Accelerating Wake-Up Time of a System

• US 20110131399A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Sainath, Venkatesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,402,259 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/106 Correcting systematically all correctable errors, i.e. scrubbing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures

Abstract

A method for accelerating a wake-up time of a system is disclosed. The method includes scrubbing and making available for allocation a minimum amount of memory, executing a boot-up operation of an operating system stored on the system, and scrubbing and making available for allocation an additional amount of memory in parallel with and subsequent to the boot-up operation of the operating system. The system may include one or more nodes, each of the nodes having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith that corresponds to a minimum number of processors included in a node that are required to be activated in order to activate the node. The system may further include one or more partitions, where each partition encompasses at least one node. Each partition may be assigned a priority in relation to other partitions, and the partitions may be successively activated based on the assigned priorities.

Claims

1. A method for accelerating a wake-up time of a system, the method comprising:

scrubbing and making available for allocation a minimum amount of memory;

executing a boot-up operation of an operating system stored on the system; and

scrubbing and making available for allocation an additional amount of memory in parallel with and subsequent to the boot-up operation of the operating system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the system comprises:

a plurality of memory units;

at least one node, having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith;

at least one processor included in the at least one node;

at least one core included in the at least one processor; and

at least one memory controller that interfaces with the at least one core,

wherein;

the at least one memory controller controls at least one of the plurality of memory units, and

the minimum node resource configuration corresponds to a minimum amount of memory in one or more of the plurality of memory units that must be scrubbed and allocated to the at least one node in order to activate the at least one node.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the system comprises:

a plurality of memory units;

a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of nodes having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith;

at least one logical partition that encompasses at least one of the plurality of nodes;

a plurality of processors included in each of the plurality of nodes;

a plurality of cores included in each of the plurality of processors; and

a plurality of memory controllers,

wherein

each of the plurality of cores interfaces with at least one of the plurality of memory controllers,

each of the plurality of memory controllers controls at least one of the memory units, and

the minimum node resource configuration corresponds to a minimum number of processors included in a node that are required to be activated in order to activate the node.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the minimum node resource configuration associated with a node further corresponds to a minimum number of cores required to be activated in order to activate the minimum number of processors.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the minimum node resource configuration associated with a node further corresponds to a minimum number of memory controllers required to be enabled in order to activate the minimum number of cores.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

each of the plurality of memory controllers is initially in a disabled state, and

a memory controller is enabled on the condition that a minimum amount of memory in at least one memory unit that the memory controller controls is scrubbed.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the system further comprises:

a plurality of partitions, wherein each of the plurality of partitions encompasses at least one node,

wherein;

each of the plurality of partitions is assigned a priority in relation to other partitions, and

the plurality of partitions are successively activated based on the assigned priorities.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

activating a partition having on the condition that a sufficient amount of scrubbed memory is available for allocation to meet a memory resource demand of the partition.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

prior to activating a partition, comparing the memory resource demand of the partition to an amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation,

wherein on the condition that the amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation is sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition, the scrubbed memory is allocated among one or more nodes encompassed by the partition and the partition is activated, and

wherein on the condition that the amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation is not sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition, an additional amount of memory is scrubbed such that a total amount of scrubbed memory sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition is allocated among one or more nodes encompassed by the partition and the partition is activated.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein in parallel with and subsequent to the execution of the boot-up operation of the operating system, additional memory is scrubbed and allocated to one or more nodes encompassed by a partition based on criteria.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the criteria includes at least one of a priority assigned to the partition and a demand of the partition for additional allocation of memory.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the additional memory that is scrubbed includes used memory.

13. A system comprising:

a plurality of memory units;

a scrubbing unit configured to scrub memory in a memory unit and make the memory available for allocation; and

an operating system,

wherein;

the scrubbing unit scrubs and makes available for allocation a minimum amount of memory,

a boot-up operation of the operating system is executed after the minimum amount of memory has been scrubbed and made available for allocation, and

the scrubbing unit scrubs and makes available for allocation an additional amount of memory in parallel with and subsequent to execution of boot-up operation of the operating system.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

at least one node, having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith;

at least one processor included in the at least one node;

at least one core included in the at least one processor; and

at least one memory controller that interfaces with the at least one core,

wherein;

the at least one memory controller controls at least one of the memory units, and

the minimum node resource configuration corresponds to a minimum amount of memory that must be scrubbed and made available for allocation to the at least one node by the scrubbing unit in order to activate the node.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of nodes having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith;

at least one partition that encompasses at least one of the plurality of nodes;

a plurality of processors included in each of the plurality of nodes;

a plurality of cores included in each of the plurality of processors; and

a plurality of memory controllers,

wherein;

each of the plurality of cores interfaces with at least one of the plurality of memory controllers,

each of the plurality of memory controllers controls at least one of the memory units, and

the minimum node resource configuration corresponds to a minimum number of processors included in a node that are required to be activated in order to activate the node.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the minimum node resource configuration associated with a node further corresponds to a minimum number of cores required to be activated in order to activate the minimum number of processors.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the minimum node resource configuration associated with a node further corresponds to a minimum number of memory controllers required to be enabled in order to activate the minimum number of cores.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein:

each of the plurality of memory controllers is initially in a disabled state, and

a memory controller is enabled on the condition that the scrubbing unit scrubs a minimum amount of memory in at least one of the plurality of memory units that the memory controller controls.

19. The system of claim 15, further comprising:

a plurality of partitions, wherein each of the plurality of partitions encompasses at least one node,

wherein

each of the plurality of partitions is assigned a priority in relation to other partitions, and

the plurality of partitions are successively activated based on the assigned priorities.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein:

a partition is activated on the condition that a sufficient amount of memory has been scrubbed by the scrubbing unit and made available for allocation to meet a memory resource demand of the partition.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein:

prior to activating a partition, the memory resource demand of the partition is compared to an amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation by the scrubbing unit,

wherein on the condition that the amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation is sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition, the scrubbed memory is allocated among one or more nodes encompassed by the partition and the partition is activated, and

wherein on the condition that the amount of memory that has been scrubbed and made available for allocation by the scrubbing unit is not sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition, the scrubbing unit scrubs an additional amount of memory such that a total amount of scrubbed memory sufficient to meet the memory resource demand of the partition is allocated among one or more nodes encompassed by the partition and the partition is activated.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein in parallel with and subsequent to the execution of the boot-up operation of the operating system, the scrubbing unit scrubs and allocates an additional amount of memory to one or more nodes encompassed by a partition based on criteria.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the criteria includes at least one of a priority assigned to the partition and a demand of the partition for additional allocation of memory.

24. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program for causing a computer to perform a process for accelerating a wake-up time of a system, the process comprising:

scrubbing and making available for allocation a minimum amount of memory;

executing a boot-up operation of an operating system stored on the system; and

scrubbing and making available for allocation an additional amount of memory in parallel with and subsequent to the boot-up operation of the operating system.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 24, wherein:

the system includes;

a plurality of nodes, each of the plurality of nodes having a minimum node resource configuration associated therewith such that the node is activated on the condition that the minimum node resource configuration is established, and

a plurality of partitions, wherein each partition encompasses at least one of the plurality of nodes, and

wherein;

each of the plurality of partitions is assigned a priority in relation to other partitions, and

the plurality of partitions are successively activated based on the assigned priorities.