Patent Abstract:
A method, system, and apparatus for recovering form an instruction fetch error is provided. In one embodiment, a data processing system maintains a primary copy and an alternate copy of a set of instructions for a software component. The instructions for performing the processes of the software component are fetched from the primary copy for execution by a processor. A pair of pointers is maintained in each copy identifying the beginning of each copy. Responsive to a determination that an instruction fetch error has been received, a corresponding current instruction in the alternate copy is determined and the software component is restarted by fetching and executing instructions from the alternate copy starting with the corresponding current instruction. The corresponding current instruction is determined by subtracting the beginning address of the copy with the error from the address of the current instruction, then adding the beginning address of the alternate copy.

Full Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     The present application is related to co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 0/958,797 entitled “RECOVERY FROM DATA FETCH ERRORS IN HYPERVISOR CODE” filed Jun. 8, 2000. The content of the above-mentioned commonly assigned, co-pending U. S. Patent application is hereby incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Technical Field: 
     The present invention relates generally to the field of computer architecture and, more specifically, to methods and systems for managing resources among multiple operating system images within a logically partitioned data processing system. 
     2. Description of Related Art: 
     A logical partitioning option (LPAR) within a data processing system (platform) allows multiple copies of a single operating system (OS) or multiple heterogeneous operating systems to be simultaneously run on a single data processing system platform. A partition, within which an operating system image runs, is assigned a non-overlapping sub-set of the platform&#39;s resources. These platform allocable resources include one or more architecturally distinct processors with their interrupt management area, regions of system memory, and I/O adapter bus slots. The partition&#39;s resources are represented by its own open firmware device tree to the OS image. 
     Each distinct OS or image of an OS running within the platform are protected from each other such that software errors on one logical partition cannot affect the correct operation of any of the other partitions. This is provided by allocating a disjoint set of platform resources to be directly managed by each OS image and by providing mechanisms for ensuring that the various images cannot control any resources that have not been allocated to it. Furthermore, software errors in the control of an OS&#39;s allocated resources are prevented from affecting the resources of any other image. Thus, each image of the OS (or each different OS) directly controls a distinct set of allocable resources within the platform. 
     One means for separating the partitions is managed by a firmware component, such as, for example, the hypervisor within an RS/6000 platform, a product of International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, N.Y. Hardware errors that are fatal to this firmware component become fatal for the entire platform, thus, bringing down the entire system. One major hardware error that may affect the hypervisor is an instruction fetch unrecoverable memory error (IfetchUE). The Risc system 6000 memory, within the RS/6000, is single bit error correction code protected, that is, hardware is able to correct any single bit error by special redundancy codes. However, currently, multi-bit errors cannot be corrected, but may only be detected. Multi-bit errors, while rare, occur due to a variety of conditions. Therefore, a method, system, and apparatus for recovering and isolating errors affecting the hypervisor is desirable. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides a method, system, and apparatus for recovering from an instruction fetch error. In one embodiment, a data processing system maintains a primary copy and an alternate copy of a set of instructions for a software component. The instructions for performing the processes of the software component are fetched from the primary copy for execution by a processor. A pair of pointers is maintained in each copy identifying the beginning of each copy. Responsive to a determination that an instruction fetch error has been received, a corresponding current instruction in the alternate copy is determined and the software component is restarted by fetching and executing instructions from the alternate copy starting with the corresponding current instruction. The corresponding current instruction is determined by subtracting the beginning address of the copy with the error from the address of the current instruction, then adding the beginning address of the alternate copy. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 depicts a pictorial representation of a distributed data processing system in which the present invention may be implemented; 
     FIG. 2, a block diagram of a data processing system in accordance with the present invention is illustrated; 
     FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of a data processing system, which may be implemented as a logically partitioned server, in accordance with the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of a logically partitioned platform in which the present invention may be implemented; 
     FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram illustrating a primary and alternate copy of hypervisor instructions in accordance with the present invention; and 
     FIG. 6 depicts a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of recovering from instruction fetch errors is depicted in accordance with the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference now to the figures, and in particular with reference to FIG. 1, a pictorial representation of distributed data processing system is depicted in which the present invention may be implemented. 
