication with the controller and having a size sufficient to store the static configuration data and the dynamic configuration data such that a time of loading the static configuration data and the dynamic configuration data into the non-persistent system memory is approximately equal to the disk spin-up time; and a processor operatively coupled to the display unit, the input device, the non-persistent memory and the persistent storage device, wherein the processor is programmed to execute an operating system program.