Firmware assisted error handling scheme

摘要

A firmware assisted error handling scheme in a computer system has been disclosed. In one embodiment, firmware is used to access one or more hardware-specific error registers within the computer system in response to a system management interrupt (SMI) trap. Using the firmware, an error record in a common error record format is constructed. The error record is made available to an operating system (OS) within the computer system.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
using firmware to abstract error information for an operating system (OS) within a computer system, the error information from disparate sources in the computer system, the error information abstracted from platform specific error registers of one of various different platforms, wherein the disparate sources comprise a central processing unit, memory controller, and input/output controller, and wherein the error information is abstracted from different platform error record formats based on different vendor formats for the central processing unit, memory controller, and input/output controller; constructing an error record using the error information, the error record in a common error record format useable by the operating system; depositing the error record into two or more abstracted error access registers comprising memory buffers visible to the OS; making the error information available to the OS by the firmware presenting to the OS, the two or more abstracted error access registers comprising memory buffers visible to the OS; the operating system accessing the error record from the two or more abstracted error access registers, without platform specific knowledge of the platform specific error registers; and using the firmware to support platform error injection, wherein a request to inject errors from the OS is trapped and is fulfilled by the firmware transparently to the OS.