Intel Corporation

George H Huang

Debaleena Das

Rajat Agarwal

Brian S Morris

Jing Ling

Meera Ganesan

Reza E Daftari

Memory subsystem error management enables dynamically changing lockstep partnerships. A memory subsystem has a lockstep partnership relationship between a first memory portion and a second memory portion to spread error correction over the pair of memory resources. The lockstep partnership can be preconfigured. In response to detecting a hard error in the lockstep partnership, the memory subsystem can cancel or reverse the lockstep partnership between the first memory portion and the second memory portion and create or set a new lockstep partnership. The detected error can be a second hard error in the lockstep partnership. The memory subsystem can create new lockstep partnerships between the first memory portion and a third memory portion as lockstep partners and between the second memory portion and a fourth memory portion as lockstep partners. The memory subsystem can also be configured to change the granularity of the lockstep partnership when changing partnerships.

Dynamically changing lockstep configuration

An apparatus and method are described for performing forward and reverse memory sparing operations. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises memory sparing logic to perform a first forward memory sparing operation at a first level of granularity in response to detecting a memory failure; the memory sparing logic to perform a reverse memory sparing operation in response to a determination of an improved sparing state having a second level of granularity; and the memory sparing logic to responsively perform a second forward memory sparing operation at the second level of granularity.

Method and apparatus for reverse memory sparing

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

George H Huang