Diagnostic boot cycles in a heterogeneous computing platform

A method for booting an Information Handling System (IHS), the method comprising:

• initiating a boot sequence, wherein the boot sequence comprises a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot sequence;
• detecting a request from a requestor for a diagnostic boot cycle, wherein the requestor comprises an operating system (OS) application configured to execute on the IHS and wherein the request is encoded within one or more UEFI variables by UEFI core services in response to a request for diagnostic operations from the OS application;
• in response to detecting the request for the diagnostic boot cycle, in a boot device selection phase of the UEFI boot sequence, querying the one or more UEFI variables and designating a diagnostic boot mode of an Embedded Controller (EC) as a boot device, and booting the EC in the diagnostic boot mode to perform one or more diagnostic tests on one or more hardware components of the IHS, wherein the one or more diagnostic tests are selected based on one or more additional UEFI variables that specify requested diagnostic tests and wherein the EC performs the one or more diagnostic tests while the OS application is not running and while other hardware of the IHS operates in a low-power or standby mode such that the EC has exclusive use of the one or more hardware components under test;
• storing results of the one or more diagnostic tests to a dedicated partition of a Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) of the IHS, wherein the dedicated partition comprises a dedicated partition of UEFI NVRAM, wherein the results are stored by the EC, and wherein the diagnostic boot mode exits upon writing the results to the NVRAM;
• mapping the stored results to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) entries;
• preventing, based, at least in part, upon resetting diagnostic boot cycle request variables, wherein the diagnostic boot cycle request variables comprise the one or more UEFI variables used to request the diagnostic boot cycle, diagnostic boot cycle triggering until a subsequent request is detected;
• and
• booting the IHS, wherein the requestor has access to the diagnostic test results stored in the dedicated partition of the NVRAM by a query to the ACPI entries.

A Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM) storage device that comprises instructions stored thereon, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors of an Information Handling System (IHS) causes the one or more processors to perform operations that comprise:

• initiate a boot sequence, wherein the boot sequence comprises a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot sequence;
• detect a request from a requestor for a diagnostic boot cycle, wherein the requestor comprises an operating system (OS) application configured to execute on the IHS and wherein the request is encoded within one or more UEFI variables by UEFI core services in response to a request for diagnostic operations from the OS application;
• in response to detection of the request for the diagnostic boot cycle, in a boot device selection phase of the UEFI boot sequence, query the one or more UEFI variables and designate a diagnostic boot mode of an Embedded Controller (EC) as a boot device, and boot the EC in the diagnostic boot mode to perform one or more diagnostic tests on one or more hardware components of the IHS, wherein the one or more diagnostic tests are selected based on one or more additional UEFI variables that specify requested diagnostic tests and wherein the EC performs the one or more diagnostic tests while the OS application is not active and while other hardware of the IHS operates in a low-power or standby mode such that the EC has exclusive use of the one or more hardware components under test;
• store results of the one or more diagnostic tests to a dedicated partition of the NVRAM, wherein the dedicated partition comprises a dedicated partition of UEFI NVRAM, wherein the results are stored by the EC, and wherein the diagnostic boot mode exits upon write of the results to the NVRAM;
• map the stored results to Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) entries;
• prevent, based, at least in part, upon reset of diagnostic boot cycle request variables, wherein the diagnostic boot cycle request variables comprise the one or more UEFI variables used to request the diagnostic boot cycle, re-entry to a diagnostic boot cycle unless a subsequent request is detected;
• and
• boot the IHS, wherein the requestor has access to the diagnostic test results stored in the dedicated partition of the NVRAM by a query to the ACPI entries.