Darin J Perrigo

US Patent:

59387653, Aug 17, 1999

Filed:

Aug 29, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/924038

Inventors:

Kenneth Frank Dove - Tigard OR
Darin Jon Perrigo - Seattle WA
Robert Bruce Gage - Beaverton OR

Assignee:

Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. - Beaverton OR

International Classification:

G06F 9445

US Classification:

713 1

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for initializing a shared-memory, multinode multiprocessor computer system. The nodes in the multiprocessor computer system separately and independently run standard PC-based BIOS routines in parallel for initialization of the nodes. These BIOS routines set addresses of hardware components on each node as though the nodes are in a single-node environment. After completion of BIOS, the addresses of the hardware components are reprogrammed to conform with the multinode environment. A master processor then takes control to boot the operating system on the multinode environment.