Patent ID: 8140834
Filing Date: 2012-03-20
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for filtering quiesce interruption requests at a processor, the method comprising: receiving a quiesce interruption request at the processor, the processor executing in a mode; identifying a filtering zone associated with the mode, the filtering zone associated with a partition that previously executed on the processor responsive to determining that the mode is a host mode and the filtering zone associated with a partition that is currently executing on the processor responsive to determining that the mode is a guest mode; determining that the quiesce interruption request should be filtered by the processor, the determining responsive to the filtering zone and to contents of a programmable filtering register for indicating exceptions to filtering performed by the processor; and filtering the quiesce interruption request responsive to determining that the request should be filtered, wherein one or more guest requests are filtered based on the filtering zone even after the mode switches from guest mode to host mode; wherein when the processor is executing as a specialty engine the processor utilizes one or more of a different filtering zone and different programmable filtering register contents than when the processor is executing as a central processing unit.