Patent ID: 7134052

Claim:
A logically-partitioned computer, comprising: a plurality of processors; a plurality of IO adapter slots; an input/output (IO) fabric coupled to the plurality of processors and configured to provide processor access to the plurality of IO adapter slots, the IO fabric comprising a plurality of IO fabric elements defining a plurality of hardware paths between each of the IO adapter slots and the plurality of processors, the plurality of IO fabric elements including a first IO fabric element configured to provide access to a subset of the plurality of IO adapter slots; a plurality of logical partitions executing on at least one of the plurality of processors; a device driver resident in one of the plurality of logical partitions and configured to access a first IO adapter slot among the plurality of IO adapter slots; a partition manager executing on at least one of the plurality of processors and configured to manage the plurality of logical partitions; first program code resident in the partition manager and configured to, in response to a detected error in the first IO fabric element, establish an error state for each of the subset of IO adapter slots and recover from the error in the first IO fabric element after the error state is established for each of the subset of IO adapter slots; and second program code resident in the partition manager and configured to detect that the device driver is a non-recoverable device driver, and in response thereto, to dynamically enable machine check signaling in each IO fabric element defined in the hardware path between the first IO adapter slot and the plurality of processors.