Hardware apparatuses and methods to check data storage devices for transient faults

A method comprising:

• decoding an instruction, having a first operand to identify a section of a data storage device, into a decoded instruction with a decoder of a processor;
• and
• executing the decoded instruction with an execution unit of the processor to:
• perform a check of the section of the data storage device for a memory fault that is to cause a machine check exception that shuts down the processor when data is accessed by the processor at the section, and
• provide as a resultant of the instruction an indication of failure when there is the memory fault without causing the machine check exception, and an indication of success when there is not the memory fault.

A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having code that, when executed, causes a machine to perform a method comprising:

• decoding an instruction, having a first operand to identify a section of a data storage device, into a decoded instruction with a decoder of a processor;
• and
• executing the decoded instruction with an execution unit of the processor to:
• perform a check of the section of the data storage device for a memory fault that is to cause a machine check exception that shuts down the processor when data is accessed by the processor at the section, and
• provide as a resultant of the instruction an indication of failure when there is the memory fault without causing the machine check exception, and an indication of success when there is not the memory fault.