Patent ID: 7467204

Claim:
A method in a data processing system for providing low-level hardware access to in-band and out-of-band firmware, the method comprising: monitoring a bus for a first packet, wherein the first packet targets a resource in one of a plurality of support chips, and wherein the first packet is a fabric packet; converting first packet information into a command in a transmission protocol, wherein the transmission protocol is a field replaceable unit support interface protocol, wherein the command is initiated by at least one of an instruction executed by the in-band firmware running on a processor core and an instruction executed by the out-of-band firmware running on a support processor, wherein multiple independent commands may be initiated on the bus at the same time by instructions executed by the in-band firmware running on different processor cores; transmitting, by a processor chip, the command to one of the plurality of support chips, wherein transmitting the command is implemented serially, wherein the command includes target information, command type, and data to the resource targeted; receiving the command at the one of the plurality of support chips from at least one of the processor chip and the support processor, wherein the plurality of support chips receive commands from the processor chip and the support processor at the same or different times, wherein the command received uses a field replaceable unit support interface serial transmission protocol, wherein the field replaceable unit support interfaces from the support processor and the processor chip to the one of the plurality of support chips are separate but identical, and wherein the commands received by the plurality of support chips from the processor chip and the support processor operate independently; sending the command to the resource on the one of the plurality of support chips; responsive to sending the command to the resource, receiving a resource response, wherein the resources response uses the field replaceable unit support interface serial transmission protocol; sending the resource response to at least one of the processor chip and the support processor; receiving a response to the command from one of the plurality of support chips, wherein receiving the response is implemented serially, and wherein the response includes status information and data from the resource targeted; converting the response from the transmission protocol into second packet information; generating a second packet, using the second packet information, wherein the second packet is a fabric packet; and returning the second packet to the bus, wherein the bus is a symmetric multiprocessing coherency fabric.