Patent · US Expired

Computer system with transparent processor sparing

US6115829A · kind A · utility

14Cited by
12References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateApr 30, 1998
Grant dateSep 5, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 30, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B1/74
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A computer which has multiple central processing units where at least one of the processors is a spare and unused for normal system operation, provides a mechanism for transferring the micro-architected state of a checkstopped processor to a spare processor. Each processor has a set of registers in the central processing unit where the micro-architected state of the processor is kept and these registers are accessible by millicode or microcode running on that processor. A checkstop of a processor is detected by the system, the micro-architected state of that processor is extracted and returned to the system where that state can be loaded into a spare processor in the system and processing resumed without interruption.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.