abstract |
A bridge for a multi-processor system provides interfaces to an I/O bus of a first processing set, an I/O bus of a second processing set and a device bus. A bridge control mechanism arbitrates between the first and the second processing sets for access to each others I/O bus and to the device bus in a first, split, mode, an monitors lockstep operation of the first and second processing sets in a second, combined, mode. On detecting a lockstep error in the combined mode, the bridge transfers to an error mode. The bridge control mechanism buffers write accesses in a posted write buffer in the error mode pending resolution of the error. |