SELF-CONTAINED NETWORK BROWSER WITH DIAGNOSTIC ABILITIES

摘要

A network browser with diagnostic abilities stored in a persistent memory, wherein the persistent memory is not a hard disk, is provided. The network browser is used to repair failures of peripheral devices in a networked computer, such as a hard drive, so as to avoid forcing a user to manually diagnose or solve the failure. Moreover, the network browser removes strict dependence on a traditional operating system, and thus the hard disk, to make such repairs. According an embodiment, the network browser comprises a plurality of software modules. The modules include: a device driver module (216), which is configured to initialize and test one or more peripheral devices; a real time kernel module (220), which is configured to detect and dispatch data to and from peripheral devices, though said device driver module (216), including processing diagnostic data corresponding to operation of said peripheral devices, and to perform memory management tasks; an internet protocol module (224), which is configured to handle network communications with remote devices; a graphics windowing module (232), which is configured to process visual display data and control; and a hypertext markup language module (248) configured to interpret hypertext markup language documents for display with said graphics windowing module (232).