Patent ID: 7716633

Claim:
A method of converting, at boot-up, a general purpose host computer system, said host computer system including a resident operating system and host system power-on-self test (POST) code, into an application specific, dedicated system that can operate an interface and by-pass the resident operating system; said method comprising: providing an alternate source of POST code; substituting at least a portion of the POST code from the alternate source of POST code for, at least, a portion of the host system POST code while keeping the host system unchanged; substituting the alternate source of POST code as a default boot device, wherein the substituted POST code, obtained from the alternate source of POST code, changes the system's start-up sequence and hijacks the system, for one or more subsequent power-on cycles, during a single power-on cycle; configuring the system, including the system's I/O, using the alternate source of POST code as the default boot device; and loading, from a local or remote source, and running a specific embedded application.