Patent ID: 6895527

Claim:
A method of handling memory errors comprising: receiving and retaining control of a machine from an executing program after corruption of a memory value is detected while executing a memory load request issued by the executing program to retrieve the memory value from the memory; receiving a speculative load indication that is true if the memory load request was issued speculatively; reading a fault deferral indication that is true if faults caused by corruption of memory values can be deferred, the fault deferral indication being set before the corruption of the memory value is detected; if the fault deferral indication is true and the speculative load indication is true, then providing an error indication that the returned memory value is invalid, and; returning control of the machine to the executing program; otherwise attempting to correct the corruption of the memory value, and if the corruption of the memory value is correctable, then returning control of the machine to the executing program, otherwise transferring control of the machine to exception-handling code.