International Business Machines Corporation

Wayne Allan Britson

Alongkorn Kitamorn

Gary Dean Anderson

Sheldon Ray Bailey

Michael Alan Kobler

Steven Michael Douskey

Brent William Jacobs

Salim Ahmed Agha

Frank William Angelotti

Matthew Scott Spinler

Bradley W Bishop

Michael Allen Weed

Kerry T Kaliszewski

William Thomas Truskowski

A system and method for fast system recovery that bypasses diagnostic routines by disconnecting failed hardware from the system before rebooting. Failed hardware and hardware that will be affected by removal of the failed hardware of the system are disconnected from the system. The system is restarted, and because the failed hardware is disconnected, diagnostic routines may safely be eliminated from the reboot process.

Method for fast system recovery via degraded reboot

A system, method, and computer-usable medium for applying a destructive firmware update in a non-destructive manner. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, during operation of a multiprocessor data processing system, a service processor updates firmware in the multiprocessor data processing system from a first firmware setting to a second firmware setting. The service processor iteratively applies the second firmware setting to hardware within the multiprocessor data processing system by de-allocating a first hardware device when the second firmware setting includes at least one destructive operation targeted to the first hardware device, performing the destructive operation on the first hardware device, and re-allocating the first hardware device into the multiprocessor data processing system when the destructive operation is complete.

System and method for applying a destructive firmware update in a non-destructive manner

In response to the start of an initialization sequence at a service processor, if power to a main processor was interrupted at a most-recent time that an operating system executed on the main processor, power to the main processor is turned on, the operating system is started executing on the main processor, data from the non-volatile memory of the service processor is provided to the operating system, and the service processor is reset, which restarts the initialization sequence. If the power to the main processor was not interrupted at the most-recent time that the operating system executed on the main processor, and if the operating system is currently executing on the main processor, a monitoring function is started in the service processor, which monitors for errors at a computer system.

Initialization after a power interruption

A method, apparatus, and computer instructions in a data processing system for managing clocks. The functionality of clock sources in the data processing system is verified to identify a set of valid clock sources in response to beginning an initial load process. Hardware is initialized in the data processing system using a valid clock source from the set of valid clock sources.

Method and apparatus for enhancing system clock availability

An electronics systems having variable interconnections among major components is tested by dynamically identifying the locations and types of all system components at the time the test is to be performed, for building a global model describing the interconnections among these components. Specific tests appropriate for this model are then dynamically generated and executed. Data on the components themselves identifies them. The tests employ boundary-scanning techniques to locate failing drivers, receivers, and bidirectional driver/receivers, as well as open and shorted interconnections.

Testing system interconnections using dynamic configuration and test

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Rochester, MN, United States of America

Wayne Allan Britson