Patent attributes
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a microcontroller which includes a Register Load Assist engine. The microcontroller can include no or minimal non-volatile memory which stores boot data. Thus, most of the boot data can be stored at a non-volatile memory external to the microcontroller. An external circuit can read the externally positioned non-volatile memory and send compressed boot data to the microcontroller. The boot data can be originally stored in compressed form in the external non-volatile memory or it can be compressed by the external circuit. The boot data can be received by the microcontroller and saved in an intermediate location in the microcontroller's internal volatile memory. The RLA engine can then uncompress the boot data and store various portions of it in their final destinations (such as, for example, in respective registers).
