The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 27, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 19, 1999
Daniel P. Drogichen, Leucadia, CA (US);
Eric Eugene Graf, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Don Kane, San Diego, CA (US);
Douglas B. Meyer, San Diego, CA (US);
Andrew E. Phelps, Encinitas, CA (US);
Patricia Shanahan, San Diego, CA (US);
Steven F. Weiss, San Diego, CA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A multiprocessing computer system provides the hardware support to properly test an I/O board while the system is running user application programs and while preventing a faulty board from causing a system crash. The system includes a centerplane that mounts multiple expander boards. Each expander board in turn connects a microprocessor board and an I/O board to the centerplane. Prior to testing, the replacement I/O board becomes a part of a dynamic system domain software partition after it has been inserted into an expander board of the multiprocessing computer system. Testing an I/O board involves executing a process using a microprocessor and memory on a microprocessor board to perform hardware tests on the I/O board. An error cage, address transaction cage, and interrupt transaction cage isolate any errors generated while the I/O board is being tested. The error cage isolates correction code errors, parity errors, protocol errors, timeout errors, and other similar errors generated by the I/O board under test. The address transaction cage isolates out of range memory addresses from the I/O board under test. The interrupt transaction cage isolates interrupt requests to an incorrect target port generated by the I/O board under test. The errors generated by the I/O board are logged in a status register and suppressed.