Abstract: During manufacture of an electronic device, an aerogel coating is applied to a first side of an IC substrate of a first IC. A bonding procedure is initiated, during which IC interconnects are either placed on the coated side of the substrate or on the opposite side of the substrate. The first IC is connected on a carrier to a second IC with the coated side of the first IC facing the second IC to reduce heat transmission to the second IC during operation of the first IC. The aerogel coating reduces thermal stress to the circuit board and surrounding components, reduces the risk of overheating of critical circuit components, provides chemical and mechanical insulation from contamination during subsequent wafer handling operations, and provides a thermal isolator between IC regions of dissimilar power dissipation, which isolator facilitates efficient thermal extraction from localized hotspots.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for enabling completion of purchase transactions by retrieving purchase card information from an electronic database of consumer cards and applying the appropriate card to the transaction. The database, managed by a central card authority, stores client account information for cards such as debit, credit, phone, and discount cards, which are accessible via a unique, secure login/access credential, such as a username and password combination. During registration with the central card authority, a client classifies key/important factors to consider when performing purchases. The central card authority is accessed by the client during purchases from a retail facility and/or other purchasing environment. The central card authority automatically selects the best card to utilize during a purchase, after weighing the important purchasing factors related to the credit, debit, phone, and discount cards registered with the central card authority.

Abstract: A method for preserving memory affinity in a computer system is disclosed. The method reduces and sometimes eliminates memory affinity loss due to process migration by restoring the proper memory affinity through dynamic page migration. The memory affinity access patterns of individual pages are tracked continuously. If a particular page is found almost always to be accessed from a particular remote access affinity domain for a certain number of times, and without any intervening requests from other access affinity domain, the page will migrate to that particular remote affinity domain so that the subsequent memory access becomes local memory access. As a result, the proper pages are migrated to increase memory affinity.

Abstract: A method for performing refresh operations is disclosed. In response to a completion of a memory operation, a determination is made whether or not a refresh backlog count is greater than a first predetermined value. In a determination that the refresh backlog count is greater than the first predetermined value, a refresh operation is performed as soon as possible. In a determination that the refresh backlog count is not greater than the first predetermined value, a refresh operation is performed after a delay of an idle count value.

Abstract: A method and system for substantially avoiding loss of data and enabling continuing connection to the application during an MTU size changing operation in an active network computing device. Logic is added to the device driver, which logic provides several enhancements to the MTU size changing operation/process. Among these enhancements are: (1) logic for temporarily pausing the data coming in from the linked partner while changing the MTU size; (2) logic for returning a “device busy” status to higher-protocol transmit requests during the MTU size changing process. This second logic prevents the application from issuing new requests until the busy signal is removed; and (3) logic for enabling resumption of both flows when the MTU size change is completed. With this new logic, the device driver/adapter does not have any transmit and receive packets to process for a short period of time, while the MTU size change is ongoing.

Abstract: A method (1500) for generating a Generalized Missing Rule (GMR). The method involves receiving descriptions of First Scopes (FSs) that are admissible for a First Rule Project (FRP). FRP comprises first rules. Each FS is defined by at least one object characterizing a case. An Expanded Set of Scope Descriptions (ESSD) is generated by adding descriptions of Second Scopes (SSs) covered by FRP to the descriptions of FSs. An Implicit Description (ID) of FSs and SSs is produced. An Incomplete Most-General Scope (IMGS) is identified from FSs and SSs using ID. IMGS is a scope which is defined by a minimal set of objects, is admissible for FRP and covers at least one case which is not treated by a Second Rule Project (SRP). A Missing Case (MC) of IMGS is identified. MC is not treated by FRP. GMR is generated using MC and IMGS.

Abstract: A design structure for performing cacheline polling utilizing a store and reserve instruction are disclosed. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a first process initially requests an action to be performed by a second process. A reservation is set at a cacheable memory location via a store operation. The first process reads the cacheable memory location via a load operation to determine whether or not the requested action has been completed by the second process. The load operation of the first process is stalled until the reservation on the cacheable memory location is lost. After the requested action has been completed, the reservation in the cacheable memory location is reset by the second process.

