System and method for switching the role of boot processor to a spare processor responsive to detection of loss of lockstep in a boot processor

A method comprising:

• system firmware determining that loss of lockstep (LOL) is detected for a lockstep pair of processors that are assigned the role of boot processor in a system;
• determining one of said lockstep pair of processors that is not the cause of said LOL;
• copying the state of the determined one of said lockstep pair of processors that is not the cause of said LOL to a spare processor;
• changing a system identifier, used by the system's operating system to recognize the boot processor, of said lockstep pair of processors that are assigned the role of boot processor, to a different value, which causes the s system's operating system to not recognize the lock step pair of processors for which said LOL is detected as the processor;
• and
• changing a system identifier of the spare processor to that of the boot processor, thereby switching the role of boot processor to said spare processor.

A system comprising:

• a plurality of processor modules that each include a master processor and a slave processor that operate in lockstep;
• an operating system;
• error detection logic operable to detect loss of lockstep (LOL) for at least one of said processor modules;
• and
• system firmware operable, responsive to the detection of LOL for a first of said processor modules, to determine whether said first processor module is assigned a role of system boot processor;
• wherein if determined that said first processor module is assigned the role of system boot processor, said system firmware is further operable to cause said operating system to recognize another processor module as system boot processor without shutting down said operating system.

A system comprising:

• system firmware means for detecting loss of lockstep (LOL) for a processor in a multi-processor system;
• means for determining whether the processor for which said LOL is detected is assigned the role of boot processor;
• and
• system firmware means for switching the role of boot processor to a spare processor without shutting down the system's operating system if determined that the processor for which said LOL is detected is assigned the role of boot processor.