Memory errors
AssigneeIcera Inc.
InventorsDavid Alan Edwards, Joe Woodward
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention provides a method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code: accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory; performing an error check on a plurality of the portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion; and booting the processor using the valid portion of boot information.
Claims20
A method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code:
- accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory;
- performing an error check on a plurality of said portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion prior to using said valid portion of boot information for booting the processor;
- and
- responsive to identifying said valid portion of boot information, booting the processor using said valid portion of boot information.
A system for protecting against errors when booting, comprising:
- a processor;
- a primary boot memory;
- and
- a secondary boot memory formatted according to a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory;
- wherein the primary boot memory is configured to supply primary boot code to the processor which, when executed, performs an error check on a plurality of said portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion prior to using said valid portion of boot information for booting the processor;
- and
- the processor is arranged to boot using said valid portion of boot information, responsive to identifying said valid portion of boot information.
A computer program product comprising code stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium that performs a method of protecting against errors in a boot memory when executed by a processor, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code:
- accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory;
- performing an error check on a plurality of said portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion prior to using said valid portion of boot information for booting the processor;
- and
- responsive to identifying said valid portion of boot information, booting the processor using said valid portion of boot information.
A method of protecting against errors in a boot memory, the method comprising initiating booting of a processor by executing primary boot code from a primary boot memory, and based on the execution of the primary boot code:
- accessing a data structure comprising a plurality of redundant portions of boot information stored on a secondary boot memory;
- performing an error check on a plurality of said portions to determine whether those portions contain errors and, based on the error checks, to identify a valid portion;
- and
- booting the processor using said valid portion of boot information, the method further comprising:
- correcting for an error detected by one of said error checks by re-writing a portion containing an error from the valid portion,
- wherein the second boot memory is divided into areas, with each of said redundant portions comprising a plurality of areas, and the re-writing is performed in reverse address order.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.