Patent ID: 7984432

Claim:
A method for patching a read-only memory, wherein the read-only memory provides information for a data processing system, the method comprising: providing multiple patch contexts in a patch contexts memory, wherein each patch context defines a different set of patches, and wherein each patch comprises a patch address and corresponding patch data; activating the patch contexts one at a time, wherein at each time the information in a read-only memory that provides information for a data processing system is patched according to the currently activated patch context; wherein activating a patch context comprises loading a patch context from the patch contexts memory into patch hardware configured to patch the read-only memory according to the loaded patch context, wherein the patch hardware is limited with respect to a number of patches to load therein; and wherein before switching between two threads, wherein a first thread is deactivated and a second thread is activated, information about a currently activated patch context is saved in the patch contexts memory, and the saved patch context is restored a next time the first thread is reactivated.