     Distributed data processing system  100  is a network of computers in which the present invention may be implemented. Distributed data processing system  100  contains network  102 , which is the medium used to provide communications links between various devices and computers connected within distributed data processing system  100 . Network  102  may include permanent connections, such as wire or fiber optic cables, or temporary connections made through telephone connections. 
     In the depicted example, server  104  is connected to hardware system console  150 . Server  104  is also connected to network  102 , along with storage unit  106 . In addition, clients  108 ,  110  and  112  are also connected to network  102 . These clients,  108 ,  110  and  112 , may be, for example, personal computers or network computers. For purposes of this application, a network computer is any computer coupled to a network that receives a program or other application from another computer coupled to the network. In the depicted example, server  104  is a logically partitioned platform and provides data, such as boot files, operating system images and applications, to clients  108 - 112 . Hardware system console  150  may be a laptop computer and is used to display messages to an operator from each operating system image running on server  104 , as well as to send input information, received from the operator, to server  104 . Clients  108 ,  110  and  112  are clients to server  104 . Distributed data processing system  100  may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown. Distributed data processing system  100  also includes printers  114 ,  116  and  118 . A client, such as client  110 , may print directly to printer  114 . Clients, such as client  108  and client  112 , do not have directly attached printers. These clients may print to printer  116 , which is attached to server  104 , or to printer  118 , which is a network printer that does not require connection to a computer for printing documents. Client  110 , alternatively, may print to printer  116  or printer  118 , depending on the printer type and the document requirements. 
     In the depicted example, distributed data processing system  100  is the Internet, with network  102  representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the TCP/IP suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, government, education, and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, distributed data processing system  100  also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as, for example, an intranet or a local area network. 
     FIG. 1 is intended as an example and not as an architectural limitation for the processes of the present invention. 
     With reference now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of a data processing system in accordance with the present invention is illustrated. Data processing system  200  is an example of a hardware system console, such as hardware system console  150  depicted in FIG.  1 . Data processing system  200  employs a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) local bus architecture. Although the depicted example employs a PCI bus, other bus architectures, such as Micro Channel and ISA, may be used. Processor  202  and main memory  204  are connected to PCI local bus  206  through PCI bridge  208 . PCI bridge  208  may also include an integrated memory controller and cache memory for processor  202 . Additional connections to PCI local bus  206  may be made through direct component interconnection or through add-in boards. In the depicted example, local area network (LAN) adapter  210 , SCSI host bus adapter  212 , and expansion bus interface  214  are connected to PCI local bus  206  by direct component connection. In contrast, audio adapter  216 , graphics adapter  218 , and audio/video adapter (A/V)  219  are connected to PCI local bus  206  by add-in boards inserted into expansion slots. Expansion bus interface  214  provides a connection for a keyboard and mouse adapter  220 , modem  222 , and additional memory  224 . In the depicted example, SCSI host bus adapter  212  provides a connection for hard disk drive  226 , tape drive  228 , CD-ROM drive  230 , and digital video disc read only memory drive (DVD-ROM)  232 . Typical PCI local bus implementations will support three or four PCI expansion slots or add-in connectors. 
     An operating system runs on processor  202  and is used to coordinate and provide control of various components within data processing system  200  in FIG.  2 . The operating system may be a commercially available operating system, such as OS/2, which is available from International Business Machines Corporation. “OS/2” is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. An object-oriented programming system, such as Java, may run in conjunction with the operating system, providing calls to the operating system from Java programs or applications executing on data processing system  200 . Instructions for the operating system, the object-oriented operating system, and applications or programs are located on a storage device, such as hard disk drive  226 , and may be loaded into main memory  204  for execution by processor  202 . 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware in FIG. 2 may vary depending on the implementation. For example, other peripheral devices, such as optical disk drives and the like, may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted in FIG.  2 . The depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention. For example, the processes of the present invention may be applied to multiprocessor data processing systems. 
