System partitioning to present software as platform level functionality via inter-partition bridge including reversible mode logic to switch between initialization, configuration, and execution mode

A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine to perform a method comprising:

• switching a processor from a first mode to a second mode to partition a system, wherein the processor includes partitioning logic accessible and configurable in the second mode, the partitioning logic not accessible and configurable in the first mode;
• partitioning, by the processor, the system into a first partition to execute first operating system software to manage a first plurality of resources as individually accessible to the first operating system software, and a second partition to execute second operating system software to manage a second plurality of resources as individually accessible to the second operating system software;
• enforcing the partitioning of the first partition and the second partition in a third mode, wherein the partitioning logic is enabled in the third mode but is not accessible or configurable;
• switching operation from the third mode to the second mode responsive to an instruction to request partitioning, and executing at least one of the first operating system software and the second operating system software in the second mode;
• presenting the second partition, including the second operating system software, to the first operating system as a device implementing a specific platform level functionality;
• and
• managing an inter-partition bridge, wherein the second partition is accessible to the first operating system software via the inter-partition bridge.

A processor comprising:

• a plurality of cores;
• a partition manager to allocate a first subset of the plurality of cores to a first partition, the first partition to execute first operating system software to manage the first subset of the plurality of cores as resources individually accessible to the first operating system software, the partition manager also to allocate a second subset of the plurality of cores to a second partition, the second partition to execute second operating system software to manage the second subset of cores as resources individually accessible to the second operating system software;
• wherein at least one of the plurality of cores includes:
• partitioning logic to support the allocation of the first subset of cores to the first partition and the allocation of the second subset of cores to the second partition;
• mode logic to provide a second mode to execute the partition manager and a first mode to execute at least one of the first operating system software and the second operating system software and a third mode, wherein the partitioning logic is configurable in the second mode, the partitioning logic not configurable in the first mode but enabled to maintain and enforce partitioning, the partitioning logic not configurable in the third mode and not enabled to maintain and enforce partitioning;
• and
• an inter-partition bridge to be managed by the partition manager, to enable the second partition to be accessible to the first operating system software, wherein the bridge logic is configurable in the second mode to support the management of the inter-partition bridge.