Abstract: A first Virtual Input/Output Server (VIOS) of a VIOS cluster performs the functions of: generating, at a sending daemon of the first VIOS, a send message that is to be transmitted to a receiving daemon at a second VIOS; in response to completion of the generating of the send message, forwarding the send message to a sending virtual small computer systems interface (vscsi) kernel extension (VKE) via a system call interface; and in response to the sending VKE receiving the send message from the sending daemon, forwarding the send message to one or more second VIOSes within the VIOS cluster utilizing a kcluster interface. The sending VKE parses at least one of a message header and a sub-header of the send message; and responsive to detection of a broadcast setting for the send message, the VKE forwards the send message to all nodes within the cluster via a cluster broadcast.

Abstract: In a data processing system having a plurality of virtual input/output servers (VIOSes) configured within a VIOS cluster, a method, data processing system and computer program product provide for autonomous election of a primary node within a virtual input/output server (VIOS) cluster. A first VIOS performs the functions of: detecting that a primary node is required for the VIOS cluster; and autonomously initiating an election process to elect a next primary node from among the VIOSes within the VIOS cluster. When the first VIOS meets the pre-established requirements for becoming a primary node, the first VIOS obtains a lock on a primary node ID field within a VIOS database (DB) and then initiates a primary node commit process to assign the first VIOS as the primary node. The first VIOS issues a notification to the VIOS cluster to notify the other VIOSes that a primary node has been elected.

Abstract: A method, data processing system and computer program product provide scalable data synchronization for a virtual input/output server (VIOS) cluster and one or more registered callers. A first VIOS is commits as a primary node of the VIOS cluster and performs the functions of: registering one or more callers to receive notification from the first VIOS of specific events occurring within the cluster; receiving notification of an occurrence of one of the specific events; and in response to receiving notification of the specific events, a deamon of the first VIOS retrieving a message payload file from a message payload file directory within the shared VIOS DB and passing the message payload file to the API, which forwards/posts the relevant event notification information from the message payload file to the TCP socket of each registered caller.

Abstract: A computer implemented method for updating initialization parameters for application software from within a software development environment. The method involves changing a value of at least one initialization parameter contained in a configuration file of a developer computer system. The method also involves starting application software deployed on an application server in response to the value change. Thereafter, the configuration file including the changed value of the initialization parameter is communicated from the developer computer system to the application server. Once the configuration file is received at the application server, the application software is initialized using the configuration file.

Abstract: A method, data processing system, and computer program product autonomously migrate clients serviced by a first VIOS to other VIOSes in the event of a VIOS cluster “split-brain” scenario generating a primary sub-cluster and a secondary sub-cluster, where the first VIOS is in the secondary sub-cluster. The VIOSes in the cluster continually exchange keep-alive information to provide each VIOS with an up-to-date status of other VIOSes within the cluster and to notify the VIOSes when one or more nodes loose connection to or are no longer communicating with other nodes within the cluster, as occurs with a cluster split-brain event/condition. When this event is detected, a first sub-cluster assumes a primary sub-cluster role and one or more clients served by one or more VIOSes within the secondary sub-cluster are autonomously migrated to other VIOSes in the primary sub-cluster, thus minimizing downtime for clients previously served by the unavailable/uncommunicative VIOSes.

Abstract: A method and system for precisely tracking lines evicted from a region coherence array (RCA) without requiring eviction of the lines from a processor's cache hierarchy. The RCA is a set-associative array which contains region entries consisting of a region address tag, a set of bits for the region coherence state, and a line-count for tracking the number of region lines cached by the processor. Tracking of the RCA is facilitated by a non-tagged hash table of counts represented by a Region Victim Hash (RVH). When a region is evicted from the RCA, and lines from the evicted region still reside in the processor's caches (i.e., the region's line-count is non-zero), the RCA line-count is added to the corresponding RVH count. The RVH count is decremented by the value of the region line count following a subsequent processor cache eviction/invalidation of the region previously evicted from the RCA.

