Choose one of the following topics to find out more about the Memory Expert Tool:
The Memory Expert Tool is designed to help you isolate problems in main memory, by providing address resolution and memory testing.
This tool employs two buttons, Interrupt and Abort and three Menus of commands, File, Tools, and Help.
The Abort Button lets you abort the tool.
The Interrupt Button lets you interrupt the tool.
The File Menu lets you exit the tool.
The Tools Menu offers the Address Resolution and Memory Test commands.
The Help Menu provides access to this help information.
See the help topic Expert Tool Menus for specific information concerning each Menu or use the File, Tools, or Help. hyperlinks in these above paragraphs.
See the help topic Expert Tool Buttons for specific information concerning the buttons or use the Interrupt or Abort hyperlink in the above paragraphs.
The Main Window for the Expert Tool has two buttons:
Choose one of the above topics to find out more about these buttons.
The Abort button lets you abort the tool.
It brings up a dialog box that gives you the option of changing your mind. Since the Address Resolution function operates relatively quickly, this button may be most useful with the Memory Test function.
The tool will be signalled to abort and STM will tag the memory device with Abort Pending. After the tool actually exits, STM will show the device as Aborted.
The Interrupt button lets you interrupt the tool.
When the tool receives the interrupt, it stops whatever it is doing and asks you if you want to continue with the operation. If the reply is "Continue", the tool resumes what it was doing at the time of the interrupt. If the reply is "Abort", it terminates the operation and returns to the Memory Expert Tool main window. Since Address Resolution completes so quickly, this button will be most useful for the Memory Test.
The tool may not immediately receive the interrupt as it could be in the middle of an operation that should not or cannot be interrupted. The interrupt will be received as soon as the tool completes the operation. At that point, a progress report will be displayed in the main window, indicating how many loops have been completed and how many pages have been tested.
The tool will receive and ignore user interrupts when it is already in the process of returning to the Main Window.
The Main Window for the Expert Tool offers three menus:
Choose one of the above topics to find out more about these Menus.
The File Menu has one command, which lets you exit the tool:
Choose the above topic to find out more about this command.
The Exit command is used to leave the expert tool.
The Tools Menu lets you initiate the Address Resolution or Memory Test. It has two selections:
Choose one of the above topics to find out more about these commands.
The Address Resolution command is used to obtain information about a memory address location.
When you select this item from the menu, you will see a small dialog box which allows you to specify the address you would like resolved. The dialog box will only allow you to enter valid addresses up to the highest address on the unit under test.
The dialog box allows you to cancel the test or obtain help. If you click okay, the address is resolved to provide the following information:
Address: 0x4F380 Page: 1267 Page Status: Locked Card: A02/BP01 Cell: 0 MMS: 1 Row; 3 Logical Bank: 7 |
Note that the information is for the byte at the address in question. For several systems, an address that is one byte larger may occupy a different board.
The Memory Test command is used to initiate a memory test.
When you select this item from the menu, you will see a large dialog box which allows you to specify the many memory test parameters.
The Write, Read, Compare buttons enable you to specify the type of test that is performed on each page. By default, each page is written, then read back, and the results compared.
Because of the Error Correction Code (ECC) circuitry, the comparison actually detects problems with the ECC rather than single-bit errors in RAM. The single-bit errors are detected later in the test, during its periodic probe of the syndrome registers of all memory controllers to report any errors that transpired during the test.
If desired, the test can be diluted to only read or only write memory.
By default, the test will range over every page in memory. You may specify any range, though of course out-of-range pages are disallowed, and the start page must be less than or equal to the end page. The range is inclusive, and may consist of one page only. However, if the page range is very tight, it can happen that none of the pages can be locked and tested. Further, low pages are often permanently reserved by the OS and are rarely testable.
When a page is obtainable for testing, a pattern is used to write to it and fill it with data.
The following patterns are available:
This pattern is a series of 3 patterns. When a page is obtained, it is first filled with the pattern All 0's. This is followed by All 1's, and then by All 0's again. While simpler tests can be selected, this is recommended as the default as the most basic test of memory.
This pattern is a series of all patterns. When a page is obtained, it is tested with every pattern in turn. This is the most comprehensive test, though it can be time consuming.
This pattern fills the entire page with a pattern that alternates every bit. The complement of this pattern is also available.
The walking one pattern looks like this:
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001000 etc... |
In binary, from a field of 64 zero bits, one of the bits is set to one. The complement of this pattern, Walking Zero, is also available.
The walking zero pattern looks like this:
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111101 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111011 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111110111 etc... |
In binary, from a field of 64 one bits, one of the bits is set to zero. The complement of this pattern, Walking One, is also available.
The checkerboard pattern looks like this:
1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 etc... |
In binary, there are 64 1's, followed by 64 0's, and so on. The complement of this pattern is also available.
The address unique pattern looks like this:
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0001000000000001000000000001000000000001000000000001000000000001 0010000000000010000000000010000000000010000000000010000000000010 0011000000000011000000000011000000000011000000000011000000000011 0100000000000100000000000100000000000100000000000100000000000100 ... 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 |
This pattern fills the 4096 byte buffer with a unique value in each location. The complement of this pattern is also available.
This parameter causes the entire test to loop several times, or even to loop indefinitely. In the latter case, you can click the interrupt button, and then stop or resume the test. The default is for two loops; it can be useful to loop several times in order to obtain test coverage of pages that were unavailable for testing in earlier loops. Each loop, every available pages is tested even if it has already been tested.
Depending on system load and total memory, and on looping, the test can take a long time to complete. Further, the test will often approach a maximum number of lockable (that is, testable) pages. While the test will continue to re-test pages, it is sometimes useful to end the test when this happens. Progress reports look like this:
16:18:49 Test is 47% through loop 8, on page 4130. 5.4% of the pages lockable and tested (438 of 8192 pages, 2 of 32 Mb).
These reports can be requested at a specified time interval. Alternatively, the test can run free, and when the interrupt button is clicked, a report like the one above is printed, and a dialog box lets you abort or continue the test. You can also supplement the periodic reports with interrupt triggered reports.
The Help Menu has two commands:
Choose one of the above topics to find out more about these commands.
The General Help command starts this help interaction.
The Version command displays the version and copyright information for the Memory Expert tool.
Consult the Failure Log (for failures) and the Test Activity Log, accessible from the STM main window.
The Memory Expert Tool may be waiting for you to respond to a query message it is displaying. Look underneath the windows on your workstation for a query message. Or, de-iconize (expand) any windows related to stm or the expert tool.