Patent ID: 7624283

Claim:
A computer implemented method for context checkpointing in a data processing system, the computer implemented method comprising: responsive to receiving a command from a partition to modify context data in a trusted platform module hardware device, providing an encrypted copy of the context data and the command to the trusted platform module hardware device by identifying a context slot in the trusted platform module hardware device assigned to the partition using a partition mapping table and sending the command to the assigned context slot in the trusted platform module hardware device for processing, wherein the trusted platform module hardware device processes the command and updates the context data; responsive to the trusted platform module hardware device having successfully processed the command, receiving the updated context data from the trusted platform module hardware device; storing the updated context data received in encrypted form from the trusted platform module hardware device in at least one of a context data cache or a non-volatile storage off-board the trusted platform module hardware device; and responsive to a failure of the trusted platform module hardware device to successfully process the command, using a last valid copy of the context data to retry processing of the command on a different trusted platform module hardware device.