Abstract: A method, computer system, and apparatus perform an expedited boot and operating system load operation from a hard drive device. Rather than waiting for storage media in a storage device to be fully operational before retrieving software modules and/or data required for initial loading of an operating system, the software modules and/or data are stored in a non-volatile memory in the storage device and are immediately available to the central processing unit. When the busy bit in a drive status register is set by the hard drive microcontroller, the BIOS code attempts to retrieve the requested data from a non-volatile memory in the hard drive, such as a non-volatile cache memory which may be configured to provide coherent data storage, even across a power loss to the hard drive.

Abstract: In an information processing system, a failed bus operation is detected. In response to the detecting, a primary power plan is cycled in the information processing system.

Abstract: A method, computer system, and apparatus perform a modified simple boot. Rather than following Ver. 1 of the Simple Boot Flag Specification, the simple boot flag is ignored if certain platform corruption errors are detected by the BIOS. When the simple boot flag is set, the BIOS runs through a set of core diagnostics to determine whether a platform corruption has occurred. If BIOS detects that the simple boot flag is set and that no platform corruptions have occurred, then a simple boot is performed. However, if a platform corruption is detected, the set simple boot flag is ignored and a full suite of diagnostics routines is performed by the BIOS during the boot process.

Abstract: A method for operating a computer system and an associated method for collecting information related to the operation of the computer system. An ECC count and a series of address/time/temperature entries is maintained in a memory of the computer system. The computer system is continuously monitored for occurrences of an SMM event. Upon detection of an SMM event, the computer system enters SMM mode where SMM handler code is executed until handling of the SMM event is complete. The SMM handler code includes special instructions which enable the collection of information related to the operation of the computer system. Specifically, a determination is made as to whether the SMM event was caused by an ECC event. If so, the address at which the ECC event occurred and the time and temperature when the ECC event occurred are acquired, the ECC count is incremented and the acquired address, time and temperature information is stored as an entry in the memory.