Patent ID: 7437605

Claim:
An apparatus for providing hot standby operation, said apparatus comprising: a normal processor; a standby processor; each of said normal and standby processors comprising: a plurality of vital inputs, at least some of said vital inputs being electrically interconnected with at least some of said vital inputs of the other one of said standby and normal processors, a plurality of vital outputs, means for communicating with the other one of said standby and normal processors, a health routine providing a health status after communication is established with the other one of said standby and normal processors through said means for communicating, a vital relay including an input controlled by one of said vital outputs and an output to one of said vital inputs of the other one of said standby and normal processors, a synchronization routine providing a synchronization status through said means for communicating with the other one of said standby and normal processors, and an application routine outputting said vital outputs when said synchronization status is set and inputting said vital inputs; said standby processor further comprising a reset routine, which resets said standby processor when said health status of said standby processor is not provided; and means for outputting from some of said vital outputs of said normal processor and from some of said vital outputs of said standby processor.