Inventors:
Masserati So - Fremont CA, US
International Classification:
G01R 31/28
G06F 9/46
Abstract:
Systems and methods are provided for a hardware access tool to access a computer input/output (I/O) device coupled to a standard I/O bus on a host computer system. Upon receiving a standard I/O bus command, the hardware access tool translates the bus command on-the-fly for operation on a selected I/O device. The hardware access tool includes a bootable operating system for use when operating the invention, thus avoiding possible corruption of any existing host operating system. Accessing an input/output device may be for testing, debugging, developing, programming, configuring, or any other reason for accessing an I/O device. The hardware access tool may operate with standard I/O bus architectures such as PCI, CompactPCI, PMC, PCI-X, PCI Express, InfiniBand, HyperTransport, PC CardBus, PCMCIA, AGP, USB, ExpressCard, and IEEE 1394.