Patent attributes
Method, apparatus and systems for performing hardware-based memory migration and copy operations. Under the method, a first portion of memory in a computer system accessed via a first memory controller is migrated or copied to a second portion of memory accessed via a second memory controller using a hardware-based scheme that is implemented independent of and transparent to software running on a computer system. The memory migration and/or copy operations can be used to initialize a memory mirror configuration under which data in first and second portions of memory are mirrored, and to perform memory migration operations in which data in a first portion of memory is migrated to a second portion of memory under the control of hardware in a manner in which the memory migration can be performed during run-time without a significant reduction in performance. In addition, poison data indicating failed cache lines may be migrated or copied such that data corresponding to migrated or copied poisoned cache lines are not used.