Method and infrastructure for recognition of the resources of a defective hardware unit

• US 7,454,687 B2
• Filed: 07/06/2005
• Issued: 11/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Milligan, Charles H., Probst, Juergen
• Primary Examiner(s): Lamarre; Guy J
• Application Number:
  US11/160,715
• Publication Number:
  US 20070011487A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,231 Days
• Field of Search: 714/763, 714/5, 711/141
• US Class Current: 714/763
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2289 by configuration test

Abstract

A system and method of recognizing resources of a computer comprising a system serial number and a broken hardware unit comprising a non-volatile memory unit and enablement definition data relating to functions of the broken hardware unit, wherein the method comprises starting the computer; entering a serial number in a read/write non-volatile memory field of the non-volatile memory unit; reading the read/write non-volatile memory field; and matching the serial number of the read/write non-volatile memory field with the system serial number. The method may further comprise detecting failure of the broken hardware unit after the starting of the computer. Preferably, a reading that the serial number of the read/write non-volatile memory field matches with the system serial number permits acceptance of the enablement definition data of the broken hardware unit.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of recognizing hardware resources of a computer, said computer comprising a system serial number and a broken hardware unit, and said broken hardware unit comprising a non-volatile memory unit and enablement definition data relating to functions of said broken hardware unit, said method comprising:

starting said computer;

reading a read/write non-volatile memory field of said non-volatile memory unit to acquire a previously entered system serial number;

determining if said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field is the same as said system serial number; and

preventing acceptance by said computer of said enablement definition data of said broken hardware unit and outputting an error message, when said previously entered system serial number and said system serial number do not match so as to prevent addition of capacity and features of said broken hardware unit to said computer.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting by a diagnostic unit failure of said broken hardware unit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a reading that said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field matches with said system serial number permits acceptance of said enablement definition data of said broken hardware unit so as to allow addition of said capacity and features of said broken hardware unit to said computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a reading that said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field does not match with said system serial number discourages transferring said enablement definition data to an alternate computer having another system serial number different from said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a transferring of said read/write non-volatile memory unit to an alternate computer having said another system serial number different from said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field results in a non-acceptance of said enablement definition data in said alternate computer.

6. A program storage device readable by computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by said computer to perform a method of recognizing resources of a computer, said computer comprising a system serial number and a broken hardware unit, and said broken hardware unit comprising a non-volatile memory unit and enablement definition data relating to functions of said broken hardware unit, said method comprising:

starting said computer;

reading a read/write non-volatile memory field of said non-volatile memory unit to acquire a previously entered system serial number;

determining if said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field is the same as said system serial number; and

preventing acceptance by said computer of said enablement definition data of said broken hardware unit and outputting an error message, when said previously entered system serial number and said system serial number do not match so as to prevent addition of capacity and features of said broken hardware unit to said computer.

7. The program storage device of claim 6, wherein said method further comprises detecting by a diagnostic unit failure of said broken hardware unit.

8. The program storage device of claim 6, wherein a reading that said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field matches with said system serial number permits acceptance of said enablement definition data of said broken hardware unit.

9. The program storage device of claim 6, wherein a reading that said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field does not match with said system serial number discourages transferring said enablement definition data to an alternate computer having another system serial number different from said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field.

10. The program storage device of claim 9, wherein a transferring of said read/write non-volatile memory unit to an alternate computer having said another system serial number different from said previously entered system serial number acquired from said read/write non-volatile memory field results in a non-acceptance of said enablement definition data in said alternate computer.