International Business Machines Corporation

Mark A Brandyberry

Paul Daniel Kangas

Brent William Yardley

Ivan R Zapata

Todd W Justus

Lee Hardy Wilson

Bruce James Wilkie

Christopher Landon Wood

Mehul M Shah

Shiva R Dasari

Daniel Ernest Hurlimann

Ryuji Orita

Sean P Brogan

A presence detectable baffle for electrical components in a computing system, including: a passive chassis having a form factor is consistent with an electrical component of the computing system; and a presence detectable pin set connected to the passive chassis, the pin set consistent with the electrical component.

Presence detectable baffle for electrical components in a computing system

Administering computing system resources in a computing system, the computing system comprising at least one slot adapted to receive an electrical component having a set of pins, the slot configured to couple pins of the electrical component to the computing system, installed within the slot a presence detectable baffle, the presence detectable baffle comprising a passive chassis having a form factor consistent with the electrical component and a presence detectable pin set connected to the passive chassis, the pin set consistent with the electrical component, including: identifying, by a system manager, the presence detectable baffle; and managing, by the system manager, computing system operating attributes in dependence upon presence detectable baffle attributes.

Administering computing system resources in a computing system

The last value of an element of a computing system is continually stored within a first register. The element is cleared during any restart or reset of the computing system. The last value is relevant to debugging of the computing system when the computing system fails to perform as expected and/or as desired. Upon receiving an instruction to reset the computing system via a first reset signal corresponding to pressing of a reset button or a second reset signal corresponding to a baseboard management controller issuing a reset command, the last value of the element as stored within the first register is copied to a second register. The computing system is then reset. The last value of the element as stored within the second register persists within the second register during this type of reset, but is cleared during any other reset or restart of the computing system.

Persisting value relevant to debugging of computer system during reset of computer system

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for handling fatal computer hardware errors on a computer that include halting data processing operations of the computer upon occurrence of a fatal hardware error; signaling by a source chip of a chipset to the programmable logic device the occurrence of a fatal hardware error; signaling by the programmable logic device to an embedded system microcontroller the occurrence of a fatal hardware error; reading by the embedded system microcontroller through at least one sideband bus from registers in chips of the chipset information regarding the cause of the fatal hardware error; and storing by the embedded system microcontroller the information in non-volatile random access memory of the embedded system microcontroller.

Handling fatal computer hardware errors

Methods, apparatus, and products for processor fault isolation are disclosed that include sending, by an embedded system microcontroller to a programmable logic device ('PLD') a selection signal identifying one processor for boundary scan operations; sending boundary scan input signals to be sent to the identified processor; multiplexing by the PLD the boundary scan input signals to the identified processor; and sending boundary scan output signals returned from the identified processor. Methods, apparatus, and products for processor fault isolation are also disclosed that include connecting two or more processors in a boundary scan test chain, the connecting carried out by a PLD of a computer, the PLD further connected to sense lines carrying presence signals indicating whether processors are present in the computer; and including in the chain all processors indicated present according to presence signals.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Mark A Brandyberry