Abstract: In a Virtual Input/Output (I/O) Server (VIOS) partition within a data processing system that comprises cluster-aware VIOSes, a method includes: performing, via a backup/restore utility of a cluster aware (CA) operating system (OS) executing on a processor resource of the first VIOS partition, a backup operation on the first VIOS partition, which creates a first configuration backup file having configuration information about the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the VIOS partition; storing the configuration backup file within local storage; and responsive to receipt of a VIOS restore command: retrieving the configuration backup file from the local storage; and restoring the configuration of the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the first VIOS to a state that existed at a time at which the backup operation creating the configuration backup file was performed.

Abstract: A technique for performing domain-based access control for granular isolation on a data processing system includes assigning, using the data processing system, one or more first domain tags to a dynamic object that is created by a first process that is executing on the data processing system. The technique also includes assigning, using the data processing system, one or more second domain tags to a second process that is executing on the data processing system. The first and second domain tags are evaluated, using the data processing system, according to one or more enforced rules to determine whether to grant or deny the second process access to data associated with the dynamic object.

Abstract: In a Virtual Input/Output (I/O) Server (VIOS) partition, a method comprises a cluster aware (CA) operating system (OS) of a VIOS partition performing the functions of: responsive to a restore command: retrieving a configuration backup file from storage; comparing a DRC name from the retrieved file with a DRC name of the current VIOS partition performing the restore operation; in response to an occurrence of a DRC name mismatch: retrieving an initial UUID of the VIOS from the configuration backup file; accessing a UUID table within a management tool; locating a matching UUID to the initial UUID within the UUID table; and in response to locating the matching UUID: verifying that the configuration data file belongs to the current VIOS initiating the restore operation; and performing the restore operation to restore the configurations of the hardware, logical and virtual devices of the first VIOS to an earlier configuration state.

Abstract: A method, system, and computer program product provides simultaneous debugging of multiple OS image and/or system dump pairs in a distributed storage repository. A management console receives a terminal debugging session request and a cluster selection from an interface and starts a debugger instance. The debugger instance autonomously identifies client LPARs and loads the system dump images assigned to the client LPARs. In response to receiving a selection of a first and second client LPARs, the debugger analyzes the first and second system dump images, respectively, and calculates relational information between the first analysis and the second analysis via one or more logical reasoning utilities of the management console. The debugger then loads the relational information to the management console interface with an analysis of one or more similarities between the first and second system dumps.

Abstract: A method enables cluster-level backup and restore functionality of all Virtual Input/Output Server (VIOS) configuration data within a VIOS cluster and the data of a shared VIOS cluster database. The method comprises: performing, via a backup/restore utility of a VIOS partition, a cluster level backup, which creates a first VIOS cluster configuration backup file having configuration information about hardware, logical and virtual devices of each VIOS partition within a VIOS cluster and all cluster data from the shared VIOS database of the VIOS cluster; storing the VIOS cluster configuration backup file within a storage location; and responsive to receipt of a VIOS restore command at a VIOS partition: retrieving the configuration backup file from the storage location; restoring a configuration of the hardware, logical and virtual devices of each VIOS within the VIOS cluster to prior state; and restoring the shared VIOS database with the backed-up cluster data.

Abstract: In a data processing system including a virtual I/O server (VIOS) cluster and multiple logical partitions (LPARs), at least one VIOS of the VIOS cluster performs functions of: receiving first registration information from one or more entities within the VIOS cluster; registering, based on the first registration information, a handler associated with a first message type; responsive to receiving second registration information, registering, based on the second registration information, a listener associated with a second message type; receiving a first message associated with a first alert event of the cluster; determining, based on the first message, that the handler is associated with the first message type; and calling the handler. In one embodiment, the handler is associated with a pointer to a subroutine, and registering the handler includes storing the pointer in a data structure that associates the handler with the first message type.

Abstract: A framework instantiates an application from its disk snapshots taken from a different network environment and migrated to a virtualized environment. Modifications to operating systems and hypervisors are avoided, and no special network isolation support is required. The framework is extensible and plug-in based, allowing product experts to provide knowledge about discovering, updating, starting and stopping of software components. This knowledge base is compiled into a plan that executes various interleaved configuration discovery, updates and start tasks such that a required configuration model can be discovered with minimal start and update task execution. The plan generation automatically stitches together knowledge for the various products, thus significantly simplifying the knowledge specification. Once discovery is complete, the framework utilizes the discovered model to update stale network configurations across software stack and customize configurations beyond network settings.