Patent ID: 7512616

Claim:
A computer readable storage medium storing a self-descriptive binary data structure executable on a computer processor for communicating binary data, the computer readable storage medium comprising: the self-descriptive binary data structure configured to communicate data between a source device and a target device distinct from the source device, and comprising an image header comprising 512 bytes with a first 128 bytes and a last 128 bytes that are location, size, and content definition invariant, the first 128 and last 128 storing architecture-specific descriptors and an eight byte version indicator; a plurality of data segments, each of the plurality of data segments comprising a segment header and a data field, the segment header descriptive of the corresponding data segment; a target data set within the data field; and a data structure descriptor descriptive of the self-descriptive binary data structure, the data structure descriptor identifying the location of the target data set within the data field.