Technologies for displaying images during a pre-boot phase of a vehicle computing platform

1. At least one non-transitory computer accessible medium comprising a plurality of instructions that in response to being executed, cause a computing device to:

allocate, during a pre-boot phase of the computing device, a primary buffer of a memory of the computing device for storage of streamed image data from a camera of the computing device;

allocate, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, a secondary buffer of the memory for storage of image data, other than the streamed image data, produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase;

store, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the image data produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase in the secondary buffer;

initiate, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the streaming of image data from the camera to the primary buffer;

issue a management interrupt to report the location of the allocated memory to a timer handler.

2. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein to initiate the streaming of the image data comprises to initiate the streaming of the image data from the camera to the primary buffer during a firmware initialization phase of the computing device.

3. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to install a timer handler during the firmware initialization phase.

4. The at least one computer accessible medium of claim 2 , wherein to allocate the primary buffer comprises to allocate the primary buffer for stage of the streamed image data during the firmware initialization phase.

5. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to count down a period of time and use a management interrupt to invoke a timer handler if the period of time expires.

6. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to check for a reverse gearshift event if the time interval expires.

7. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 6 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to stream image data from the camera in response to a reverse gearshift event being detected.

8. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the special-purpose operating mode is a system management mode (SMM).

9. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to execute a normal operating mode on the computing device, wherein the special-purpose operating mode runs concurrently with the normal operating mode.

10. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to display the image data from the camera at a display coupled to the computing device in real time during any phase of operation of the computing device.

11. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to allocate a common buffer usable by one or more graphics drivers of the computing device to receive the streamed image data from the camera.

12. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to assign a higher priority to the primary buffer than the secondary buffer.

13. The at least one non-transitory computer accessible medium of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of instructions cause the computing device to merge the contents of the primary and secondary buffers.

14. A computing device comprising:

at least one processor core; and

a memory device coupled to the at least one processor core, the memory device having stored therein a plurality of instructions that when executed by the at least one processor core, cause the at least one processor core to:

allocate, during a pre-boot phase of the computing device, a primary buffer of a memory of the computing device for storage of streamed image data from a camera of the computing device;

allocate, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, a secondary buffer of the memory for storage of image data, other than the streamed image data, produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase;

store, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the image data produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase in the secondary buffer;

initiate, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the streaming of image data from the camera to the primary buffer;

issue a management interrupt to report the location of the allocated memory to a timer handler.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , comprising an input/output subsystem communicatively coupled to a reverse gearshift detector.

16. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the computing device is coupled to a vehicle navigation system.

17. A method for streaming image data from a camera into a memory, the method comprising:

allocating, during a pre-boot phase of the computing device, a primary buffer of the memory of the computing device for storage of streamed image data from the camera of the computing device;

allocating, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, a secondary buffer of the memory for storage of image data, other than the streamed image data, produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase;

store, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the image data produced by the computing device during the pre-boot phase in the secondary buffer;

initiating, during the pre-boot phase of the computing device, the streaming of image data from the camera to the primary buffer;

issuing a management interrupt to report the location of the allocated memory to a timer handler.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:

determining whether a reverse gearshift event has occurred; and

clearing the primary buffer in response to determining a reverse gearshift event not having occurred.