Cross partition sharing of state information
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsRavi Kumar Arimilli, Robert Alan Cargnoni, Guy Lynn Guthrie, William John Starke
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Abstract
A method and system are disclosed for managing saved process states in a memory of a data processing system that has multiple partitions executing independent operating systems. A hypervisor manager affords access to any processor in the data processing system for the purpose of storing process states for that processor to the memory, independent of the operating system running on the processor.
Claims18
A method of managing saved process states in a memory of a data processing system including a first partition and a second partition, the first partition executing a first operating system that is independent of a second operating system executing in the second partition, the method comprising:
- a first processor within the first partition executing a process under the first operating system, said first process having a hard architected state;
- the first processor suspending execution of the process;
- the first processor storing the hard architected state of the process from the processor to a memory of the data processing system;
- and
- a second processor within the second partition accessing the hard architected state of the process and resuming execution of the process under the second operating system utilizing the hard architected state.
A computer usable medium for managing a plurality of operating systems, said computer usable medium comprising:
- computer program code for providing access by a first operating system to an area of a memory that is accessible by a second operating system.
A data processing system comprising:
- a first partition including at least a first processor, the first partition executing a first operating system;
- a second partition including at least a second processor, the second partition executing a second operating system that is independent of the first operating system executing within the first partition;
- a memory system coupled to the first and second processors, the memory system including:
- a first region allocated to the first partition, the first region being accessible only to processors within the first partition;
- a second region allocated to the second partition, the second region being accessible only to processors within the second partition;
- and
- a third region accessible to processors in both the first and second partitions;
- wherein the first processor, responsive to an interrupt, suspends execution of a process having a hard architected state, and stores the hard architected state of the process from the first processor to the third region of memory;
- and
- wherein the second processor within the second partition accesses the hard architected state of the process in the third region of memory and resumes execution of the process.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.