Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.p.

Stephen L Hoyle

Lance Warren Russell

Fong Pong

Alberto J Munoz

Lu Xu

Thomas Wylegala

Dejan S Miloiicic

Several multiprocessor computer systems, each having its own copy of an operating system, are interconnected to form a multi-computer system having global memory accessible by any processor on any node and including provision for spinlock access control. In this environment, a global mutex, and other like synchronization objects, are realized that can control the coordination of multiple threads running on multiple processors and on multiple nodes or platforms. Each global mutex is supported by a local operating system shadow mutex on each node or platform where threads have opened access to the global mutex. Global mutex functionality is thus achieved that reflects and utilizes the local operating system's mutex system.

Synchronization objects for multi-computer systems

The present invention is a system and method for recovering from memory failures in computer systems. The method of the present invention includes the steps of: identifying a predetermined instruction sequence; monitoring for memory access errors in response to the request; logging a memory access error in an error logging register; polling the register for any logged memory access error during execution of the instruction sequence; and raising exceptions, if the memory access error is logged. Within the system of the present invention, memory access errors are stored in an error logging register, machine check abort handles are masked, and memory controllers are under full control of the software so that memory access errors can be intercepted and responded to without necessitating a system reboot or application restart. The present invention is particularly applicable to O/S code which can not otherwise recover from memory errors except by rebooting.

System and method for recovering from memory failures in computer systems

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Stephen L Hoyle