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Re: NMI?



On Sun, Jun 17, 2001, Cedar Cox wrote about "NMI?":
> 
> Mar 15 03:36:06 nanu kernel: Uhhuh. NMI received. Dazed and confused, but
> trying to continue
> Mar 15 03:36:06 nanu kernel: You probably have a hardware problem with
> your RAM chips
> 
> As you can see, I got this in my syslog quite a while ago..  The server's
> been running great and this is the only time I've ever gotten a message
> like this.  Can anyone shed some light on this?  What is NMI?
> 
> -Cedar

NMI = "NonMaskable Interrupt". I have no idea what can be causing this
(maybe somebody else here knows?) but the kernel's hunch might be correct :(

A quick search on Google for "nonmaskable interrupt" provided with the
following page:
	http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/res/irq/funcNMI-c.html

	"All of the regular interrupts that we normally use and refer to by
	number are called maskable interrupts. The processor is able to mask,
	or temporarily ignore, any interrupt if it needs to, in order to
	finish something else that it is doing. In addition, however, the PC
	has a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) that can be used for serious
	conditions that demand the processor's immediate attention. The NMI
	cannot be ignored by the system unless it is shut off specifically.

	When an NMI signal is received, the processor immediately drops
	whatever it was doing and attends to it. As you can imagine, this
	could cause havoc if used improperly. In fact, the NMI signal is
	normally used only for critical problem situations, such as serious
	hardware errors. The most common use of NMI is to signal a parity
	error from the memory subsystem. This error must be dealt with
	immediately to prevent possible data corruption."


-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Sunday, Jun 17 2001, 26 Sivan 5761
nyh@math.technion.ac.il             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |You have the right to remain silent.
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |Anything you say will be used against you.

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