Method and apparatus for initiating execution of an application processor in a clustered multiprocessor system

A multiprocessor data processing system comprising:

• a first cluster including:
• at least one first processing module, wherein each first processing module has a corresponding interrupt controller associated therewith;
• a first hierarchical cluster manager device;
• and
• a first interrupt controller bus for communicating messages between the interrupt controllers of the at least one first processing modules and the first hierarchical cluster manager device;
• a second cluster including:
• at least one second processing module, wherein each second processing module has a corresponding interrupt controller associated therewith;
• a second hierarchical cluster manager device;
• a second interrupt controller bus for communicating messages between the interrupt controllers of the at least one second processing modules and the second hierarchical cluster manager device;
• means for providing messages between the first hierarchical cluster manager and the second hierarchical cluster manager;
• selected ones of the first and second processing modules are included in a partition;
• each of the selected first and second processing modules of the partition having a pre-assigned processing module IDs associated therewith;
• one of the selected first and second processing modules of the partition being a bootstrap processing (BSP) module for executing an operating system, and the remaining ones of the selected first and second processing modules being application processing (AP) modules;
• storage means for providing a storage space including a processing module ID section, a valid flag section and a startup address code section, each of the application processing modules including comparing means for comparing their pre-assigned processing module IDs against the processing module ID stored in the processing module ID section of said storage space;
• and
• the BSP module including means for initiating execution of one of the application processing modules in the partition at a selected startup address by writing a matching processing module ID into the processing module ID section, a desired startup address into the startup address code section, and a valid flag into the valid flag section of said storage space, whereby the AP with the matching processing module ID reads the storage space, jumps to the startup address, and resets the valid flag section.

A multiprocessor data processing system comprising:

• a bootstrap processing module for executing an operating system;
• one or more application processing modules, wherein each of the application processing modules includes an ID register for storing a unique module ID;
• a safe memory area having a processing module ID section and a startup address section, wherein the bootstrap processor includes means for selectively providing a processing module ID and a startup address to the processing module ID section and a startup address section, respectively, of the safe memory area;
• each of the application processing modules having comparing means for comparing the unique module ID stored in the ID register with the processing module ID stored in the processing module ID section of the safe memory area;
• each of the application processing modules further having reading means for reading the startup address from the startup address section of the safe memory area at least when the unique module ID stored in the ID register matches the processing module ID stored in the processing module ID section of the safe memory area;
• and
• each of the application processing modules having jumping means for initiating processor execution at the startup address read by said reading means.

A method for initiating execution of an application processing module at a desired startup address in a memory of a multi-processor data processing system, wherein the data processing system includes a bootstrap processor for executing an operating system and one or more application processing modules that access the memory, the method comprising the steps of:

• assigning a unique processing module ID to selected ones of the application processing modules;
• providing a desired processing module ID and a startup address to a predetermined storage space in the memory;
• having each of the application processing modules access the memory and compare the desired processing module ID with their processing module ID;
• and
• having the application processing module with the matching processing module ID read the startup address from the memory and jump to the startup address in the memory.

A method for initiating execution of an application processing module at a desired startup address in a memory in a multi-processor data processing system, wherein the data processing system includes a bootstrap processor for executing an operating system and one or more application processing modules, the method comprising the steps of:

• assigning a processing module ID to each of the application processing modules;
• providing a storage space having a processing module ID section, a valid flag section and a startup address code section;
• writing a desired processing module ID into the processing module ID section, a desired startup address into the startup address code section, and a valid flag into the valid flag section of said storage space;
• comparing the processing module ID in the processing module ID section with the processing module IDs assigned to each of the application processing modules;
• and
• having the application processing module with the matching processing module ID read the startup address from the startup address code section, jump to the startup address in the memory, and reset the valid flag section.

A method for booting a data processing system having a number of processing modules, wherein each of the processing module has a corresponding APIC controller that can operate in a physical addressing mode and a logical addressing mode, and wherein the execution of an initialization inter-processor interrupt (init.ipi) causes the corresponding APIC controller to enter the physical addressing mode, the method comprising the steps of:

• providing an initialization inter-processor interrupt (init.ipi) to the APIC controller for selected processing modules causing the selected processing modules to enter the physical mode;
• providing a startup inter-processor interrupt (startup.ipi) to the APIC controllers for selected processing modules, vectoring them to an initialization procedure;
• the initialization procedure assigning an APIC logical ID to each of the selected processing modules, switching the selected processing modules from physical addressing mode to logical addressing mode, and leaving each of the selected processing modules spinning on a selected memory space having a processing module ID section and a startup address code section;
• having each of the selected processing modules compare a processing module ID stored in the processing module ID section of the selected memory location with the corresponding assigned processing module ID;
• and
• having the processing module with a matching processing module ID jump to the startup address.