# 18.7. GHES_ASSIST Error Reporting¶

In some cases, errors reported by hardware may provide a limited amount of information, as additional information may require platform-specific knowledge. Hence, the GHES_ASSIST mechanism, as marked in the Flags field of a given Error Source Structure, allows system firmware to provide additional information in the context of an error reported by hardware. Specifically, system firmware provides additional information via a Generic Hardware Error Source (GHES) structure which has its Related Source ID pointing back to the Error Source structure that represents the hardware. OSPM conveys support for GHES_ASSIST as declared by the GHES_ASSIST Support flag of the Platform-Wide _OSC Capabilities DWORD 2. See Section 6.2.11.2, Platform-Wide OSPM Capabilities.

Note

System firmware must ensure that additional information provided by GHES_ASSIST structures is aligned with the current error status information reported by the hardware. The implication is that as errors are generated by the hardware, system firmware must have mechanisms to get control before those errors are delivered to OSPM.

Since OSPM is expected to consume the additional GHES_ASSIST information in the context of an error reported by hardware, the Notification Structure associated with the pertinent GHES should have the Type field set to Polled, or a to type that is aligned with the signaling of the hardware error event. See Table 18.14, Hardware Error Notification Structure.

OSPM is expected clear the hardware error condition after consuming any additional information from the pertinent GHES_ASSIST structures.

## 18.7.1. GHES_ASSIST on Machine Check Architecture¶

To support GHES_ASSIST on Machine Check Architecture (MCA) error sources, system firmware provides a set of GHES structures for each MCA error source (see Table 18.3 Machine Check Exception, Table 18.5 Corrected Machine Check, and Table 18.15 Deferred Machine Check). Each set consists of a GHES structure per MCA bank on each Logical Processor (CPU), where the GHES structures from each set share a common Related Source ID.

For each MCA error source, OSPM can index thorough the set of GHES_ASSIST structures using the following formula:

Index = ((CPU number) * (MCA Banks per CPU)) + (MCA Bank index)


Where CPU number represents the index of the corresponding Processor Local APIC or x2APIC structure with (Flags.Enabled = 1) in MADT (e.g. 0 represents the first enabled Processor Local APIC or x2APIC entry in MADT), and MCA Banks per CPU represents the value of the Number Of Hardware Banks field from the pertinent MCA error source structure.

Note

System firmware must ensure that each set of GHES_ASSIST structures is laid out sequentially in system memory, so that OSPM may consume them as specified by the Index formula described above.