Machine check architecture
Encyclopedia
In computing
, Machine Check Architecture (MCA) refers to a mechanism in which the CPU reports hardware errors to the operating system
.
Intel's Pentium 4, Intel Xeon, P6 family processors as well as the Itanium architecture implement a machine check architecture that provides a mechanism for detecting and reporting hardware (machine) errors, such as: system bus errors, ECC errors, parity errors, cache
errors, and translation lookaside buffer
errors. It consists of a set of model-specific registers (MSR
s) that are used to set up machine checking and additional banks of MSRs used for recording errors that are detected.
Computing
Computing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
, Machine Check Architecture (MCA) refers to a mechanism in which the CPU reports hardware errors to the operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
.
Intel's Pentium 4, Intel Xeon, P6 family processors as well as the Itanium architecture implement a machine check architecture that provides a mechanism for detecting and reporting hardware (machine) errors, such as: system bus errors, ECC errors, parity errors, cache
Cache
In computer engineering, a cache is a component that transparently stores data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere...
errors, and translation lookaside buffer
Translation Lookaside Buffer
A translation lookaside buffer is a CPU cache that memory management hardware uses to improve virtual address translation speed. All current desktop and server processors use a TLB to map virtual and physical address spaces, and it is ubiquitous in any hardware which utilizes virtual memory.The...
errors. It consists of a set of model-specific registers (MSR
Model-specific register
Model-specific registers are control registers provided by processor implementations to provide system software with features that are provided on specific processor implementations, but not others....
s) that are used to set up machine checking and additional banks of MSRs used for recording errors that are detected.
See also
- Machine Check ExceptionMachine Check ExceptionA Machine Check Exception is a type of computer hardware error that occurs when a computer's central processing unit detects a hardware problem....
(MCE) - High availabilityHigh availabilityHigh availability is a system design approach and associated service implementation that ensures a prearranged level of operational performance will be met during a contractual measurement period....
- Processor Abstraction Layer
- System Abstraction Layer
- Reliability, Availability and ServiceabilityReliability, Availability and Serviceabilityreliability, availability, and serviceability are computer hardware engineering terms. It originated from IBM to advertise the robustness of their mainframe computers. The concept is often known by the acronym RAS....