Method and system for switching between a processor upgrade card and a planar processor

摘要

A personal computer system according to the present invention includes a primary system processor, a bus interface controller, a non volatile random access memory (NVRAM), and at least one I/O socket into which an alternate processor may be attached. The personal computer system is controllable exclusively by either the primary system processor or the alternate processor. A system reference diskette includes a utility for selecting either the primary system processor or the alternate processor. The bus interface controller stores information representative of the processor currently enabled. NVRAM stores information representative of the processor selected to control the personal computer system. The system reference diskette contains a Select Processor utility to select the processor to control the personal computer system and to update NVRAM to reflect the selected processor. During POST the currently enabled processor and the selected processor are compared. If different, the information in the bus interface controller is updated to reflect the selected processor.