Windows Hardware Error Architecture
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Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is an operating system hardware error handling mechanism introduced with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 as a successor to Machine Check Architecture (MCA) on previous versions of Windows.[1] The architecture is comprised of several software components that interact with the hardware and firmware of a given platform to handle and notify regarding hardware error conditions.[2] Collectively, these components provide: a generic means of discovering errors, a common error report format for those errors, a way of preserving error records, and a error event model based up on Event Tracing for Windows (ETW).[3]
WHEA "builds on the PCI Express Advanced Reporting to provide more detailed information about system errors and a common reporting structure." [4]
WHEA allows third-party software to interact with the operating system and react to certain hardware events. For example, when a new CPU is added to a running system -- a Windows Server feature known as Dynamic Hardware Partitioning -- the hardware error component stack is notified when a new processor is installed. [5]
References
- ^ WHEA. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559509(v=vs.85).aspx
- ^ Components of the Windows Hardware Error Architecture. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff559284(v=vs.85).aspx
- ^ WHEA - Windows Hardware Error Architecture http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/gg463286.aspx
- ^ Sosinsky, Barrie. Microsoft Windows Server 2008: Implementation and Administration. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. p. 11.
- ^ Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon, Alex Ionescu. Windows® Internals, Fifth Edition., 2009. p. 441.