     With reference now to FIG. 3, a block diagram of a data processing system, which may be implemented as a logically partitioned server, such as server  104  in FIG. 1, is depicted in accordance with the present invention. Data processing system  300  may be a symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) system including a plurality of processors  301 ,  302 ,  303 , and  304  connected to system bus  306 . For example, data processing system  300  may be an IBM RS/6000, a product of International Business Machines Corporation in Armonk, N.Y. Alternatively, a single processor system may be employed. Also connected to system bus  306  is memory controller/cache  308 , which provides an interface to a plurality of local memories  360 - 363 . I/O bus bridge  310  is connected to system bus  306  and provides an interface to I/O bus  312 . Memory controller/cache  308  and I/O bus bridge  310  may be integrated as depicted. 
     Data processing system  300  is a logically partitioned data processing system. Thus, data processing system  300  may have multiple heterogeneous operating systems (or multiple instances of a single operating system) running simultaneously. Each of these multiple operating systems may have any number of software programs executing within in it. Data processing system  300  is logically partitioned such that different I/O adapters  320 - 321 ,  328 - 329 ,  336 - 337 , and  346 - 347  may be assigned to different logical partitions. 
     Thus, for example, suppose data processing system  300  is divided into three logical partitions, P 1 , P 2 , and P 3 . Each of I/O adapters  320 - 321 ,  328 - 329 , and  336 - 337 , each of processors  301 - 304 , and each of local memories  360 - 364  is assigned to one of the three partitions. For example, processor  301 , memory  360 , and I/O adapters  320 ,  328 , and  329  may be assigned to logical partition P 1 ; processors  302 - 303 , memory  361 , and I/O adapters  321  and  337  may be assigned to partition P 2 ; and processor  304 , memories  362 - 363 , and I/O adapters  336  and  346 - 347  may be assigned to logical partition P 3 . 
     Each operating system executing with data processing system  300  is assigned to a different logicical pattern. Thus, each operating system executing within data processing system  300  may access only those I/O units that are within its logical partition. Thus, for example, one instance of the Advanced Interactive Executive (AIX) operating system may be execting within partition P 1 , a second instance (image) of the AIX operating system may be execting within partition P 2 , and a Windows™ operating system may be operating within logical partition P 3 . Windows 2000 is a product and trademark of Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. 
     Peripheral component interconnect (PCI) Host bridge  314  connected to I/O bus  312  provides an interface to PCI local bus  315 . A number of Terminal Bridges  316 - 317  may be connected to PCI bus  315 . Typical PCI bus implementations will support four Terminal Bridges for providing expansion slots or add-in connectors. Each of Terminal Bridges  316 - 317  is connected to a PCI/I/O Adapter  320 - 321  through a PCI Bus  318 - 319 . Each I/O Adapter  320 - 321  provides an interface between data processing system  300  and input/output devices such as, for example, other network computers, which are clients to server  300 . Only a single I/O adapter  320 - 321  may be connected to each terminal bridge  316 - 317 . Each of terminal bridges  316 - 317  is configured to prevent the propagation of errors up into the PCI Host Bridge  314  and into higher levels of data processing system  300 . By doing so, an error received by any of terminal bridges  316 - 317  is isolated from the shared buses  315  and  312  of the other I/O adapters  321 ,  328 - 329 , and  336 - 337  that may be in different partitions. Therefore, an error occurring within an I/O device in one partition is not “seen” by the operating system of another partition. Thus, the integrity of the operating system in one partition is not effected by an error occurring in another logical partition. Without such isolation of errors, an error occurring within an I/O device of one partition may cause the operating systems or application programs of another partition to cease to operate or to cease to operate correctly. 
