A system for providing notification, to the associated operating system, of removal
and replacement of I/O devices during operation of a multiprocessor computer system
running multiple operating systems. The system includes a plurality of cells, each
containing multiple RISC processors, low-level I/O firmware, a local service processor,
scratch RAM, external registers, a memory and I/O manager, and interfacing hardware.
Each partition comprises one or more cells and runs its own operating system (OS).
Each cell is connected to a peripheral backplane containing a plurality of peripheral
I/O card slots via a switch on the system backplane, which also connects the cell
to a supervisory processor, which sends card slot status information to the appropriate
cell. Each I/O (typically PCI) card slot has an associated latch which provides
an indication, to the supervisory processor, that a platform event has occurred.
Platform events include inserting or removing an I/O (peripheral device interface)
card to/from a card slot, and opening an access panel that provides access to the
I/O cards.
