Patent ID: 7127643

Claim:
A method for fixing bit errors encountered during references to a cache memory, comprising: performing a reference to the cache memory during execution of an application; wherein performing the reference involves retrieving a data item and an associated error-correcting code from the cache memory; computing an error-correcting code from the retrieved data item; and comparing the computed error-correcting code with the associated error-correcting code; wherein if the computed error-correcting code does not match the associated error-correcting code indicating that a bit error has occurred, the method further comprises, storing an identifier for the reference in a set of one or more registers associated with the cache memory, so that the bit error can be fixed at a later time, and continuing execution of the application; and fixing the bit error in the cache memory at the later time by: reading the identifier for the reference from the register, using the identifier to retrieve the data item and the associated error-correcting code, using the associated error-correcting code to produced a corrected data item and error-correcting code, and storing the corrected data item and error-correcting code to the cache memory; wherein fixing the bit error involves fixing the bit error at a periodic interval determined by an operating system tick timer.