     Additional PCI host bridges  322 ,  330 , and  340  provide interfaces for additional PCI buses  323 ,  331 , and  341 . Each of additional PCI buses  323 ,  331 , and  341  are connected to a plurality of terminal bridges  324 - 325 ,  332 - 333 , and  342 - 343 , which are each connected to a PCI I/O adapter  328 - 329 ,  336 - 337 , and  346 - 347  by a PCI bus  326 - 327 ,  334 - 335 , and  344 - 345 . Thus, additional I/O devices, such as, for example, modems or network adapters may be supported through each of PCI I/O adapters  328 - 329 ,  336 - 337 , and  346 - 347 . In this manner, server  300  allows connections to multiple network computers. A memory mapped graphics adapter  348  and hard disk  350  may also be connected to I/O bus  312  as depicted, either directly or indirectly. Hard disk  350  may be logically partitioned between various partitions without the need for additional hard disks. However, additional hard disks may be utilized if desired. 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware depicted in FIG. 3 may vary. For example, other peripheral devices, such as optical disk drives and the like, also may be used in addition to or in place of the hardware depicted. The depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention. 
     With reference now to FIG. 4, a block diagram of an exemplary logically partitioned platform is depicted in which the present invention may be implemented. The hardware in logically partitioned platform  500  may be implemented as, for example, server  300  in FIG.  3 . Logically partitioned platform  400  includes partitioned hardware  430 , hypervisor  410 , and operating systems  402 - 408 . Operating systems  402 - 408  may be multiple copies of a single operating system or multiple heterogeneous operating systems simultaneously run on platform  400 . 
     Partitioned hardware  430  includes a plurality of processors  432 - 438 , a plurality or system memory units  440 - 446 , a plurality of input/output (I/O) adapters  448 - 462 , and a storage unit  470 . Each of the processors  432 - 438 , memory units  440 - 446 , and I/O adapters  448 - 462  may be assigned to one of multiple partitions within logically partitioned platform  400 , each of which corresponds to one of operating systems  402 - 408 . 
     Hypervisor  410 , implemented as firmware, performs a number of functions and services for operating system images  402 - 408  to create and enforce the partitioning of logically partitioned platform  400 . Firmware is “hard software” stored in a memory chip that holds its content. without electrical power, such as, for example, read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and non-volatile random access memory (non-volatile RAM). 
     Hypervisor  410  provides a secure direct memory access (DMA) window, per IOA, such as, for example, IOA  328  in FIG. 3, on a shared I/O bus, such as, for example, I/O bus  312  in FIG. 3, into the memory resources allocated to its associated OS image, such as, for example, OS image  402  in FIG.  4 . The secure DMA window provides access from an IOA to memory which is allocated to the same partition as the IOA, while preventing the IOA from getting access to the memory allocated to a different partition. 
     In one embodiment, as implemented within an RS/6000 Platform Architecture, the hypervisor makes use of two existing hardware mechanisms. These hardware mechanisms are called the translation control entry (TCE) facility and the DMA range register facility Bridge. In one embodiment, the TCE facility is implemented in the PCI Host Bridge, such as PCI Host Bridges  314 ,  322 ,  330 , and  340  in FIG. 3, and the range register facility is implemented in the Terminal Bridge, such as Terminal Bridges  316 - 317 ,  324 - 325 ,  332 - 333 , and  342 - 343 . 
     The TCE facility (not shown) is a facility for the I/O which is analogous to the virtual memory address translation facility provided by most processors today. That is, the TCE facility provides a mechanism to translate a contiguous address space on the I/O bus to a different and possibly non-contiguous address space in memory. It does this in a manner similar to the processor&#39;s translation mechanism, and thus breaks the address space of the memory and the address space of the I/O bus into small chunks, called pages. For IBM PowerPC processor based platforms, this size is generally 4 Kbytes per page. Associated with each page is a translation and control entry. This translation and control entry is called a TCE for this I/O translation mechanism, and is sometimes called the Page Table Entry for the corresponding processor virtual translation mechanism. These translation entries are in different tables for the processor and I/O. 
     When an I/O operation starts on the bus, the TCE facility accesses the entry for that page in the TCE table, and uses the data in that entry as the most significant bits of the address to access memory, with the least significant bits being taken from the I/O address on the bus. The number of bits used from the bus is dependent on the size of the page, and is the number of bits necessary to address to the byte level within the page (e.g., for the 4 Kbyte page size example, the number of bits taken from the bus would be 12, as that is the number of bits required to address to the byte level within the 4 Kbyte page). Thus, the TCE provides bits to determine which page in memory is addressed, and the address bits taken from the I/O bus determines the address within the page. 
