International Business Machines Corporation

Alan Hlava

David Dean Sanner

James Stephen Fields, Jr

Van Hoa Lee

Scott Barnett Swaney

Andrew J Geissler

Scott David Mastie

Andreas Bieswanger

Arthur Ray Roberts

Herwig Gustav Elfering

Daniel Morgan Crowell

Paul Douglas Koeller

Robert H Satin

Christopher Tung Phan

Mary Christine Manges

Gordon Gregory Stewart

Patricia A Timms

Arvin J Fisher

Michael K Russell

Performance in object-oriented systems may be improved by allowing multiple concurrent hardware control and diagnostic operations to run concurrently on the system while preventing race conditions, state/data corruption, and hangs due to deadlock conditions. Deadlock prevention rules may be employed to grant or deny request for hardware operation locks, hardware communication locks, and/or data locks.

Making hardware objects and operations thread-safe

Illustrative embodiments manage deadlock in a data processing system during an IPL process that includes monitoring the usage of locks in the Hardware Object Model (HOM) of the data processing system. The process further includes detecting a deadlock condition in response to an indication of the IPL process in the data processing system entering a hung state when at least one lock is in use. The process also includes handling the deadlock condition by performing one or more of the following: recording error information for the deadlock condition, and terminating the IPL process.

Detecting a deadlock condition by monitoring firmware inactivity during the system IPL process

A computer implemented method, a data processing system, and a computer usable program code for automatically identifying multiple combinations of operational and non-operational components with a single part number. A non-volatile storage is provided on a part, wherein the part includes a plurality of sub-components. Unavailable sub-components in the plurality of sub-components are identified based on a series of testing to form identified unavailable sub-components. Information of the identified unavailable sub-components is stored into the non-volatile storage.

Method and apparatus for automatically identifying multiple combinations of operational and non-operational components on integrated circuit chips with a single part number

According to the invention, systems and methods are disclosed for allowing command files to access information in a data store. This method consists of executing a first, original command file. A second, temporary command file is then created by a command file generator program. The temporary command file includes one or more commands based upon information from a data store that is accessible only by way of an Application Programming Interface (API). Information from the data store is then used during execution of the temporary command file. The original command file defines the scope of temporary environmental variables for storing information to be retrieved from the data store by a command file generator program and stored in the temporary command file, executes the temporary command file, branches around the operations contained in the body of the original command file which have been performed by the temporary command file, and cleans up the local environment. A command file generator, executed by the original command file generates the temporary command file, accesses information from a data stores through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) associated with the data store, and generates one or more commands for inclusion in the temporary command file based upon the information retrieved from the data store. The temporary command file stores information retrieved from the data store in one or more local environmental variables, and performs processing based upon the content of the environmental variables and the original command file.

Providing command files with access to data stores that are inaccessible to command line operations

A print model is provided that supports job submission to either physical or logical printer objects while preserving job defaulting, validation, and scheduling. According to one aspect of the present invention physical printers, e.g., objects representing the capabilities of associated output devices, may be the target of print job submissions. When a print job is received at a physical printer, an association is created between the print job and the physical printer. Then, the print job is routed from the physical printer to a predetermined logical printer, e.g., an object representing an abstract set of job and output device capabilities. According to another aspect of the present invention, an improved print server includes multiple physical printer objects that may serve as targets of print job submissions. The physical printer objects each correspond to an associated output device and each include an attribute that identifies a logical printer object, if any, through which print jobs may flow to the physical printer object. Additionally, each physical printer object is configured to create an association between print jobs submitted to the physical printer object and the physical printer object. Furthermore, each physical printer object is configured to transfer the print jobs to the logical printer object identified by the attribute. The print server also includes one or more logical printer objects. The logical printer objects are coupled to the physical printer objects and are configured to schedule the print jobs on the physical printer objects with which the print jobs are associated.

Print model that allows direct job submission to physical printer objects while preserving job defaulting, validation and scheduling

Disclosed is a method (and apparatus) for optimizing disk access operations which span multiple logical disk partitions and multiple disk drives. The disclosed method makes optimum use of concurrency in the software without causing poor performance due to contention for seeks in a disk drive.

Task management for data accesses to multiple logical partitions on physical disk drives in computer systems

The method of the present invention presents a plurality of option panels to a user, each option panel requiring at least one user input which specifies a system option for a selected data processing system. Thereafter, an installation profile is created utilizing these specified system options, including at least a description of the operating system to be utilized and a description of the data processing system hardware configuration. In one embodiment of the present invention this installation profile is then stored in conjunction with a complex multilevel software application on a portable storage media, such as a tape reel. Thereafter, the installation of the complex multilevel software application may be automatically accomplished by reference to the installation profile which contains those values which represent preset installation options. An operating system is installed utilizing the values set forth in the installation profile and the Initial Program Load (IPL) of the operating system is also accomplished utilizing the preset installation options contained within the installation profile.

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Mazeppa, MN, United States of America

Alan Hlava