Technology to facilitate rapid booting with high-speed and low-speed nonvolatile memory

A data processing system (DPS) with technology for booting rapidly, the DPS comprising:

• a processor;
• a volatile random access memory (RAM) responsive to the processor;
• a low-speed nonvolatile memory (NVM) responsive to the processor;
• a high-speed NVM responsive to the processor;
• and
• a preliminary bootcode module stored in the low-speed NVM;
• wherein the preliminary bootcode module, when executed by the processor, enables the DPS to (i) determine whether the high-speed NVM supports a read speed that is faster than a maximum read speed of the low-speed NVM, (ii) in response to a determination that the high-speed NVM supports the read speed that is faster than the maximum read speed of the low-speed NVM, save a main bootcode module in the high-speed NVM during a configuration boot process, (iii) calculate a trusted MBM measurement indicative of contents of the main bootcode module during the configuration boot process, and (iv) save the trusted MBM measurement during the configuration boot process;
• and
• wherein the preliminary bootcode module, when executed by the processor after the main bootcode module had been saved in the high-speed NVM, enables the DPS to load the main bootcode module from the high-speed NVM into the RAM.

A method for rapidly booting a data processing system, the method comprising:

• during a boot process of a data processing system (DPS), using a preliminary bootcode module from a low-speed nonvolatile memory (NVM) in the DPS to load a main bootcode module from a high-speed NVM in the DPS into a volatile random access memory (RAM) in the DPS, wherein the high-speed NVM supports a read speed that is faster than a maximum read speed of the low-speed NVM;
• during the boot process, using the preliminary bootcode module to calculate a current MBM measurement indicative of contents of the main bootcode module loaded in the volatile RAM, retrieving a trusted MBM measurement, and determining whether the current MBM measurement matches the trusted MBM measurement;
• during the boot process, after loading the main bootcode module from the high-speed NVM into the RAM and determining that the current MBM measurement matches the trusted MBM measurement, using the main bootcode module to boot the DPS to an operating system (OS);
• during the boot process, after determining that the current MBM measurement does not match the trusted MBM measurement, using the preliminary bootcode module to determine whether the high-speed NVM supports the read speed that is faster than the maximum read speed of the low-speed NVM;
• and
• during the boot process, after determining that the high-speed NVM supports the read speed that is faster than the maximum read speed of the low-speed NVM, using the preliminary bootcode module to automatically replace the main bootcode module in the high-speed NVM with the main bootcode module from the storage device other than the high-speed NVM.