     The bus address ranges that the IOAs are allowed to place onto the I/O bus are limited by the range register facility. The range register facility contains a number of registers that hold addresses that are compared to what the IOA is trying to access. If the comparison shows that the IOA is trying to access outside of the range of addresses that were programmed into the range registers by the firmware, then the bridge will not respond to the IOA, effectively blocking the IOA from accessing addresses that it is not permitted to access. In this embodiment, these two hardware mechanisms are placed under the control of the hypervisor. 
     When platform  400  is initialized, a disjoint range I/O bus DMA addresses is assigned to each of IOAs  448 - 462  for the exclusive use of the respective one of IOAs  448 - 462  by hypervisor  410 . Hypervisor  410  then configures the Terminal Bridge range register (not shown) facility to enforce this exclusive use. Hypervisor  410  then communicates this allocation to the owning one of OS images  402 - 408 . Hypervisor also initializes all entries in a particular IOA&#39;s associated section of the TCE table to point to a reserved page per image that is owned by the OS image that is allocated that IOA, such that unauthorized accesses to memory by an IOA will not create an error that could affect one of the other OS images  402 - 408 . 
     When an owning one of OS images  402 - 408  requests to map some of its memory for a DMA operation, it makes a call to the hypervisor  410  including parameters indicating the IOA, the memory address range, and the associated I/O bus DMA address range to be mapped. The hypervisor  410  checks that the IOA and the memory address range are allocated to the owning one of OS images  402 - 408 . The hypervisor  410  also checks that the I/O bus DMA range is within the range allocated to the IOA. If these checks are passed, the hypervisor  410  performs the requested TCE mapping. If these checks are not passed, he hypervisor rejects the request. 
     Hypervisor  410  also may provide the OS images  402 - 408  running in multiple logical partitions each a virtual copy of a console and operator panel. The interface to the console is changed from an asynchronous teletype port device driver, as in the prior art, to a set of hypervisor firmware calls that emulate a port device driver. The hypervisor  410  encapsulates the data from the various OS images onto a message stream that is transferred to a computer  480 , known as a hardware system console. 
     Hardware system console  480  is connected directly to logically partitioned platform  400 , as illustrated in FIG. 4, or may be connected to logically partitioned platform through a network, such as, for example, network  102  in FIG.  1 . Hardware system console  480  may be, for example, a desktop or laptop computer, and may be implemented as data processing system  200  in FIG.  2 . Hardware system console  480  decodes the message stream and displays the information from the various OS images  402 - 408  in separate windows, at least one per OS image. Similarly, keyboard input information from the operator is packaged by the hardware system console, sent to logically partitioned platform  400  where it is decoded and delivered to the appropriate OS image via the hypervisor  410  emulated port device driver associated with the then active window on the hardware system console  480 . Hypervisor  410  may also perform other functions and services. 
     In order to prevent instruction fetch errors in hypervisor  410  from affecting OS images  402 - 408  and the rest of platform  400 , two copies of the hypervisor  410  instructions are loaded into the memory of platform  400 . A hypervisor  410  instruction fetch error occurs when one of the processors  432 - 438  is executing hypervisor  410  instructions, and after fetching the next instruction from one of memories  440 - 446  containing the hypervisor  410  instructions, detects that there is an error in the instruction. For example, the error could be the result of the instruction having been stored in a bad memory location, such that the instruction has become corrupted. Such an error in the instruction results in a machine check interrupt and the processor, an occurrence of such an interrupt, is unable to determine what instruction it should execute next. In the prior art, such an occurrence would result in either a need to reboot the entire system, thus interfering with the continuous operation of OS images  402 - 408 , or extra redundancy bits for the entire system memory plus more complex encoding and decoding logic were utilized to recover from the error. Allowing for the necessity of rebooting the entire system could result in the loss of data for applications executing in one of OS images  402 - 408 , which is unacceptable and should be avoided if at all possible. Utilizing the extra redundancy bits along with more complex encoding and decoding logic impairs the speed and performance of platform  400 . 
     Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the hardware and software depicted in FIG. 4 may vary. For example, more or fewer processors and/or more or fewer operating system images may be used than those depicted in FIG.  4 . The depicted example is not meant to imply architectural limitations with respect to the present invention. 
     With reference now to FIG. 5, a block diagram illustrating a primary and alternate copy of hypervisor instructions is depicted in accordance with the present invention. In the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the error recovery routine in the hypervisor  410  maintains pointers  502 ,  504  to each of the copies of the hypervisor instructions  506 ,  508 . In the depicted example, the instruction pointer  510  of one of the processors  423 - 438  points to the primary copy of Inst  5 . Inst  1 - 6  are equivalent instructions in both copies  502 ,  504 . As the processor executing the hypervisor instructions executes the next instruction, the instruction pointer  510  is adjusted to point to the next instruction in the primary copy of the hypervisor instructions  506 . Each copy of the hypervisor instructions  506 ,  508  should be stored in a platform specific location that minimizes the probability of the corruption of the alternate copy  508  of the hypervisor instructions by an error that may cause corruption of the primary copy  506  of the hypervisor instructions. 
     When the instruction fetch error is determined to be hard (i.e. that the error is not due to transient electrical noise which is recovered using retry common in the art), the machine check code points the processors interrupt vectors, that point to the primary copy  506  of the hypervisor instructions, to the alternate copy  508  of the hypervisor instructions. The machine check code than computes the new location for the instruction restart within the alternate copy based on pointer  504 . The processor then continues with the instruction from the new location within alternate copy  508 . Thus, the instruction fetch error has been recovered from and the instruction fetch error has had a minimal or no effect on the OS images running within the platform. When and if all processors within the platform are using the alternate copy  508 , the primary copy  506  of the hypervisor instructions may be refreshed from the alternate copy  508  as a background operation. By duplicating this relatively small amount of hypervisor code, the amount of memory used is insignificant and the performance and simplicity of the memory system is maintained. 
     With reference now to FIG. 6, a flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of recovering from instruction fetch errors, is depicted in accordance with the present invention. To begin, the machine check code within a data processing system, such as, for example, data processing system  300 , loads a primary copy instructions of a software component into a first memory location (step  602 ). This software component may be, for example, hypervisor  410  in FIG.  4 . The machine check code then loads an identical but alternate copy of the instructions for the software component into a second memory location (step  604 ). The machine check code creates and maintains pointers to the origins of the corresponding sections of each copy of the instructions (step  606 ). These pointers identify the equivalent instruction in the opposite copy of the instructions. The processor then executes the software component process using instructions fetched from the primary copy of the instructions (step  608 ). 
     The machine check code then determines whether an instruction fetch error has been received from the processor executing the software component&#39;s instructions (step  610 ). If no instruction fetch error has been received, then the processor continues executing the software component&#39;s instructions as fetched from the primary copy of the instructions (step  610 ). If an instruction fetch error has been received, then the machine check code points the processor to the corresponding section of the alternate copy (step  612 ) and the processor restarts the software component&#39;s process by fetching instructions from the alternate copy beginning with the instruction in the location to which the pointer is pointing (step  614 ). The machine check code then refreshes the primary copy of the instructions using the alternate copy of the instructions (step  616 ). If there are more than one processor executing instructions for the software component, then the machine code waits until all processors have switched to the alternate copy and then refreshes the primary copy. 
     Although the present invention has been described primarily with respect to a firmware implemented hypervisor for maintaining the integrity of partitions within a logically partitioned data processing system, the method, apparatus, and system of the present invention may be applied to any software component. It is also important to note that while the present invention has been described in the context of a fully functioning data processing system, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the processes of the present invention are capable of being distributed in the form of a computer readable medium of instructions and a variety of forms and that the present invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal bearing media actually used to carry out the distribution. Examples of computer readable media include recordable-type media such as a floppy disc, a hard disk drive, a RAM, and CD-ROMs and transmission-type media such as digital and analog communications links. 
     The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention, the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6